Forget shaking hands with the devil; "Talk to Me" is all about shaking hands with an embalmed hand of obscure origin, thus summoning and ultimately unleashing supernatural forces that wreck friendships and lives. Oh, and they bring the gore too! When Mia (Sophie Wilde) and her friends make a party game of this ritual, what starts out as admittedly freaky fun eventually takes a turn for the catastrophic, resulting in some of the more effective scenes of horror and suspense in recent memory. That co-directors Michael and Danny Philippou don't simply allow the teens to be experiencers of horror but -- whether they like it or not -- participants in it, too, lends the film a sense of urgency and genuine dread that's typically absent from the frequently interchangeable supernatural horrors that have cropped up in the two decades since "The Ring" really kickstarted the genre. Not just trying to survive but facing legitimate moral dilemmas as well as her own past trauma, Mia is forced to make desperate choices in a bid to save herself and her friends, while we're forced to squirm just a little bit more than we probably expected as the ante ratchets up. Sophie Wilde is stunning in the lead role, working with tough material and delivering a brilliant performance. The rest of the cast are similarly great. As for the movie itself: it's not perfect but it is excellent and darkly refreshing. It's kind of reminiscent of "Hereditary" with the effect it has on you. Highly recommended.
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