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Talk to Me: Limited Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Second Sight Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (13th June 2025). |
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The Film
 Saturn Award (Best Horror Film): Talk to Me (winner), Best Supporting Actress in a Film: Sophie Wilde (nominee), and Best Film Direction: Daniel Philippou and Michael Philippou (nominees) - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, 2024 FCAA Award (Best Actress): Sophie Wilde (nominee) - Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, 2024 Golden Raven (International Competition): Daniel Philippou and Michael Philippou (winners) - Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (BIFFF), 2023 Chainsaw Award (Best Director): Daniel Philippou and Michael Philippou (nominees), Best Lead Performance: Sophie Wilde (nominee), Best Makeup FX: Rebecca Buratto, Nick Nicolaou, and Paul Katte (nominees), Best Screenplay: Bill Hinzman and Danny Philippou (nominees), Best Supporting Performance: Joe Bird (nominee), and Best Wide-Release Film: Talk to Me (nominee) - Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, 2024 AFCA Award (Best Film): Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings (nominees), Best Director: Daniel Philippou and Michael Philippou (nominees), Best Actress: Sophie Wilde (winner), Best Supporting Actor: Joe Bird (nominee), Best Supporting Actress: Miranda Otto (nominee), Best Screenplay: Bill Hinzman and Danny Philippou (nominees), and Best Cinematography: Aaron McLisky (nominee) - Australian Film Critics Association Awards, 2023 AACTA Award (Best Film): Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings (winners), Best Direction in Film: Daniel Philippou and Michael Philippou (winnners), Best Lead Actress in Film: Sophie Wilde (winner), Best Supporting Actor in Film: Zoe Terakes (nominee), Best Supporting Actress in Film: Alexandra Jensen (nominee), Best Screenplay in Film: Bill Hinzman and Danny Philippou (winners), Best Cinematography in Film: Aaron McLisky (nominee), Best Editing in Film: Geoff Lamb (winner), Best Original Score in Film: Cornel Wilczek (winner), Best Sound in Film: Emma Bortignon, Pete Smith, and Nick Steele (winners), and Best Hair and Makeup: Rebecca Buratto, Nick Nicolaou, and Paul Katte (winners) - Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, 2024 Estranged from her father (The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee's Marcus Johnson) since her mother's accidental overdose of sleeping pills, teenage Mia (Sophie Wilde) has been spending most of her time with best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and Jade's younger brother Riley (The Last Rites of Ransom Pride's Joe Bird), causing tension in Jade's new relationship with Mia's ex Daniel (Otis Dhanji). One night, Mia and Jade – with stowaway Riley – attend a party where edgy school misfits Hayley ('s Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio) host the latest viral challenge: communication with the dead via an embalmed severed hand encased in ceramic and purporting to belong to a dead psychic medium given to the pair by Duckett (Sunny Johnson) who was introduced in the opening credits committing brutal suicide after suffering some sort of breakdown and stabbing his brother (Ari McCarthy). Sensitive to comments from their friends about being clingy, Mia accepts the challenge, initiating contact with the words "Talk to me" and then possession with "I let you in." Despite the disturbingly violent message Mia delivers to Riley in an apparent trance before Hayley and Joss break contact as part of the timed challenge, Mia is as exhilarated by the experience as the others are entertained. When Jade's mother Sue (Initiation's Miranda Otto) is away for a night, she hosts another party where Daniel tries the challenge and humiliates her and himself. While they are out of the room, Riley begs Mia to let him do the challenge to impress his best friend James (James Oliver) and she reluctantly agrees. While possessed, Riley appears to be speaking to Mia as her mother, and she lets Riley go over the time limit in order to maintain contact only for him to apparently be taken over by a more malevolent entity that smashes his head against the table repeatedly before they are able to break contact. Riley is rushed to the hospital and Sue and Jade hold Mia responsible – especially in light of none of the party guests being willing to disclose exactly what they were doing – socially isolating Mia who has purloined the hand in the chaotic aftermath and starts using it on her own hoping to contact her mother. The apparitions remain even after Mia breaks contact, however, and her mother warns her that Riley is not out of danger nor is she. Talk to Me is the feature film debut of brothers Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou who have been honing their cineamtic talents for years on their YouTube channel RackaRacka with often comedic