A24’s ‘Talk to Me’ is the Next Great Horror Movie [Sundance]

This decade has seen the release of critically-acclaimed neo-horror movies such as “The Invisible Man,” “Barbarian,” “Titane,” “Watcher” and “Possessor,” but I think I’ve just seen one to rival these.

Twin filmmaking duo Danny and Michael Philippou's “Talk to Me” completely subverts the clichés of the genre. Yes, there are some first-timer mistakes here and there, but these boys have vision to spare.

The twins are known as the YouTube duo RackaRacka, where they produce horror videos with a comedic twist. I never heard of them until this movie, but I’m now listening. Watching “Talk to Me” felt like the time I discovered David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows” at Cannes. On-paper, it didn’t sound like anything fresh or original, a low-concept idea, but watching the film is a whole other story.

A24 nabbed the rights to the film at Sundance, supposedly paying a handsome seven-figure sum, and it’s probably going to be worth every penny for them.

The film stars Sophia Wilde as teenager Mia, who, on the anniversary of her mother’s death, gathers for a “calling” seance with her friends. They conjure up spirits using an ancient embalmed hand, and become temporarily possessed. The catch is that they must exorcise the spirit within 90 seconds, or it will try to stay.

The problem is that they all become too hooked by the experience, and the group of friends keeps performing more and more seances until one of them inevitably goes too far. Sounds hokey, right? It isn’t. What the Phillipous concentrate on most is the symmetry between visual and sound — it seems as though creating YouTube videos has been very beneficial in refining their cinematic chops.

Mia is increasingly haunted by supernatural visions; they come aggressively quick, at the blink of an eye, but she also, unintentionally, sucks her close friend into this world as well. The blurring between reality and fiction is brilliantly portrayed here as we, the audience, are forced to choose who to trust.

The thin line between reality and spiritual collapses in this film, as Mia is haunted by supernatural visions, but are they just all in her head? It amounts to a very distinctive vibe — the atmospheric dread is one thing, but parts of this film feel damn-near surreal.