Talk to Me Review: A Bland Barrage of Half-Baked Ideas

Australia has a long history of delivering a variety of different types of horror movies that give American films a run for their money. From the sun-baked terrors of Wake in Fright and Wolfcreek to the unsettling metaphors of The Babadook and Relic to the demented love stories of The Loved Ones and Hounds of Love, Australian films have pushed the boundaries of the genre in ways mainstream American releases can't. For their debut feature film Talk to Me, YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou (known for their RackaRacka channel) opted to entirely avoid being lumped in with their predecessors, and instead delivered a cavalcade of cliches and horror tropes that have dominated American box offices for years, proving that generic premises and jump-scares are a global theme.

Still trying to come to terms with her mother's death, Mia (Sophie Wilde) latches on to her friends Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Riley (Joe Bird), embracing them as a surrogate family as she struggles to connect with her father. A growing trend in their high school is playing a spooky game that involves a ceramic hand that, once grasped and the player utters "talk to me," allows them to be embodied by a ghost. When someone holds onto the hand a bit too long, a nightmarish force is unleashed that leads to dire consequences. 

There's a long history of horror films that utilize the seemingly harmless formula of friends partaking in a party game that inadvertently unlocks much more than players bargained for. Movies like Witchboard, Ouija, Wish Upon, Truth or Dare, and, to some extent, all versions of Candyman, among countless others, all adopt this premise. It's a well-worn premise for a movie and, for the most part, the Philippou brothers manage to at least set the stage for a fresh take on the material. They fully lean into the social media aspect of it all, highlighting how these teens are less interested in unlocking doors to other dimensions and more interested in capturing hilarious footage for TikTok. These early scenes feel authentic to the teen-age experience of high schoolers, which does mark a significant shift from similar experiences that came before it.

The inherent problem with Talk to Me and all other films of its kind is that these targets all opt into the experience, essentially volunteering themselves to get in over their heads. They're all chasing a high of being possessed by who knows what, so when they themselves fall victim to what they're willingly asking for, it's hard to have much sympathy for anyone. Various films in this subgenre have been able to evoke compassion from the audience thanks to compelling performers with charm and chemistry, though Talk to Me comes up short. While the leads are competent enough, much of the supporting cast ranges from somewhat tolerable to outright irritating. There's also a history of horror movies that intentionally offer grating characters to allow viewers to revel in their demise, but Talk to Me doesn't seem to intentionally be going that route. The overall effect is witnessing multiple characters who volunteered for a bad thing experiencing bad things, while also denying viewers much reason to empathize with them, other than because they are the focal point of the story.

There's a fine line in the horror genre about justifying a premise of otherworldly mythology while not overexplaining it, and while Talk to Me aims to keep things ambiguous about the origins of the cursed item, it feels like it comes more from laziness than intentionally trying to withhold information from the audience. A key component of the narrative, for example, is that no one should be possessed by a spirit for more than 90 seconds, and when pressed for why that's the case, a character merely says it's because that's what they were told. While a film like The Ring will repeatedly mention a specific timeline of seven days, seemingly arbitrarily, the movie eventually concludes by giving this timeline significance. Talk to Me, though, never even implies there being any justification for this specific time limit. We don't need a film to hold our hand (no pun intended) through every step of the narrative, but this is only one element of the storyline that feels entirely arbitrary and never fully fleshed out. 

Talk to Me shows that there's a big difference between making a successful feature film and making compelling shorts. That's not to say that one artform is superior to another, as the Philippou brothers clearly gained a major followingwith their shorts for a good reason, yet being skilled at making shorts doesn't inherently make you skilled at developing a feature film (and vice versa). In fact, there are multiple sequences throughout the film that are relatively effective, namely scenes focusing on characters being possessed or spirits lurking in the shadows or brief glimpses of nightmarish scenarios. The issue is that the film feels more like it's just the sum of its parts and was conceived as being a platform to deliver short-form terror that is strung together by a flimsy narrative. Case in point, the opening scene delivers some startling visuals right out of the gate, yet what audiences see doesn't quite fall in line with what other characters in the rest of the film endure. Instead, this scene merely serves as a way to introduce a character who our protagonists can then go to for advice late in the second act, because that's how all of these movies in this subgenre formulaically unfold. 

Even if the structure of the plot and underwhelming mythology mirror the blandest of American horror movies, there is still a tone and aesthetic that the Philippou brothers deliver that make it feel somewhat fresh. The dynamic between all of these teenagers and their relationships offer a different perspective than stereotypical friendships, and the cinematography is a bit more engaging. Two sequences, in particular, evoked a feeling similar to what has been accomplished in the Evil Dead franchise, almost making us wish we could see what the filmmaking duo would accomplish if they fully leaned into that tone for an entire feature.

Throughout its 95-minute run time, Talk to Me delivers audiences every trope and cliche from the "cursed object" playbook you can think of, while also denying audiences any fulfilling storyline, which has all the tropes of death, family tragedy, and strained relationships. While the film is being touted as an A24 Films release, a studio that is known to push the genre into unexpected corners with projects like Hereditary, It Comes at Night, and Midsommar, it's worth noting that Talk to Me is only being distributed by the studio as opposed to being an original production. If you're expecting this release to be an ambitious A24 release, you'd be better off revisiting last year's X, Pearl, or Bodies Bodies Bodies, all of which circumvent expectations within their subgenres. 

Talk to Me essentially serves as a highlight reel for the Philippou brothers and is occasionally entertaining and effective, but feels like it's the product of expanding a handful of genuinely thrilling sequences into a bloated experience where all of the gaps in the story are filled in with the worst of every trope in the mainstream horror playbook. The lead performers have talent and manage to slightly elevate the material and the Philippou brothers do show promise, we just hope that whatever is next for all parties involved does something with any sort of originality.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Talk to Me lands in theaters on July 28th.