shorts demonstrating creative and economical staging, stunt work, and digital effects – for instances, these two featuring British YouTuber group The Sidemen: KSI vs The Sidemen and Sidemen Plane Crash (one of their videos gets a "cameo" in the film suggesting the demographic of their viewership) – and crewing other films including The Babadook from the same producers. There is much about the plot and scares in common with en vogue youth-oriented American horror films in which teenagers dabble with the supernatural; however, Talk to Me uses smart phone, social media, and viral videos as a symptom rather than as a means of access, or at least rather than a "ghost in the machine" the temptation to watch and capture something unusual to get "views" contributes to reckless behavior here with the supernatural rather than Pokémon Go-related traffic accidents or Randonautica-related trespassing. One does not even have to ponder whether the brothers Philippou have ever seen Witchboard since the the supposed dangers of using a Ouija board alone leaving the user vulnerable to possession or interrupted seances where characters forget to close the circle have been filtered through countless horror moves and paranormal television shows and paranormal vlogger channels that the viewer does feel a sort of familiarity with the scenario. While not a slow-paced film by any means, it gives the feel of going at its own pace to the point where it is more than halfway through the running time before we get a more definite sense of where the plot is going; and those stakes are where the film would become less compelling were it not for the execution with good characterizations for a youth-oriented horror film and excellent lead and supporting performances. The directors use the current horror mode of "grief porn" to muddy the waters about whether Mia's attempts to use the hand to talk to her mother is a form of "progressive entrapment" while also the Daniel character proves less than a potential romantic complication between Mia and her best friend and more as a sounding board, questioning whether the possessing spirit knowing secret things is proof of their identity or their ability to read other people and exploit them (suggesting the need to find healthier alternative ways of working through grief without getting fundamental). The film's apparitions are also refreshingly conveyed old school with live actors and creative make-up without any CGI or green screen work, tapping into a somewhat J-horror vibe in scenes of ghosts slowly crawling towards the unflinching camera POV. Characters who would otherwise have victim stamped on their foreheads in a more body count-oriented horror film are a bit foolhardy but ultimately more sensible (and sensitive) than their Hollywood counterparts. A sequel or prequel is reportedly in the works but the Philippous' follow-up Bring Her Back has just been released and, despite the trailers, might be good if the filmmakers take a similar approach as their debut. 
Video
Following its theatrical play, Talk to Me hit 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray in Australia from Umbrella Entertainment, the U.K. from Altitude (also available in a steelbook) and the U.S. from Lionsgate (an Amazon-exclusive edition included a bonus disc), followed by a German collector's edition from Capelight (also as a steelbook). Second Sight's 2160p24 HEVC 2.39:1 widescreen Dolby Vision 4K UltraHD and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.39:1 widescreen Blu-rays – also separately available in standard edition single-disc 4K and Blu-ray – boast deep shadows and a generally warm bias to the lighting and the "warmth" of Jade's home in contrast to the blues and cold whites of Mia's home and the hospital environs. Shot with the Arri Alexa Mini LF on Zeiss Supreme Prime Lenses, detail is strong in well-exposed and deep focused wide and medium shots as well as close-ups apart from shots that make deliberate use of extremely shallow focus (and possibly some digital defocusing as well). We have not seen the previous U.K. Blu-ray 4K but we presume that there is not a lot of difference given the digital originating and finishing and no known complaints from the filmmakers about any of the releases thus far. 
Audio
Like the Australian release, Second Sight has a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix – Lionsgate's 4K and Blu-ray editions have an exclusive Dolby Atmos track (we assume some U.S. theatrical screenings also had this option) – that has the expected loud music during party scenes in which dialogue remains audible, scoring eases the audience into the possession scenes before the aural scares, and inappropriate ringtones intrude on tense and emotional moments. More impressive are the subtler sounds in quieter moments from rainfall to distant cars and sirens which does a better job than the scoring at one moment in making the viewer anticipate something horrible happening before the scene change. Optional English SDH subtitles are included. 
