There are a few unwritten rules in horror: a masked slasher walking slowly will catch up with you no matter how fast you run, army crawling to escape something means that you’re going to get pulled by your ankles into the darkness, and if teenagers get their hands on a cursed object … they’re gonna mess around with it. Twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou shocked audiences across the globe with the Australian creepfest “Talk To Me,” a film that /Film’s Chris Evangelista rightfully described as “a gross, funny, creepy saga that often feels like Australia’s answer to Sam Raimi’s ‘The Evil Dead.'”
The story centers on a group of friends who figure out how to connect with the dead through an embalmed hand, and it soon becomes a party game where teenagers see how long they can allow themselves willing possession before there’s no going back. Well, as can be expected, someone lets the ghosts in for a little too long, and there’s hell to pay.
Because we know from the jump that one of these kids is going to get themselves possessed, the fun becomes seeing how the ghostly hijinks will play out. The result? A lot of unexpectedly graphic terror. “Talk To Me” goes to some seriously dark places, but there’s always an air of fun hanging in the air. No matter how stupid the decisions of our teen leads or how relentlessly cruel the actions of the spirits are, “Talk To Me” always feels like you’re walking through a thrill ride. (BJ Colangelo)
