Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 24 : Talk To Me (2023)

Talk to Me has been hyped as one of the best horror movies of 2023, so I've been both excited to see it, and a little skeptical that it would live up to the hype. I'll say for the most part, it does. Not because it is excessively scary (although it definitely has moments that made me want to turn on the lights) but because along with the scares, it has an emotionally charged heart.

Mia (played by Sophia Wilde, who gives an electrifying performance) is an Australian teenager still reeling from the death of her mother two years earlier. She has a rough relationship with her father, so spends a lot of time with her best friend Jade, and Jade's younger brother Riley. This includes going to house parties where the latest fad is...communing with the dead via a mummified severed hand. Kids these days!

And they don't just "commune;" they become possessed, albeit for a very limited time. The rules of the "game" dictate that if you keep that spiritual door open for more than 90 seconds, bad things will start to happen.

Bad things start to happen.

My favorite parts of the movie are those party scenes, where this supernatural communion is treated like the ultimate high, with the teens wanting to take hit after hit from that freaky white hand, and Mia's grief plays a big part in her, essentially, getting hooked. The rest of the movie never quite reaches the level of those scenes, but it's still definitely one of the better horror flicks I've seen this year.

I watched Talk to Me via a Prime Video rental.

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