By Matt Dinn

Horror movies can contain multitudes. They can project feelings. They can elicit fear. They can cause doubt. But, most of all, they can rattle every bone in your body at their best, like in Talk To Me. The allegories at play, grief, and the longing for an escape outside the confines of your ostensibly rigid and dour reality are nothing new. However, the dynamism brought to the centerpiece sequences by YouTube creators turned first-time directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou to feel fresh and alive here. The film’s fluidity in these moments allows the scares within them to feel lived to the point where the tension becomes almost unbearable. They also create the thrust that propels the rest of the film’s practically intolerable suspense. While modern horror can often feel too obligated to play within a strict set of conventions, the brothers’ efforts allow these sequences to feel like anything can happen. And that’s where horror is and always has been at its most alive.

The film’s clever construction allows it to build and add to the fascinating lore of the possession and seance realm while wisely remaining elusive enough to maintain what makes it so charming, to begin with: the mystique and unknowability. The film’s clever intercutting between the mundane and supernatural allows the spiritual elements to feel matter-of-fact and almost inextricable from the mundanity on display. It also allows the film to have a surprisingly and unexpectedly nasty edge. This is especially surprising when contextualized within its characters’ psychological trauma. Where recent horror has often softened the trauma inflicted on its characters’ psyche, Talk to Me puts its characters through the type of wringer rarely seen. Rarely has a modern horror film been able to be equally grotesque physically and emotionally, but Talk To Me finds a way to disturb equally in both spheres. [B+]