Hello everyone, this is I. And welcome back to Review Everything! reviewing everything I can do. It has been a week since the last episode, this one is my most anticipated movie of 2023

TALK TO ME (2023)

This next episode is a special one, Talk To Me is a 2022 Australian supernatural horror film directed by no other than RackaRacka brothers, Danny and Michael Philippou, in their feature film directorial debut. Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman from a concept by Daley Pearson, the film stars Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, and Miranda Otto.

Talk to Me sold to numerous international distributors at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It had its debut in a preview screening at the Adelaide Film Festival on 30 October 2022, the closing night of the festival.

The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in its midnight lineup. After the premiere spurred a bidding war with Universal Pictures and others, A24 won and acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States. Maslow Entertainment, Umbrella Entertainment, and Ahi Films were confirmed to be co-distributing the film in Australia and New Zealand.

The film had its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and was also screened at South by Southwest (SXSW) that same year. The film also had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on 23 July 2023.

Talk to Me was theatrically released in Australia on 27 July 2023, before releasing on the following day in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally.

WARNING
The plot contains spoilers, I would recommend you watch the movie first before reading this review!

A young man, Cole, stumbles through a crowded house party as he attempts to locate his brother Duckett, who is injured. While Cole is escorting him out, Duckett stabs Cole before fatally stabbing himself.

17-year-old Mia is struggling with the second anniversary of her mother Rhea's suicide and her emotionally distant relationship with her father, Max. She finds solace in her best friend Jade's family, consisting of Jade's mother and little brother Riley. Mia, Jade, and Riley sneak out to a party hosted by Hayley and Joss. The main attraction is a mysterious severed embalmed hand, which they use to conjure spirits by lighting a candle and saying, "Talk to me," which allows them to meet the spirit. Next, they say "I let you in" for full possession; the candle is blown out after 90 seconds to "close the door"; otherwise, the spirits will stay. Mia goes first and is possessed by a spirit that threatens Riley, although the possession exceeds the time limit.

The group plays again at Jade's house the next night, where young Riley volunteers. He is possessed by Rhea's spirit, who speaks to Mia. Mia stops the group from blowing out the candle and the time limit is exceeded. Riley's body is overtaken by the spirits and he brutally smashes his face and nearly takes out his own eye. He is hospitalised while the rest of the group is traumatised. Mia, now haunted by visions of a ghostly Rhea, is turned away by Jade and her mother Sue, who blame her for Riley's injuries. Seeking comfort from Jade's boyfriend Daniel, whom she used to date and still has feelings for, Mia assaults him after she's possessed. She uses the embalmed hand to contact Rhea, who tells her that her death was accidental and Mia needs to help Riley. Riley is still possessed, attacking Jade at the hospital and violently self-harming.

The friends track down Cole, who reveals that the spirits will weaken the longer they stay in Riley’s body so they need to wait it out, though Mia fears the spirits will kill Riley before that. Mia deduces that they need to complete the ritual by blowing out the candle, which they failed to do the first time. They contact the spirit of a little girl who shows Mia a vision of Riley being tortured by the spirits. Mia's father Max reads her Rhea's suicide note that he had hidden from her, apologizing. Rhea's ghost tells Mia that Max is lying before she is attacked by an evil spirit in the form of her father. Mia inadvertently stabs her real father in the neck with scissors.

After being told by Rhea that Riley needs to die in order to be set free, Mia tricks Jade and Sue into leaving and enters Riley's hospital room, where he takes the appearance of a rotting spirit. She finds herself unable to kill him. Jade finds a bleeding Max at Mia's house and returns to the hospital just as Mia leaves with Riley in a wheelchair. The spirits attempt to convince Mia to push Riley into oncoming traffic. Mia instead throws herself in front of traffic, causing a car crash.

An injured Mia regains consciousness. Wandering the hospital, she sees a fully healed Riley with Jade and Sue. As she attempts to reach Max, who has survived his injury, she instead finds herself on the other side of another embalmed hand as partygoers play the game, realizing she has died and become a spirit herself.

