Talk to Me (2022 film)

Talk to Me (2022 film)
Talk to Me is a 2022 Australian supernatural horror film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, based on a concept by Daley Pearson. It stars Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes, Chris Alosio, Marcus Johnson, and Alexandria Steffensen. The film follows a group of teenagers who discover they are able to contact spirits using a mysterious embalmed hand, only for things to go too far.
Talk to Me premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 30 October 2022, and was released in Australia on 27 July 2023 by Maslow Entertainment. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, direction, horror sequences, practical effects, sound design and performances, with Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird receiving particular praise. It was a box office success, grossing $90 million worldwide against a $4.5 million budget, becoming A24's second highest-grossing film. A sequel is currently in development.
Plot
At a crowded house party, Cole searches for his brother Duckett. When Cole finds Duckett and attempts to bring him home, Duckett stabs his brother before fatally stabbing himself in the face.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Mia is struggling with the second anniversary of her mother Rhea's death by overdose and her distant relationship with her father Max. Driving at night, she comes across a fatally injured kangaroo, but cannot bring herself to put it out of its misery. Mia, her best friend Jade, and Jade's little brother Riley sneak out to one of many gatherings hosted by Hayley and Joss, where the main attraction is a severed, embalmed hand of mysterious origin. Holding the hand and saying "Talk to me" allows a person to communicate with a spirit, followed by saying "I let you in," enabling the spirit to possess them. The connection must be severed before ninety seconds in order to prevent the spirits from binding themselves to that person. Mia volunteers to go first and is possessed by a spirit that displays a menacing focus on Riley. Joss and Hayley manage to break the connection, but only after the time limit is exceeded slightly.
Mia, ecstatic over the feeling the hand brought her, along with Hayley, Joss, and Jade's boyfriend Daniel all gather at Jade's house the next night. Jade refuses to let Riley participate, but all of the others indulge, enjoying the euphoria of possession. When Jade leaves the room, Mia gives in and lets Riley take a turn. Riley appears to be possessed by Rhea's spirit, who attempts to reconcile with Mia. Mia stops the group from ending the possession to keep talking to Rhea, disregarding the time limit. Riley's body is overtaken by the spirits, who make him attempt suicide by repeatedly smashing his face against the table, and he is hospitalized in critical condition.
Mia, now haunted by visions of Rhea, is turned away by Jade and her mother Sue, both of whom blame her for Riley's injuries. Having secretly taken the embalmed hand, Mia offers Daniel a place to stay for the night at her father's house. Whilst platonically sharing a bed with Daniel, she witnesses an old wet woman crawl from the corner of the room and suck on Daniel's feet. When he wakes up, he sees it is actually Mia who has his feet in her mouth and leaves. Mia repeatedly uses the hand to contact Rhea, who insists that her death was accidental and that she needs to help Riley, who is still possessed and attempts suicide every time he returns to consciousness. Mia leaves the connection open and begins seeing her mother without the hand, causing her to lose her grasp on reality.
The friends track down Cole, who explains that a living body naturally expels invading spirits. Mia, fearing that Riley may not have time, attempts to contact him in the hospital by using the hand, but is instead shown a vision of Riley being tortured in limbo. At home, Max reads Rhea's suicide note to Mia, apologizing for hiding the truth from her. Soon afterwards, Rhea's spirit tells Mia that Max is lying. Mia hallucinates that she is being violently attacked by Max, causing her to inadvertently stab the real Max in the neck with a pair of scissors.
After being told by Rhea that Riley needs to die in order to be set free from his possession, and hallucinating the injured kangaroo from earlier, Mia kidnaps Riley from the hospital, intending to put him out of his misery. Jade sees her pushing him in a wheelchair toward the highway's edge. Rhea attempts to convince Mia to push Riley into oncoming traffic, but when she says "We'll have him forever," Mia realizes that "Rhea" has been the malevolent spirit from her initial possession manipulating her all along. Mia steps away from the wheelchair as Jade rushes toward them to save her brother, traffic comes to a halt and Mia lies badly injured on the road.
Mia suddenly finds herself in the hospital. She sees a fully recovered Riley waking up with his family, and her father leaving in an elevator going up. No one responds to her and she notices her hands are disfigured. After becoming engulfed in darkness, Mia approaches a human hand and candle in the distance, finding herself summoned at another party, where one of the partygoers says "I let you in."
Cast
Sophie Wilde as Mia
Alexandra Jensen as Jade
Joe Bird as Riley
Otis Dhanji as Daniel
Miranda Otto as Sue
Zoe Terakes as Hayley
Chris Alosio as Joss
Marcus Johnson as Max
Alexandria Steffensen as Rhea
Sunny Johnson as Duckett
Ari McCarthy as Cole
Production
Talk to Me is a co-production of Causeway Films, Bankside Films, and Talk to Me Holdings, and is a presentation of Screen Australia in association with the South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, Head Gear Films, and Metrol Technology. Directors Danny and Michael Philippou worked closely with producer Samantha Jennings, one of the co-founders of production company Causeway Films, who is familiar with Adelaide. They knew her from working with her on The Babadook, another Causeway Films production, and credit her with keeping them grounded and helping to shape the film.
