Talk to Me: Why Is It the Best Horror of The Year? What We Loved About the Film?
This is why Talk to Me, the directorial debut of the Philippou brothers, can be considered the year’s best horror film. Everyone has been talking about it since its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It became the highest-grossing film distributed by A24 ever. Arriving in Italian cinemas yesterday 28 September, Talk to Me is the directorial debut of the YouTuber duo Danny and Michael Philippou. An incredibly interesting product that reworks the mythology of teen horror, combining the charm of forbidden games with the window dressing of Gen Z. A horror that is not afraid to make its protagonists suffer and pushes them to the maximum limits of tolerance, highlighting how they are perhaps not so different from the spirits they awaken. All seasoned with a refined and recognizable aesthetic, which makes the most of the pattern of low-budget films destined to gain a cult following. For these and many other reasons, let’s find out in this article why Talk to Me is the best horror of the year.
Talk to Me: Why Is It the Best Horror of The Year?
Talk to Me, to which we have dedicated a detailed review, brings a breath of fresh air to the teen horror genre: the Philippou brothers skillfully manage to intertwine the contemporary context, dominated by the eyes of cell phones and the influence of the Internet, with the dark mysticism of folklore, fueled by urban legends and the implications of the use of objects presumably charged with supernatural energy, such as the hand which, in this case, acts as a catalyst for action. In the process, reference is also made to the dangers of challenges that rage on social media, offering a suggestive parallel on the pitfalls linked to the use of narcotic and stimulant substances in certain mental states and emotionally fragile contexts. While based on the well-known cliché of the Ouija board – and its consequences – the plot of Talk to Me gives this trope a new direction, reinterpreting it in light of contemporary media.
He’s Not Afraid to Treat His Protagonists Badly?
Added to this successful premise is the calculated use of the horror component, which stands out above all in the brutality and crudeness of the staging which catches us unprepared after having pulled the tension – and endurance – of already very fragile psychologies to the maximum. The Philippou show that they have taken to heart not only the lesson of treating protagonists badly, but also of mishandling audience expectations. The hope we place in some form of redemption – or at least the elaboration of Mia’s trauma – drowns in the darkness of history, while we realize that we are mere spectators who are denied the task of prediction, witnessing the most shameless misery possible. Gore is inserted into the narrative serving the purpose of the film’s suffocating and enveloping atmosphere:
Talk to Me aspires to be a generational portrait that truly engages the YouTube generation. It doesn’t try to instill high terror; on the contrary, it accelerates to the final consequences with frenetic montages, leading us to a conclusion characterized by dark black humor – which we told you about in depth in our explanation of the ending of Talk to Me. A fictitious speed of movement, contrasted with the presence of bored teenagers, eager for attention, who no longer have physical contact and let others inhabit their bodies.
It Has Great Emotional Depth?
The Philippou put the psychology of the characters at the center of the story, avoiding reducing them to simple carcasses to be possessed or sacrificed to demons. Talk to Me exudes an atmosphere of loneliness, desperation, guilt, and the need to scramble to preserve one’s mental health, even putting oneself and others at risk. The film manages to address its characters’ internal traumas without turning the plot into melancholic regret. There are no loose wires or jumpscare for their own sake; the very solid screenplay is further enriched by the power of the images and the iconicity of a cast that plays the roles with confidence without compromising credibility.
What the Philippou brothers learned from genre veterans like Ari Aster and James Wan seems as relevant as the learning gained from a society that has condemned new generations to absolute passivity towards violence and death. The ubiquity of images of this type in the contemporary world forces the characters of Talk to Me, initially Kafkaesque figures and strangely immune to paranormal events, to rediscover fear. The Philippou succeeds, and even enthused, in their attempt to choreograph a reconquest of “fear” by young people who seem to have been born brave today.
A Recognizable Footprint?
Recall that Danny and Michael Philippou began their career on YouTube in 2013. In a short time, their channel RackaRacka gained popularity, especially thanks to the parody videos full of black humor and hyperbolic violence that they propose. Even with modest resources, he has never lacked enthusiasm and ingenuity, especially when it comes to home-made visual effects. After a decade spent honing their skills on YouTube videos, they made this feature film acquired by none other than the company A24, known for a catalog of mid-budget, high-quality films, which also helped redefine horror in the last decade with titles like The Witch or Hereditary. With this film, they demonstrate skillful handling of the camera.
They have no qualms about transposing the exhilarating, exhilarating energy of their early videos into a pessimistic context, supported by hammy editing and dark cinematography. The greatest merit of Talk to Me lies precisely in the boldness and confidence with which the Philippou stage not so much the fears of the new generations, but the way in which very young people observe what, by definition, they should be afraid of. The first half of the film becomes a conscious reflection on the changes that the youthful gaze causes in the archetypes and canonical codes of the genre. When it comes to filming the impossible, a close-up shot is just as relevant as a blurry, shaky shot recorded with a cell phone. Contemporaneity cannot include the supernatural without considering the notion of spectacle:
With Talk to Me, Philippou manages the material at their disposal with the awareness of the possibility of giving life to a new franchise. The device of the embalmed hand, which acts as a gateway to the world of the dead, could become an incredibly lucky turning point for the genre, similar to what the Insidious franchise did with Ouija boards. However, rather than embrace a completely revolutionary formula, the directors choose to reinvent a well-known recipe: they expertly use familiar ingredients, measuring them with precision to create an experience that, while maintaining a feeling of familiarity, proves fresh and new. The plot of the film is solidly constructed, it avoids revealing too much information about the origins of the stuffed hand.
