One of the best films that we saw out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Danny and Michael Philipou’s Talk to Me manages to proffer a new spin on the trope of demonic possession, which is no small feat considering that it’s been with us since the advent of storytelling itself. In this Aussie horror film, possession is utilized by bored teens as a new party drug, as a dare to assert their brazen bona fides on social media.
A24, which acquired the title during Sundance, describes the story as follows:
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Talk to Me consistently operates as a suggestive mood piece concerned with its main character’s struggles to maintain her tether to her world after a series of horrific events. And at the center of it all, Sophie Wilde gives a thoughtful, haunting performance, while the Philipous conjure a shadowy, gothic atmosphere that is, above all, startlingly melancholic.
See the film’s first trailer below.
A24 will release Talk to Me in select theaters on July 28.
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