Talk to the Hand: the Aussie Horror Hit Unpacking Grief and Loss
Chilling on the surface, deeply emotional underneath - is Talk To Me the freakiest horror fantasy since Get Out?
good.film
2 years ago
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Why should I see Talk To Me?
You’ll watch some of it through your fingers, but Talk To Me isn’t a gratuitous gore-fest. The empathy we feel for Mia, yearning to connect again with her lost Mum, makes for a thrilling supernatural ride you’ll invest in.
What social causes does the film explore?
Mental Health, Racial Equity, Religion & Spirituality
Of all the movie genres, Horror might just be the most Vegemitey. Some of us love to devour it, and others can’t stand it. If you’re into it, settling down in the dark for the latest horror flick is a great way to get the adrenaline pumping (and maybe squeeze up to that crush you’ve invited along).
But the best horror can raise your IQ along with your heart rate. Look a little deeper and that ghost or slasher story on the surface can reveal themes that all of us can relate to - concepts that speak to the bigger human experience, and subconsciously help us make sense of the world. Scares on top, substance underneath.
Enter Talk To Me, the new low-budget horror feature from South Australian twin directors Danny and Michael Philippou. Top level, it’s a supernatural seance scarefest; a spiritual “we’ve opened the portal” flick that sees a group of teens go from thrilled to terrified while trying to fix their grave mistake (sorry, we had to).
Scratch the surface, though, and the Philippous use their disembodied hand and traumatised heroine as a gateway to explore grief and loss, issues of trust and the meaning of family.
They’re themes we might struggle to deal with in our real lives, especially in an increasingly secular world. Without the ceremony of religion, grieving often goes unprocessed; there's no “official” time or space to acknowledge the immense pain of loss. That can leave everyone vulnerable - but particularly young people.
What is Talk To Me about?
When we meet Mia on the 2-year anniversary of her Mum’s death from an unexplained overdose, she’s still haunted by whether it was an accident or intentional. To take her mind off the day, she and her BFF Jade go to a house party with a difference: there’s gonna be a few guests that aren’t from this side of town. Or even this earthly plane.
In prime position is a ceramic hand from a mystery source. It’s rumoured to be the embalmed limb of an old medium, “or was it a Satanist?”... but who cares. Light a candle, grab the hand and say “Talk to me” and you’ll be taken on a 90-second joy ride by a spirit that treats your body like a dodgem car. Just don’t go over the limit, or you’ll leave the ‘door’ wide open.
This is the TikTok generation, so the voodooey nature of it all is treated like a jokey thrill to look ballsy in front of your mates. More ‘rite of passage’ than ‘the last rites’, with videos of the mini-possessions blowing up socials (there’s a great moment when Mia steps up for her turn, and the entire crowd pull out their smartphones as one, ready to livestream the freaky stuff).
"You see kids using social media as a mechanism for disconnection. When horrible things happen, you pull out your phone and start recording, as a way to dissociate yourself from what’s happening in front of you." ~ Michael Philippou
Afterwards, flushed and on a high, Mia describes her possession the way teens in other movies might describe drugs or sex: “It felt amazing - like I was glowing. It felt incredible.” But things go off the rails when Jade’s little brother Riley begs for a go after his sister leaves the room - and the spirit that finds him is, yep, Mia’s deceased Mum.
Overcome with the chance to connect with her Mum about her sudden death, Mia doesn’t let the spirit leave Riley until it’s way too late… with eye-watering consequences. A brutally injured Riley is hospitalised, and Mia is haunted by continued visions of her Mum, nudging her towards a dark secret. The door has been left open, and Mia has no idea how to slam it shut.
What does Talk To Me have to say about grief?
First, props to the Philippous and actress Sophie Wilde - Mia’s no flaky scream queen, used as fodder for cheap jump scares. We believe from the get-go that she’s an empathetic teen who’s still processing the loss of her Mum and coping with an emotionally distant Dad.
It’s hinted that Mia has battled depression, and coupled with her grief, it places Mia on shaky ground as to what’s “really real” and what’s in her head. For example, Mia starts to see and hear her Mum, Rhea, speaking to her - but is it really her spirit that Mia has “let in” to stay, or just the imagination of a daughter coping with immense loss?
Talk To Me gets plenty right in terms of genuine grief-related behaviours. A common reaction of grieving teens is hearing their loved one’s voice, or a sensation of “seeing” them out of the corner of their eye. The film plays on this trope, heightening our sense of Mia’s grief. And USC studies have shown that teens grieving the loss of a parent specifically to a drug overdose death will often engage in risk-taking behaviours themselves.
