Mia is trying to cope with her mother’s apparent suicide and is not doing a terrible good job of it. She does have support through her best friend Jade, and Jade’s younger brother Riley. While at a party the team discover a new game is in town, it involves an apparent ceramic hand and the hand putting the player in touch with the dead and ultimately allowing the dead to possession them. Crazy kids right, but there are rules, you can’t hold the disembodied hand for more than 90 seconds and you have to blow out a candle lit just before the hand grasping goes down. What could possible go wrong? Naturally Riley wants a go at a private game, naturally he exceeds the 90 second mark, he gets badly injured and there’s at least one spirit on the loose due to rules not being followed. Hold onto you bum, Mia needs to save Riley’s soul and stop the paranormal activity going down, unfortunately she doesn’t know what she is doing, she ain’t no girl boss thank god.

Directors Danny and Michaelo Philippou get their movie out of the gates in excellent fashion, and definitely point out to the teen audience that they are going to be playing for keeps, if only a tourist in the horror wilderness then frack right off you are going to be crying for your mother by the time the end credits roll in this one. Cole is searching for his brother Duckett at a well-attended teen party in the suburbs. Unfortunately, Cole finds his brother who proceeds to stab him before committing a pretty gruesome knife to the face apparent suicide. Hey not bad and we are just getting stated here.

We then get to meet the three leads that the plot is going to focus on, and the Directors once again show they understand how horror works, it’s all about sympathy and having someone to root for. Mia is having problems getting over her mother’s death, from an apparent suicide, and this will inform her actions throughout the movie. Jade, did I mention all our leads are twenty somethings playing teens, is sort of your everyman character, and her boyfriend isn’t exactly putting out, Mom is something of an overbearing bitch, and she is protective of her younger brother. Speaking of whom, Riley is the younger brother who has a closer relationship to Mia than apparently his own family, and is sort of that irritating younger sibling that wants to be included constantly.

We next get introduced to the mechanics of the hand of doom. To be honest this was the only really badly handled part of the movie. So you have to hold the ceramic hand, which apparently has the hand of either a psychic or Satanist enclosed below its glossy surface, and say “talk to me”, wonder if that’s where they got the movie title from. Anyways this has a ghost appearing to the ceramic hand holder, and by god those are juicy spectres. But hold onto your knickers it gets even more intense from there. The hand holder, really need to think of a better term, can say “I let you in”, and hey possession by the dead Bro. Now I’m already thinking this is a pretty gnarly idea and can see how this can go wrong. Anyone the, uhmm victim, has 90 seconds before being disentangled from the hand, and a lighted candle needs to be blown out. Actually thinking about this aspect, it was handled - no pun intended okay as we know the rules and you need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed to see how they are broken. All about the candle folks. 

Naturally things really go wrong, and the horror tactics descend like the hammer of the Gods. Might have got carried away there. For those wondering Riley has a bad possession which puts him in the hospital with some seriously bad facial injuries. Mia makes the mistake of thinking the ghost she constantly see’s is her mother, and mom has her best interests in mind. To cut it down, Mia is having a breakdown and ghostly happenings are not helping with her state of mind. Up to you whether Mia’s actions in the final act ring true or not, I was giving developments pass marks because hey teen orientated horror here.

One of the real strengths of the movie was the acting, the entire cast is developing here as the Directors get the best out of their actors. Sophie Wilde (Mia) nails it to the barn door with an emotive performance that should have punters jotting down her name for future reference. Equally Alexandra Jensen (Jade) drops a solid acting outing that should see future roles heading her way. Maybe Jensen was slightly old for her role, but this could be due to her looks and persona rather than her age, check out the movie to make a decision on that. And finally Joe Bird (Riley) was right across the requirements, was truly impressed with his performance. The rest of the cast is backing up the leads, seriously if you have a problem with the acting on display here you should stop watching movies as they are only going to add to your health risks.

So how do I know that Mia might be under paranormal delusions, glad you ask and should have explained earlier. One of the support characters explains that even with someone possessed by a spirit the effects of the possession will gradually dissipate over time, and we do see this happening with Riley. Naturally Mia is convinced that she must take action, those pesky spirits and their mistruths. I was quite surprised by the depth of plot being used here, and yes you need to listen to the dialogue.

Running out of room here, the upshot of Talk to Me was a decent portrayal of Australian youth; shock horror, they drink and just want to have fun. It was a breath of fresh air to see a decent representation of youth shenanigans rather than Hollywood’s enclosed workshop view of what young people get up to when left to their own devices. And let’s be honest here, young people don’t have a mute switch, if it seems like fun they are all in, regardless of potential danger. 

I was surprised I hadn’t already reviewed Talk to Me, seriously good movie that has been sitting on my review shelve since dinosaurs walked the earth. I had previously watched the movie but just didn’t get round to jotting down my thoughts, which are excellent and must watch. Yes, kids full recommendation, Australian horror on a roll and this movie sure is helping out with that. The movie is solidly aimed at the teen demographics, but isn’t making all the mistakes similar movies have made in the past, and let’s be honest no doubt in the future. This movie is solid in all aspects and is going to be a classic of Australian horror cinema. If you don’t like this flick then you need to talk to me, you are clearly making some very poor life choices.