Extras
Extras start off with an audio commentary by directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou recorded for the Altitude release and ported over to subsequent releases in which they state their intent to avoid thematic elements and leave it to interpretation yet they cannot it even when being a bit self-deprecating and faux-pretentious. The energetic track focuses on the on screen action while delving back into their own earlier works pre-YouTube, the Screen Australia grant for streamers, and their work experience on other films. They also discuss how the film embodies where and how they grew up, noting characters based on childhood friends, actors they met on other films or filmmakers programs, sending out an invite to fans to load up the party scene with about three-hundred people (many of which were not seen onscreen) and the "Where's Wally?" aspect of inserting the film's main characters into that scene which was shot in one continuous take ten times (requiring ten fake doors for the Cole character to break down). They discuss the development of the film and getting rejected by Hollywood studios and rejecting the ones that wanted to work with them for fear to changing too much and losing creative control, the input and guidance of Causeway Films' producer Samantha Jennings who allowed them to go overtime when they really needed it, and lots of practicalities including the puppeteering of the kangaroo and dog head (Dhanji did not kiss the dog), and pranks and forfeits among the cast and crew. Exclusive to this release is an audio commentary by film historians Emma Westwood and Sally Christie who discuss the ways in which the film embodies growing up in South Australia suburbs, more detail on the careers of the Philippous including their RackaRacka channel and how their shorts embodied gore comedy and laddish humor while their feature debut is more somber and female-centric whilst nevertheless encompassing their own personal issues and fears (the film was built upon someone else's pitch about characters getting high and possessed but inspired as much by an incident in which one of their neighbors was on drugs and convulsing while those around them just filmed rather than trying to help). They also discuss the eye-rolling notion of "trauma porn" embodied by U.S. distributor A24 and how the film examines issues of grief and mental health and how it differs from The Babadook in how the protagonists "nurture" their trauma.  "Talk to Them" (52:18) is a new interview with directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou which covers a lot of the same ground as the commentary but is not redundant since they keep up the same energy without the distraction of the onscreen to shirt their topics before they have full covered them. They discuss growing up in South Australia where filmmaking did not seem like a realistic job pursuit, shooting for themselves and going viral first via Facebook uploads before founding their channel, and revealing that filmmaking was always their passion and the RackaRacka channel their outlet for expressing themselves. They also reveal the impact of working on The Babadook and seeing Jennifer Kent at work as well as developing the script over a two year period, working with Causeway Films and going to Hollywood, and getting the production underway during COVID. Conjuring Demons" (19:03) is an interview with producer Samantha Jennings who discusses first getting to know the Philippou brothers through Screen Australia's program for YouTube creators, working with them on The Babadook and the development of the film. She also reveals in deciding to produce the film independently of Hollywood, they sold it at Cannes via a promo reel but held back from North America until Sundance where there was a bidding war between A24 and other companies. She also notes the special relationship the brothers have with their audience. "Beautifully Grotesque" (25:05) is a new interview with cinematographer Aaron McLisky who heard about the script from actors on another production. He notes that he is generally not attracted to horror as a genre but admires the way it can address certain dramatic themes. Of the production, he notes how difficult it was to get underway with the threat of another COVID lockdown and aligning everyone's schedules, as well as the challenge of visualizing "the other side" at the end of the film. "Contagion: Kat Ellinger on Talk to Me" (16:49) is a visual essay in which Ellinger discusses the notion of contagion in the horror genre from literary vampires to the cinematic walking dead and spiritual/demonic possession of the sixties and seventies, and technological avenues of possession and haunting of the J-Horror genre while differentiating the Phillipous' approach in that the hand is gateway to contact with the beyond but the "corrupting influence" on the soul is the internet and the motivation/addiction to detach/disassociate by filming and watching, as well as how some people are particularly vulnerable to take clout chasing to dangerous degrees. Ported from the earlier editions are "Behind the Scenes of Talk to Me" (8:03), "Behind the Scenes - No Spoilers" (8:50), and deleted scenes (6:31), as well as EPK cast interviews (22:46) and crew interviews (15:08). 
Packaging
The discs come in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Ann Bembi with a 120-page book with new essays by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Kat Hughes, Meagan Navarro, Cecilia Sayad, Rebecca Sayce and Amber T, as well as six collectors' art cards (none of which were supplied for review).
Overall
Talk to Me is a film by YouTubers that intelligently reflects on the attraction/addiction and dangers of their own medium in a cinematic one.
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