Talk to Me
Sophia Wilde as Mia in Talk to Me
It’s 10pm, do you know where your children are? Turns out it’s not drugs you need to worry about, in South Australia, it’s demons!
This slice of A24 (if you’re watching in the USA, that is) horror by YouTube icons ‘Racka Racka’ (Danny and Michael Philippou) is a sturdy exercise in ‘fuck around and find out’. Many have tried and failed at the maleficent MacGuffin schtick in cinema, so it’s good to see some blokes behind the camera that have just gone ahead and made a totally incendiary, deeply upsetting piece of work.
Sophia Wilde: you will go far. Her performance as our lead, Mia, is a total delight to behold. It’s enticing, raw, and uncompromising. Everything you’d want out of a lead actress.
Many have drawn comparisons to Hereditary, and they’re not wrong, though I’m not sure that Talk to Me is as handy (pun intended) in how it explores the wavelengths of grief through horror and what it means when we lose someone we love. That said, Talk to Me makes a loud, and clear, point over the dangers of peer pressure when burdened with loss. As Mia drives away from a dying kangaroo on the roadside, she knowingly lets the suffering linger. If you don’t face your demons head on, they’ll want to stay.
Ferocious, outrageously gnarly, and a killer ending makes this a must-see at the cinema where you’ll wince and shuffle in your seats as a commune. Just remember to blow the candle out.