The film is set in the filmmakers' hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. The Philippou brothers have said that they are committed to filming, or at least doing post production, in Australia for all future projects.
Release
Talk to Me sold to numerous international distributors at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It had its debut in a preview screening at the Adelaide Film Festival on 30 October 2022, the closing night of the festival.
The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in its midnight lineup. After the premiere spurred a bidding war with Universal Pictures and others, A24 won and acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States. Maslow Entertainment, Umbrella Entertainment and Ahi Films were confirmed to be co-distributing the film in Australia and New Zealand.
The film had its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and also screened in the United States at South by Southwest (SXSW) that the same year. The film also had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 23 July 2023.
Talk to Me was theatrically released in Australia on 27 July 2023, before releasing on the following day in the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom and internationally. In Kuwait, however, the film was banned from the theatrical release, reportedly for featuring a transgender actor, Zoe Terakes. The reports came despite from the fact that the film was screening in other parts of the conservative Gulf region. Terakes expressed their disappointment about the news on social media. On 9 August, the Kuwaiti authority formally announced the ban of both Talk to Me and American comedy film Barbie (which has an underlying feminist theme), claiming that it was to protect "public ethics and social traditions".
Talk to Me was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 3 October 2023, and in Australia on 25 October 2023.
Reception
Box office
, Talk to Me has grossed $48.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $42.2 million in other countries and territories, for a worldwide total of $90.5 million.
In the United States and Canada, Talk to Me was released alongside Haunted Mansion, and was originally projected to gross $4–5 million from 2,340 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $4.2 million on its first day (including $1.3 million from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were increased to $10 million. It ended up debuting to $10.4 million and finished in fifth, marking the best start for an A24 film since Midsommar in July 2019. The film made $6.3 million in its second weekend (a drop of 40%, better than average for a horror film). The film remained in the top 10 over its first six weeks, and on September 3 surpassed Hereditary as A24's highest-grossing horror film domestically with a running total of $44.5 million.
Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "Distinguished by wonderfully gooey practical effects and deeply distressing visual jolts (especially when young Riley falls under the hand's malignant influence), Talk to Me has a hurtling energy that's often violent but never purposefully cruel." She also applauded Wilde and Bird's performances, saying the film "owes much of its potency to Sophie Wilde's continually evolving lead performance" and "a remarkable Joe Bird." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times also praised Bird and Wilde's performances, writing, "Joe Bird, in a superb and surprising performance," and, "But even when Talk to Me flirts with incoherence, Wilde pulls it back from the brink. More than just a great scream queen, she makes vivid sense of Mia's ravaged emotions, revealing her to be a captive less to the spirit realm than to her own inconsolable grief."
Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars, writing, "The grim prologue leaves little doubt that horrible things are going to happen to people we're asked to care about – and while the ending may not fully satisfy the emotional expectations that have been built up, better too few comforting explanations than too many." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film three out of four stars, saying the story had "shaky logic" but also "a rock-solid sense of instilling dread with a minimum of special effects and a sound design that turns the chill up to 11." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, saying that it "deftly stitches its deepest fears around the idea that grief and trauma can be open invitations to predatory forces from the great beyond. It marks a welcome splash of new blood on the horror landscape." Rooney also applauded the performances, writing, "While the predominantly young cast is solid, especially Bird as Riley, talented newcomer Wilde does the heaviest dramatic lifting."
Future
Prequel
In August 2023, Danny and Michael Philippou revealed that they had already completed principal photography on a prequel film, with the story exploring Duckett's backstory which leads into the character's introduction in the original movie. Production was completed consecutively, from the perspective of screenlife storytelling through mobile phones and social media. Sunny Johnson features as Duckett. The filmmakers stated that they intend to release this project in the future. Later that month, the filmmakers revealed that sequences from the project were released by anonymously uploading them online as a means of marketing for Talk to Me. These sequences were removed from the internet due to complaints and concerns, about their content. The sequences will be officially released at a future date.
Sequel
In August 2023, the Philippous confirmed plans to develop a sequel, stating that they've already written sequences for the project. Later that month, A24 announced that a sequel titled Talk 2 Me was in development; with the studio releasing the sequel’s official logo at that same time. Danny and Michael Philippou will return as co-directors, from a script written by returning writers Danny and Bill Hinzman.
References
External links
at Maslow Entertainment
2020s Australian films
2020s English-language films
2020s ghost films
2020s teen horror films
2022 films
2022 horror films
2022 directorial debut films
Australian ghost films
Australian supernatural horror films
A24 (company) films
Casting controversies in film
Censored films
Films about spirit possession
Films about suicide
Films set in hospitals
Films set in South Australia
Films shot in Adelaide
Screen Australia films
LGBT-related controversies in film