Talk to Me (2023)

 

Genre: Horror/ Mystery 

Time: 1h 35mins

Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Quick Summary: 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.

Alright, get your pitchforks out, because this is overhyped.

For a start, it is so short, and it really could have been done with a much longer run time. Because of this, we don't get much time with any of the cast, who admittedly are a bunch of insufferable teenagers that I found incredibly hard to like, and not much of the plot was explained. For me, I feel like if the hand's origins were explained, or we got to see the effects on the users play out over a bit more time instead of cramming small moments altogether.

Going back to the teenagers, they were awful people. Like seriously. I have never seen such an unlikeable bunch of people. They're all horrible and bitchy towards each other and laugh at one another if they're in a bad situation, plus cue the stereotype of them recording moments like that. 

I have mixed feelings about the premise of this film, as yes it is a different take on it, but we've seen "Teenagers mess with a spiritual tool and demons try to kill them." about a million times now. I wish they pushed the idea further.

There are a few moments which I found incredibly gross, Quentin Tarantino I'm sure will love one of them specifically. As well, the ending was very anti-climactic. Admittedly, I was pretty bored by the halfway point and I think I was just watching to see what the hype was. I was disappointed. 

I wasn't disappointed by the cinematography though! That was pretty cool a lot of time. Flipping the angle, moving with the characters, sets ups for jumpscares and good background establishing shots. As well, I did personally like some of the music for this, even though it wasn't really my taste. 

This does well at being creepy at times, but the plot just completely collapses in on itself. It's messy and doesn't really know what it wants to be. I can't really recommend this due to the pacing and honestly, boring story.

4/10

"I let you in."