MY CALL: This movie is solid and well-made at every corner. There’s nothing original to be found here, and I just don’t care. It’s shocking, brutal, well-written, well-acted, and well-executed with great scares. MORE MOVIES LIKE Talk to Me: There are undeniable stylistic comparisons to be made with Smile 1-2 (2022, 2024)—and all of those comparisons are positive. For more horror from New Zealand, I’d advise Black Sheep (2006), Housebound (2014) and Deathgasm (2015), all three of which are actually horror comedies—quite to the contrary of Talk to Me.
As a sort of party game, a group of high schoolers grasp an embalmed severed hand, see the dead, and “invite them in.” Sounds like the kind of thing that ends up nowhere good and with a few teens not making it to graduation day. Playing this game results in temporary spiritual possession, some very creepy possessed ranting maybe harbingering bad things to come, and lots of laughs… because they’re teenagers and consequences don’t yet exist in their minds.
Addicted to the thrills, they all rush to play again, and again, and again. This party montage is outstanding. These cackling party teens are enjoying this reckless taunting of the spirit realm to such degree that I find myself looking forward to their punishment that the film inevitably holds.
Of course, things get weird when a conjured spirit turns out to be the deceased mother of one of the partying teens, and subsequently a spirit attempts to kill its possessed teen fare most brutally by relentlessly smashing his face against every edge of every piece of furniture within reach. It’s quite the shocking scene, and I’m now thrilled with my decision to watch this movie. Like Smile 1-2 (2022, 2024), the self-harming scenes are truly jarring.
It seems that a spirit may have slipped through the cracks… and now Mia (Sophie Wilde) sees dead people and receives guidance from beyond. And we all know how well that generally works out in horror movies. Is this spirit really trying to help?
Long story short: a group of teens dabble in the occult and get what they deserve.
This movie doesn’t take us anywhere we haven’t been or show us anything we haven’t seen. There’s nothing particularly novel in the premise or storytelling either. Yet… this was still pretty damn good! Sometimes we don’t need highbrow concepts and pithy lore. Sometimes we just need simple horror stories told well. This is one of those. And for this reason I’ll again compare this film to Smile (2022), for which I feel the same way and find yet even better.
Everything about this film is well done, from casting and acting, to editing and execution. Directors Danny and Michael Philippou’s first feature film is a triumph in the horror genre. I’m looking forward to Talk to Me 2 and even more to perhaps different horror thriller endeavors.