Talk To Me (Danny and Michael Philippou, 2023) • Page 2

the eyeball

 

yeah from the foot sucking sceneit became pretty apparent (to me at least) that what she was seeing (and therefore what we were being shown) was becoming increasingly unreliable

 

Loved the montage of them all doing the hand and got Event Horizon vibes when she connects to the little girl in the hospital. Some gnarly imagery and concepts too. Really dug this.

 

Haha. I whispered to my sister in the theater, "The dog dies first."

 

I loved this. My favorite horror film of the year so far

 

I’d say this is the best horror movie of the year but I also really loved Skinamarink.

 

Then it’s a good thing Skinamarink was 2022

Edit: evidently this is technically 2022 as well so I guess you’re technically still right!

 

Both had US releases in 2023 so that’s what I go by. If I couldn’t see it in 2022 as a normal consumer than it’s not a 2022 movie.

 

Just left the theater a little bit ago. This was really cool! Appreciated that it was like genuinely very funny at parts too, and that it was really good about cracking jokes without disrupting the tension too much. Some truly affecting visuals too - Riley mimicking Mia’s voice while doing… that… in the bathroom was very chilling. Big Deadite energy

I’m a little unclear about the whole purgatory aspect but I guess it doesn’t really matter

 

Also can I just say like, shout out to that motherfucking trailer? That’s the most mislead I’ve felt since Hereditary. Shows absolutely none of the Riley stuff, or any of the violence for that matter, drawing the main focus to that first Mia possession scene like 20 minutes in

 

I watched the trailer back last night and thought of Hereditary too. When the possession in trailer came so early in the film, and then ended, I had a sinking feeling not knowing anything what was gonna happen next. And Riley is shown, like, once or twice in that first trailer.

 

Sounds like what is shot at this point is more of a short film, but hell yeah hopefully A24 holds onto them and invests.

 

Really liked Adam Nayman’s piece about this on The Ringer. Good criticism

 

That piece is so good and really helped me nail down why the film, for all its strengths, didn't quite hit the level of something made by Peele or Aster for me.

For instance, I was really drawn in by the two kids that owned the hand (especially Hayley who felt like such a fascinating, original character), and when the movie left them to explore Mia's story, which was the most derivative part of the film, I was a bit bummed.

I'm with Adam that the film opened a ton of doors, but then its turn down the trauma road bummed me out. It invited comparisons to Hereditary and The Babadook (two horror films that perfected the theme in my mind) where it had plenty of opportunity to really be its own.

I think the best example of the film's missed opportunities is when Daniel is possessed, makes out with the dog, and begs them to delete the footage, the tension that set up was unique. Not only is possession scary, but what are the psychological ramifications of kids posting that stuff and ruining each other's lives? But then they immediately move on from that conflict and the film becomes more or less all about Mia's grief to the detriment of fleshing out other themes and characters.

The story is written and directed so well and Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird are so excellent that it still stands on its own. It just had all the ingredients to be incredible instead of merely good.

 

I really enjoyed this on the whole. def agree that the last act lost a little momentum, both with the confusing rules and the glimpse of hell setting up some crazy shit it didn't quite follow through on. death count was also maybe a little low for how dark it was, frankly wouldn't have minded seeing Daniel or a few others bite it because they just kinda disappeared anyway. but the buildup was incredibly effective and Mia's performance is one of the best horror leads in a minute

also just want to say how nice it is to see an Aussie movie actually directed by Aussies, that understands yes Australian teens are dumb as hell but we're not all bogans

 

I was actually pretty surprised that James didn’t get killed somehow.

 

Going back to see this again today, hoping to find some more clarity in some of the more ambiguous stuff at the end

 

I saw it again and definitely picked up on a few things.

listen closely to what Duckett is saying to his brother at the beginning

Joss also talks about what happens if you break the rule…

 

I still missed what Duckett said in the very beginning outside of “You’re not him”

It made a lot more sense to me this time around and I think the logic checks out, regardless of whether or not it should.

 

Huh, nice.

Did anyone notice which hand was at the end?

 

I think it was the other hand

 

The one we see throughout most of the movie is the left hand

in the final scene, they're speaking a foreign language, so they are probably in another country. Is Mia holding out her right hand, in which case both hands share the same curse, or her left hand, in which case enough time has passed that the one we've been seeing somehow traveled to another part of the world?

 

The purgatory aspect was a trick by the spirit that possessed Mia to get her to do what she wants.