Talk to Me | The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Talk to Me is an A24 film. That’s come to mean something in terms of quality and originality. Especially with the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes currently going on. A24 is one of the only (if not the only) studios to have agreed to the union requests in order to continue production. It’s just another example of A24 being the future of Hollywood. 

But is Talk to Me any good? (You can see where I ranked it: here)

The good things about Talk to Me

Overall

The cast is putting in a lot of work to give Talk to Me an energy, excitement, and aura that elevates it beyond what its story probably earns. That, some cool cinematography choices, and the Australian hip hop have Talk to Me feeling pretty unique and highly charged compared to a lot of American mid-level horror and Blumhouse content. 

Directors (and brothers) Danny and Michael Philippou do a good job of contrasts. The party sequences have this teenage audacity and spirit to them that adds a rare bit of genuine fun and joy to a genre that’s typically actively aiming for the opposite. But this only sets up how vicious the turn is when things go south. 

Over the last decade or so, horror filmmakers really started to see the power in swift brutality. It’s like a jump scare but often combines with some act of physical violence that really jolts the system. Hereditary had a similar moment when the kid smashes his face into his desk and breaks his nose. He goes from acting normal to BAM. Face in desk. Talk to Me has two moments like this. The opening with the knife. Then one character has a whole cranium crashing fit that happens out of nowhere and is brutal and unrelenting. It was a nice touch by the Philippous that aligns with them stepping into the genre as the new kids on the block, bringing more youthful sensibilities. 

Cast

The cast standouts for me were Sophie Wilde as Mia, Zoe Terakes as Haley, and Chris Alosio as Joss. 

Favorite thing:

I liked seeing the ghosts. 

The bad things about Talk to Me

My biggest criticism of Talk to Me is that I think it took a bit too much from other movies without necessarily improving upon those things. 

For example, an animal in the road and having to put it out of its misery has been done a good amount of times in horror. That was done in 2015’s The Invitation and was a great metaphor for the fact the guy driving had recently lost a young son. It was also done in Get Out, and used in a very similar way where the deer in the road foreshadows the final confrontation in the middle of the road. Talk to Me takes that trope but doesn’t do much with it. It’s a kangaroo instead of a coyote or deer. Cool, very Australian. And it foreshadows the conclusion with Mia believing she has to put someone out of their misery. It works. It’s fine. But I don’t think it was elevated in a way that makes it more interesting than it does cliche. 

In order to elaborate on this I need to make a comparison to another horror film—Smile. I think the two movies are very very very similar. Let me clarify that. Daley Pearson came up with the concept of Talk to Me in 2018. The movie released in Australia in October of 2022. Smile came out in September of 2022. So it’s almost impossible for Smile to have influenced Talk to Me. 

But when you look at the movies, both start with microcosms that show an individual fall victim to the monster, setting up an arc that the main protagonist will go on. In Smile, that’s the gradual descent into madness caused by the demon that possesses the person until it eventually feeds on them in front of someone else. In Talk to Me, it’s the ghosts manipulating a person until they mortally wound someone else or themself. 

Both main characters haven’t gotten over the grief of losing their mother. Both mothers OD’d in their bedrooms. One accidentally, the other on purpose. In both movies, the monster takes on the form of the mother in order to manipulate the daughter. In both movies, the characters have to question the nature of their reality and can’t trust what they’re seeing. 

Obviously there are differences in energy, tone, the nature of the antagonists, and the supporting characters. So it’s not like what happens and who it happens to are exactly the same. It’s just that despite the differences, these two movies, made on completely different continents, happened to draw from very similar concepts. This is known as multiple discovery or simultaneous invention. Not a common occurrence but not as rare as you’d imagine.

I only point this out because I think it reinforces my point of Talk to Me being just a bit trope-y and generic in its scene by scene choices and plot beats. As opposed to feeling as fresh as something like Barbarian or X or Hereditary or The Invisible Man. Those movies have a level of narrative and filmmaking craftsmanship that’s just a step above Talk to Me. 

With all that said. I like Talk to Me’s concept and performances. And even if it’s trope-y and a tad generic, it still has an energy to it that will win the day for a majority of viewers. I’m firmly in the minority here with my complaints. But this is my review. So. Solid movie just not quite as daring as I’d hoped.

Least favorite thing:

The whole last act was a bit anticlimactic to me. The last, last scene is pretty cool but I think the movie needed another 5-10 minutes to really dive into Mia’s fate. 

The ugly things about Talk to Me…or a haiku

Nothing bothered me that much. So, a haiku it is.