Talk to Me (2022) - Grief Horror Done Right

Talk to Me (2022) was Danny & Michael Philippou's directorial debut, and a big success with audiences. Discussing grief and addiction with a healthy dosing of supernatural and gory scares, the film solidified itself as a talking point.

After a cold opening of a murder-suicide, the film follows Mia (Sophie Wilde): a girl struggling with the apparent suicide of her mother. When her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) invites her to a house party, they find the main form of entertainment is an embalmed hand which allows the user to speak to the dead. Mia and friends, excluding Jade, quickly find the high of getting possessed for 90 seconds (no more) is addictive - until it leads to an unfortunate accident with Jade's brother Riley (Joe Bird).

Whilst grief-horror, or metaphor-horror has received a lot of criticism in recent years, Talk to Me is a standout in delivering its message well. The characters are complex and acted well by the cast; there's an honest depiction of their flaws whilst still allowing them to be sympathetic.

Mia particularly stands out in struggling with grief and guilt. As the plot progresses, her grip on reality begins to shift, and she begins to question the truth of the people around her. This is employed without the crutch of hallucinatory scenes which make us loss interest, and instead relies on the performance and script to allow the audience to see Mia's fragile mental state and question her father (Marcus Johnson)'s story. Whilst we are fairly sure the ghosts around her are causing her to mix-up the truth, there is just enough doubt that we cannot be certain. Her actions escalate so rapidly that we question if we're seeing the truth; much more effective than ret-conning events, as other psychological horrors have done.

The employment of the supernatural is interesting; whilst in another body, the ghosts behave ostentastiously: displaying how these teenagers are enjoying seeing their friends act out in embarassing ways, and cementing the discussion of substance abuse. It shows a worrying insight into how little care they have for those around them, linking to the beginning's cold open and creating an uncomfortable feeling about the teen's behaviour. However, when not in bodies, the ghosts lurk in the backgrounds, creating tension with their silent lurking.

Alongside these supernatural scares is a few oustanding scenes of gore. Whilst, again, head-smashing scenes have been criticised for being overdone, Talk to Me employs them sparingly enough to be effective. The difference is that it took its time to introduce the characters to us; we care about what happens to them. Alongside this, the strong performances of the actors around the event add to the horror; showing the human side of the tragedy. This empathy is what makes these scenes so hard to sit through. It's also what makes Mia's final decision so nail-biting to watch, leading to a truly haunting ending.

Whilst Talk to Me could be criticised for relying on tropes that have infected a lot of horror in recent years, it employs these tropes purposefully and meaningfully in order to make its impact.

It's certainly earned the Philippou's a place in supernatural horror.