"It’s important to us that our big horror moments are grounded in character and really affect the story. Each of these scenes have a purpose, we build up to them, and they’re rooted in character." ~ Danny Philippou
Mia’s going through another form of grief, too - the fractured relationship with her Dad. They’ve withdrawn from each other, unable to talk openly after Rhea’s death. We get a sense this distance began beforehand: Mia’s Dad was sleeping on the couch when her Mum died. So Mia was already processing a loss - the breakdown of her parent’s marriage - before suddenly losing the parent she was closest to.
What does Talk To Me have to say about trust?
All of this grieving is even harder for Mia to navigate because she’s still questioning if her Mum’s overdose was accidental or intentional. This dovetails the film’s thematic strands of grief and trust, with Rhea’s spirit urging Mia to dig deeper into the details surrounding her death.
Mia’s wrestling with this when her Dad opens up to her, reading out a letter that he claims is Rhea’s suicide note. For Mia, it finally confirms that her Mum did take her own life - but the timing seems… off. Does she trust her Dad in this wrenching moment? Or the vision of her Mum, telling her not to? Does Mia even trust herself, that what she’s seeing is real?
"We didn’t want it to be gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous. If you care about the characters when these things happen, whether it’s visceral or not, it really affects you. That’s what effective horror does." ~ Michael Philippou
We feel Mia’s ever-deepening despair more keenly through a lack of trust from her best friend Jade, and Jade’s mother Sue, who’s been a caring Mum-figure for Mia since she lost her own. Jade misreads her rattled boyfriend taking solace in Mia’s company as her mate crossing a romantic line. And Sue can’t forgive Mia for the grievous harm she (mistakenly) thinks Mia’s caused to her son. So Mia’s two closest female support figures both turn their backs on her due to trust issues.
Trust is a huge emotional element of most horror because when nobody believes you, you feel more alone than ever. Fighting a monster in a group is scary - but fighting a monster alone is terrifying.
Why am I hearing about Talk To Me being banned?
Yeah, interestingly (and sadly), the film has just been banned in Kuwait - not for its content, but because of the trans gender identity of one of the cast, Aussie actor Zoe Terakes. It’s reportedly the first time in the country that a movie’s been banned just based on the gender identity of an actor, and nothing to do with what’s on screen.
On their Instagram, Zoe points out that Kuwait has a history of banning films with queer or trans themes, “But our film doesn’t have queer themes. Our film doesn’t actually ever mention my transness, or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role. I’m not a theme. I’m a person. Kuwait has banned this film due to my identity alone.” (Zoe encourages anyone who feels “angry, sad or confused by this” to donate to Rainbow Railroad, a worldwide charity that works to help at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety).
While we’re talking casting, it’s cool to see a horror feature propelled by a multiracial, female lead. We’ve come a long way from the days when women in horror were only there for their sexual attributes, and the black character famously always died first (a cliché so overworn it’s been spoofed in new horror today)!
What are critics saying about Talk To Me?
- “It’s the ingenious combination of horror and human connection that makes Talk to Me, well, something to talk about.” | WASHINGTON POST
- ”A devastating script and charismatic cast make Talk To Me a terrifying and pervasively heartbreaking tale of grief.” | AV CLUB
- “Deftly stitches its deepest fears around the idea that grief and trauma can be open invitations to predatory forces from the great beyond.” | HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
- ”The film grabs your attention with verve, but also has a vision: it’s not mortal danger it finds freaky, but what’s waiting on the other side.” | DAILY TELEGRAPH
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
So what’s the takeaway from Talk To Me?
We love an Aussie screen success, and in Talk To Me the Philippous have conjured up a horror hit that’s making bank and earning rave reviews. They’ve combined their truly inventive style with a cracking premise, an excellent cast, and some deeply disturbing make-up effects to create a tight and tension-packed thriller that’s got tongues wagging here at home and overseas.
It’s no wonder the film was grabbed by A24 (in a bidding frenzy after its Sundance premiere) who are no slouches when it comes to recognizing genre filmmaking with a message. Talk To Me has already racked up the second-best US opening weekend for the indie studio ever, behind Hereditary - another horror that features a family matriarch and her child’s tragic plunge into the supernatural.
For those Vegemite haters we mentioned up top, well, this one might be a bit too dark and salty for you. But for those who love the taste of terror with something more meaty to chew on underneath, Talk To Me is a nourishing instant classic chock full of moments you’ll relish.
