Film review: ‘TALK TO ME’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Australian supernatural horror film, Talk To Me is a surprisingly effective variation on the old teens messing with the Ouija board concept. Here, Instead of a Ouija board, it’s a mysterious ceramic hand that, when held, causes people to have strange and disturbing visions, including seeing partly-decomposed dead people.

Unwisely fiddling with this apparent magic is the troubled teen Mia (Sophie Wilde) who is still struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death two years earlier.  To try and cope with her grief, she has become a fixture at the home of friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), her younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) and their mother Sue (Miranda Otto).  After hearing about the hand, which has come into the possession of another friend Joss (Chris Alosio) Mia decides to test its purported powers at a teen gathering.  Her meddling with the spirit world, however, sees malevolent forces intrude on her everyday life with sinister and at times very violent consequences for those around her.

At its heart this is fairly traditional horror fare. There are touches of The Sixth Sense, The Exorcist, Insidious and even old school tv mystery/horror series like Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. This film avoids cliché and over-familiarity, though, by taking the time to introduce us to the characters and establish a believable suburban Australian scenario and teen friendship dynamic. It also links the threatening supernatural forces to adolescent experience of cliques, peer pressure, confused emotions and drug experimentation.

Mainly using practical effects and elaborate make-up, directors Danny and Michael Philippou gives the pure horror elements a visceral realism.  When, after trying the hand, young teen Riley’s body is invaded by a spirit and the depiction of possession is very bloody, violent and far more confronting that anything in the recent Russell Crowe film The Pope’s Exorcist.  So, be warned, this film is at times quite grotesque. This is, however, far from the Saw film world of meaningless unrelenting gore.  This is a more psychologically potent film, something aided by Aaron McLisky’s atmospheric cinematography which creates an unerringly grim and threatening mood.

The young cast, most of whom have had only a handful of previous roles, do a fine job.  Their nuanced performances make this scenario believable and it would be very surprising if some of them didn’t appear in Hollywood films in the near future.  Miranda Otto is also typically excellent as the ballsy, no-nonsense mother who’s as intimidating to the teens as the spirit world.

If there’s one weakness here it’s that the film tends to split its focus between Mia and Jade.  As Mia’s personal trauma and growing self-destructiveness is the real thrust of the story, we needed a little more exploration of her state of mind.  Her exchanges with her father (Marcus Johnson) are supposed to do this but they don’t work as well as they should and end up being the only flat parts of this film.

That quibble aside, Talk to Me serves up the horror film with a fresh, convincing and very Australian flavour.

Nick’s rating: ****

Genre: Drama/ Horror.

Classification: MA15+.

Director(s): Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Release date: 27th Aug 2023.

Running time:  95 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

 

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