Review of TALK TO ME: Handshake of Horror

July 31. 2023

It has been two years but Mia (Sophie Wilde) but she still had not moved on from the tragedy of the suicide of her mother Rhea (Alexandria Steffensen). Her relation with her father Max (Marcus Johnson) was strained since then, but MIa was very close with the family of her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), which included her younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) and her mother Sue (Miranda Otto).

One night, Mia, Jade and Riley went to attend a party held by their friends Hayley (Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio). The main activity that night was to try out a curious artifact of a hand severed from the wrist, preserved in a handshake position. If someone says "Talk to me" when they hold the hand, a spirit will make itself felt. Once granted permission to enter, the spirit possessed him.

Australian film "Talk to Me" made its worldwide premier at the Sundance Film Festival at its Midnight section. It followed the footsteps of other notable horror films which debuted there like: "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), "Saw" (2004), "It Follows" (2015), "Hereditary" (2018) and "Relic" (2020).  A previous Australian horror film which debuted in Sundance Midnight was "The Babadook" (2014), which was also showered with good reviews. 

"Talk to Me" is a solid directorial debut effort by Australian YouTuber twins Danny and Michael Philippou. It had the A24 pedigree of arthouse horror, like "Midsommar" (2019), "The Witch" (2015) and "Under the Skin" (2013). For those only familiar with Hollywood style horror, it would be prudent to temper one's expectations. Like "The Babadook" before, the pacing of Australian horror film is more languid, and there was a lot of more talking than action. 

The main highlights of this film were of still the intense possession scenes. Unlike typical seance scenes, these handshake scenes occur in ordinary living rooms, with the participants all laughing and having fun. Most disturbing was how these young people cheered the ghost on while it was having its way inside their friend, posting videos on social media. The violent, painfully brutal possession of Riley was far and away the most shocking moment. 6/10.