The Plot Breakdown
A24’s upcoming film “Talk to Me,” is the debut of two twin brothers: Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou. The film first debuted at Sundance Film Festival and was thereafter bought by A24.
The plotline follows a young woman (played by Sophie Wilde) who has lost her mother and her group of friends who are up to no good interacting with the spirit world. The group of friends have discovered how to summon spirits via an embalmed hand, which ends up conjuring the wrong spirits (as seen in other scary movies). From what we can tell from the trailer, it appears as though things unfold when she mistakes another entity for her mother. An added anxiety-inducing element to the film is that a part of the process is holding onto the embalmed hand for no longer than 90 seconds; otherwise, things go awry.
Who Are the Philippou Brothers?
The film, as previously mentioned, is Danny and Michael Philippou’s first film. The two brothers are otherwise known for their Youtube channel RackaRacka, which was awarded the best International Youtube Channel at the 2015 Streamy Awards. When watching meet-the-artist videos of the brothers, it is hard to imagine such goofy, light-hearted guys could produce a scary movie that will be such a force as theirs but nevertheless, consider us intrigued.
What Sets it Apart From Other Films
The eeriness in this film is not only explicitly found in venturing into the spirit world without proper supervision and safety protocols. There is an added layer of freakiness in the presumed main character participating in hopes of finding her deceased mother. Another noteworthy feature of the film is centering the movie around modern-day Gen Z kids. We witness Snapchat stories of the events in the trailer and realistic elements of today's technology. Sundance has commented on the two brothers' gifted ability to curate a grotesque horror film set in and for the "insta-generation." Although parts of the trailer appear to pull upon cliches of other horror films, two facts place the film back onto the radar of notability — the first being that A24 bought it (an indication of quality) and the second being that critics have already given it a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
TikToker @grubbycolemovies saw the movie's first screening and compared it to being in the same vein as "Hereditary." Here is what he had to say about his first look at the movie:
“Talk to Me” is set to hit your local theaters on July 28 this year and might be the horror film of the summer, if not the year.