That's it??? I LOVE IT!!!!

The movie was shot by Aaron McLisky, just like the last movie review, he did a very great job. I love the tilted & turning camera in these scenes, just like all A24 other horror movies & other RackaRacka videos. I just... love em' and I liked it.

The lighting effect in this movie is insane, the blur all around the main character, and all other visual effects in the entire movie. They looked beautiful, gotta love RackaRacka brothers.

the soundtrack was scored by Cornel Wilczek. Talk To Me is the next The Exorcist, with all the suspicious sounds, and some eerie music from Cornel. A lot of screams coming out from my mouth, it is a sign that this movie is now my film of the year. (Please, Oscar)

Top Cast:
Sophie Wilde - Mia
Ari McCarthy - Cole
Sarah Brokensha - Fiona
Sunny Johnson - Duckett
Marcus Johnson - Max

RackaRacka is always a legendary brother in YouTube history, now they are a filmmaker and can do anything they want. They hired SO many good actors that are probably never in any movies at all, but they are so good at acting. If you wanna watch it, go on and watch it rn.

recap time: The Plot story is good, Cinematography is amazing, the Editing is amazing too, the soundtrack sounds terrifying (which is very amazing), and the acting is amazing, I give it a

9.1/10. "Fear Comes with Perfection"

According to IMDb, they rated

7.5/10 on IMDb rating

According to Rotten Tomatoes

95% of 182 critics' review on Tomatometer
82% on Audience Score

According to CinemaScore, they gave it a

B+

Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood praised the film, writing, "Though it employs some familiar tropes... [the film] does attempt to do something new with an old idea, for one thing making the crossing of infernal thresholds seem like an awful lot of fun."

Chris Bumbray of Joblo also praised the film, writing, "The cast is terrific, with Wilde an appealing heroine. However, Joe Bird is best, with him perhaps delivering the best "possessed performance" since Linda Blair in The Exorcist," for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one.

Cassondra Feltus of Black Girl Nerds also applauded the film, writing, "The young actors give powerful performances, particularly Sophie Wilde."

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film, writing, "The movie deftly stitches its deepest fears around the idea that grief and trauma can be open invitations to predatory forces from the great beyond. It marks a welcome splash of new blood on the horror landscape." Rooney also applauded the performances, writing, "While the predominantly young cast is solid, especially Bird as Riley, talented newcomer Wilde does the heaviest dramatic lifting."

Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant praised Wilde's performance, writing, "Sophie Wilde's performance is superb, instilling Mia with a sense of fear, emotional distance, and a yearning to be close to her mother again. The circle of life and death abounds, culminating in an excellent final moment, and Wilde's ability to balance all of Mia's emotions and sympathetic actions underscore the tension and themes of the film."

Nathan Durr of CBS News praised the directors, writing, "The Philippou's [have] firmly established themselves as exciting new voices in the horror filmmaking landscape." Durr also praised the performances, writing, "This largely inexperienced cast thoroughly impressed me with their camaraderie and individual performances, particularly Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird." He further applauded Bird's performance, writing, "For as young as Joe Bird is, he's asked to take on some of the more sanguinary scenes in the film, delivering some truly horrific imagery that genuinely made me visibly concerned."

Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "The film's major achievement is how it manages to ground possession in the reality of modern teenage life...The film has a free-floating, nearly intangible sense of unease that greatly serves it."

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star also gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "The story has shaky logic but a rock-solid sense of instilling dread with a minimum of special effects and a sound design that turns the chill up to 11."

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this 4th Episode of Review Everything Season 2, sorry if this is a short review because I can't wait to post this but I decided to move the date to this day. Remember what I said that I'm gonna review another movie in October? Well, there was a FNaF Fangame that will come out this August 4th, which will come out after that day!

so, stay tuned for the 5th Episode on
Review Everything! Season 2