What you need to know:
The premiere of ‘Talk to Me’ has been quite a surprise inside and outside the horror genre. And for us, it is a 10 out of 10 in all its aspects.
Playing ouija is a thing of the past. Communicating with the dead through a wooden board belongs to those who saw movies of spirits and possessions like The Exorcist, Don’t Look Now, evil dead either The Shining. So what’s next for the newer generations? The answer is an embalmed hand and a film titled talk to me.
talk to me (tell me) is an Australian production of A24 within the horror genre (perhaps the most prominent of the production house), and represents the directorial debut of Danny and Michael Philippou, content creators and founders of the RackaRacka channelwhich has more than 6 million subscribers.
talk to me It has become one of the most successful films at the box office worldwide. (in fact, it will have a sequel). So with its premiere in Mexico, here we will be talking about why talk to me It is a great movie inside and outside the horror genre and if it is worth going to see it at the cinema.
What is Talk to Me about?
talk to me has as its protagonist Mia, a teenager who, after the death of her mother by an apparent suicide, (practically) lives with her best friend Jade in a huge house that he shares with his mother and younger brother. At the beginning of the film, they make it clear that the bond of friendship between Mia and Jade is very strong.
The plot unfolds when Mia becomes obsessed with some videos of possessions that have gone viral on networks. It all consists of a very simple ritual: a embalmed hand and a person who allows the entry of a spirit upon contact with her. The rules that must be respected are also very basic, and that is that the connection should not last more than 90 secondsWell, there is a risk that the spirit will stay on this side…
So when they attend a party and discover the hand is there, Mia decides to perform the ritual. The result? An experience more similar to an orgasm than a terrifying event. And this happens, in part, because it is impossible to know with which spirit it is going to connect; and once the connection is made, it’s like traveling to the background.
After Mia explains how great the experience was, Jade lends her house for her boyfriend and others to perform in the ritual. And this is where things get cloudy, because the rules are broken. And if, everything gets out of control.
Talk to Me, a film about emotional and physical connections
talk to me It is a film that from the outset presents a horror narrative based on possessions. every time someone takes the embalmed hand, connects with a spirit that, we discover, remains in some kind of limbo in which it is not even “optional” to connect to the world of the living.
We don’t know that. And the film explores this part little because in the end, if someone has an unfinished business, it’s the living, not the dead. It is the first ones who cling to the idea of connecting with the afterlife in order to, first, have fun, and then face your own demons. And that’s what makes it interesting. talk to me.
In this way, in talk to me the subject of possessions goes to the background to focus her story and character development, especially Mia’s, towards connections and the most basic human contact.
In talk to me, Mia deals with the loss of a family member, and her story points to how many times we find comfort in the most immediate memory. In the film, it is literally making contact with the spirits that have roamed. The question that it establishes and that the audience must answer is the following:
Are the dead the ones who need to return to the world of the living, or do the living need such an experience to reconnect with their reality? talk to me makes an interesting reflection on the constant reencounters we have with ourselves from experiences that can be painful, the process of overcoming them, and the happiness that comes after ending such a topic.
Why is a hand the motif of Talk to Me?
And then there is the matter of the hand. It is no coincidence that the Philippou brothers chose a hand to be the point of connection between spirits and humans. First, because it is a personal aspect for Australians after a terrible accident they had in adolescence.
Danny was in a car accident at age 16. And while he was hospitalized he did not stop shaking. That’s how his sister visited him, shook his hand and stopped shaking. Danny said in an interview that he understood that the tremor came from the shock that persisted after the accident.
The hand, therefore, represents that very basic need for connections with other people. Our first contacts, most of the time, are given by voice or look. But it is touch that creates a bond that initially appears to be physical, but establishes the beginning of an emotional relationship both for better or for worse.
The terror in Talk to Me corresponds to the new generations
When we say that the issue of possessions goes to the background, it is because the center of its story is based on what we wrote above: connections and human contact as a way to recover the memory of what we were, are and will be.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not important. On the contrary. It’s great. The special effects are amazing and scary to the extent that we understand how the ritual works and the implications that doing so may have.
Another point in favor of the tape is that the whole process is fun; however, the directors manage balance a dynamic that starts from a narrative in relation to the generation that stars in the film (they are centennials) and the emotional aspect.
HERE we tell you about the controversy that has gone through the tape, and that in fact, has nothing to do with the plot.
