Is ‘Talk to Me’ the Best Horror Film of 2023?

Or possibly one of the best of the last decade?

*Warning! This review contains spoilers.

Last night, I finally had the opportunity to watch the Australian breakout horror film Talk to Me. Though the film initially debuted and ran the festival circuit in 2022, its wide release in the US came last month — and boy oh boy, was it worth the wait.

Here’s why I’m going to go ahead and make the bold statement that Talk to Me is the best horror film of 2023 (and possibly the best of the last decade).

What is ‘Talk to Me’ about?

Talk to Me is an independent horror film directed by the Philippou brothers (the duo behind the popular Australian YouTube channel, RackaRacka), and straight away the film makes a bold — though not too unfamiliar — statement. Essentially, the film asks of its viewers, “What if you could speak to the dead?” … and the story takes off from there.

The opening scene alone, though it holds little bearing on the plot that follows, is a jarring, masterfully shot piece of horror that jolts you immediately awake and grips you from the get-go, soft-launching you into the film’s overarching (and horrifying) premise. Opening onto a wild house party scene, we first see a bold 20-something searching among the bacchanalian party-goers for his presumed younger brother. The vibe is “off” from the start, and as our unlucky (and only momentary) protagonist eventually breaks down a bedroom door in order to force his brother to get up and leave the party, we’re given our first glimpse of the power the film’s true central plot point holds — I’m talking about the creepy, heavily-graffitied ceramic hand, of course, which becomes this film’s ever-looming and quite frightening catalyst for the events that follow.

Let’s just say, the younger brother isn’t thrilled to see his older brother (or, maybe even in his right mind?), and after being forced to let go of his grip on said ceramic hand, let’s just say he… loses it. But, that’s all we see for now.

We’re then launched into the film’s main plot, which focuses on a high-school age girl named Mia (Sophia Wilde), her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s family. It’s made clear to us that Mia has lost her mother in some tragic way, and has a distant relationship with her guarded-but-well-meaning father, Max. Mia doesn’t stay around her own house much, it seems, as she leaves within the first few minutes of the film to head out and pick up Riley (Joe Bird), Jade’s younger brother, and crash at their house for the evening.

However, Mia and Riley don’t make it to the house without (a ridiculously creepy, grisly and hard to watch) incident — they run into a downed kangaroo on their drive home (they are in Australia, after all), and the poor animal is literally groaning in pain as it takes its last breaths. Mia and Riley debate what to do — should they just keep driving? Do they call the SCPA? Do they put it out of its misery?

They decide “putting the poor creature out of its misery” would be the best (if not the most difficult) course of action, and Mia attempts to gain the speed and nerve to finish the animal off by running over it with her own car. However, she stops just short of doing so, goes around, and leaves the dying animal just as they found it — lying on the ground, suffering. Sheesh.

As if this scene wasn’t hard enough to watch on its own, it’s very clearly a portent of what’s to come in the film’s second and third acts, which go completely off the chain. Trust me.

Once Mia and Riley arrive at Riley and Jade’s family home, they convince Jade to sneak out with them for a house party (which also features a fun, surprising run-in between the teens and Lord of the Rings alum Miranda Otto, guest-starring as Susan, Jade and Riley’s mother). They’re not headed to just any house party, though — this is a house party of a friend of a friend who they see on Snapchat playing with (you guessed it!) the creepy ceramic hand, alleging that it allows those in its possession to literally talk to the dead. (Or, well, be possessed by the dead for 90-seconds or so, before everyone gets too creeped out and the ‘ritual’ is stopped.)

If you haven’t figured out what is likely to come to pass when you put a grieving teenager, the possibility of life after death, and a super creepy ceramic hand that induces exorcist-like seance rituals… then this film may not be for you. But, if you’re intrigued by the premise (and, horror fans, you should be!), then you must watch this film in its entirety before I give it all away here.

Why is ‘Talk to Me’ such a great horror film?

Oh, where do I even begin? From the directors’ choices in score (to mix in modern hip-hop with some tactical “scare” scoring), to their tactical use of building tension and the ages-old (but gold) unreliable narrator trope, this film has it all for any serious horror fan. However, the film is perhaps the most impressive in its thematic scope. Let me explain —

Though the film only runs for just over 90 minutes, it packs in a lot in terms of allegorical significance and thematic gravitas. For one, the way it turns the typical teenage “party” trope onto its head in such a unique and horrifying way is astounding — the “I’ll try anything once” attitude of teenagers is a cautionary tale usually saved for after-school specials, but this takes it to the N-th degree (and then reaches beyond that, directly into your soul — no pun intended).

On the other hand, the film relies on classic horror tropes and doesn’t try to rewrite the formula for what makes a good supernatural horror film so effective, working with something all-new yet all-too-familiar all at once, and somehow leveraging (and elevating) its lofty atmosphere to create something truly unique and brilliant, and just… again, you just have to watch this film.

Seriously. Go watch it. You’ll thank me later (or maybe you won’t, if you have nightmares after… who knows?). Happy spooky season, horror fans!

Xoxo,

MM.