Talk to Me

Talk to Me (Danny and Michael Philippou)

I’m 47. I watch retro events with middle-aged nostalgia, and I always have a slight churn in my stomach when the phrase ‘The 90s were awesome and rock and roll’ I say small churn, as it’s invoked by the blaze intonation invariably of a white guy my age who never dealt with consequence or loss or scrutiny during that time. I often see a similarly aged woman sitting beside them, almost intensely silent about the past. For many of us, the wild abandonment of parties and the consequences came from a need to fit in, integrate and show we could ‘outboy the white boys’. But they never had a comedown. We did.

‘Talk to Me’ is part of family drama and traditional jump scare horror. More blue collar in its intensity, so think ‘Stir of Echoes’ more than flatliners, with our Lead Mia, being a more impressionable and vulnerable member of ‘the craft’. Having lost her mother recently and at a young age the role she plays is as much protagonist as a plot device as it is her longing to come to terms with her grief that allowed the escalation of chaos around her.

I have little knowledge of Australian life for teenagers, other than the TV. But I do know teenagers, the extra filter of social media and filming everything for wider recognition dovetails with the idea of the seance as a thrill and widens the impact of social pressure.

As a teen, I would have related to the insecurities and bravado, as a 20-30-something I would have called them all thick. now…I’m a bit more reluctant to judge and the characters are all so likeable and a bit archetypal to resent any of them. This is the chilling adventures of Sabrina with a higher sense of force and less sense of mystery. I found the film brutal and visceral, as much for the soundscape as the visuals which turned away from frequently. This is not the Giallo gore of the 80s and I do wonder given the effective levels of self-harm depicted on Scream if 15 was the wise certificate. Although I have to recognise the ‘scare them straight’ argument of my youth watching frisbees in pylons and sparklers burning off fingers was not a bad move.

While the supernatural jump scares and effects are pretty standard in a post-drag-to-hell inferno, the connections and impact are elevated by the groundwork out into the community. The family of Riley, Jade and Jades’ mum, who frankly was the most connected person for me and should undoubtedly win Collect Mother in film 2023 at MTV Hollars or whatever it is called. (im 47). But this triptych and Mia’s relationship with them and Jade’s Boyfriend elevates and makes you care about what happens to each of them. The decisions they make are ones of teenagers scared to look scared. The way this can escalate over the rational and be exploited by the supernatural is the key to this film’s appeal to me.

I had some tragic experiences in my youth and they were not with the fist-in-mouth intensity that smartphones would bring to them. My ability to grieve the loss, while on one level was harder to express, was never rife with the commentary and ownership another camera seems to give it to this day. It’s a hard film, there is a level of formula to what happens, but there is a keen sensitivity in characterisation and how it is expressed. Finally, it is brutal, and it may jar people into an out-of-cinematic experience that one can gain from the likes of the Nun/haunt/Neck Twist franchise du jour. 

It sits in a limbo but not one that is dull. I would recommend for those looking at contemporary horror this is an ideal Halloween ghost story for beginners. And apt at that.