Talk to Me: new A24 horror is like ‘a big, personal, therapeutic poo’

I didn’t watch all of Talk to Me. Or, rather, I couldn’t. There are 30 seconds in the mischievous, macabre debut feature by Danny and Michael Philippou where I simply had to cover my eyes, instead leaving my brain to decipher the action via the sound of crunching bones and agonising yelps – some from fictional characters, others from fellow cinemagoers reacting with revulsion to the skull-bashing onscreen.

The most acclaimed horror of the year so far, Talk to Me certainly goes out on a limb. A cursed, disembodied hand is uncovered by teenagers in Adelaide and a viral craze is born. Hold the hand and whisper “talk to me” to witness a demon only you can see, then utter the words “I let you in” to be possessed by the spirit in front of your amused friends. As a rule, a maximum of 90 seconds can be spent under its spell until the spirits gain too much control. Meanwhile, fellow partygoers upload the embarrassing, eye-opening footage to Snapchat.

“The film was expressing all the things I couldn’t express on YouTube,” says Danny Philippou, who co-wrote the script with Bill Hinzman. “On YouTube, it’s specific content for a specific audience, and it couldn’t be personal. So the whole film is a big, personal, therapeutic poo of a film.”

It’s at Sundance London that the two directors of Talk to Me talk to me for the horror that everyone wants to talk to me about, which has been picked up by A24 in the US and Altitude in the UK. Already online celebrities for their RackaRacka YouTube channel, the Australian twins, both 30, are chatty and comfortable, Danny casually sat with shoes on his seat, Michael stretching in a purple hoodie. The interview is videoed as the publicist correctly predicts I won’t be able to tell their voices apart during the transcription.

“If someone says something smart, it’s me,” says Michael.

“And anything dumb, it’s Michael,” says Danny.

A key gag in Talk to Me is that demonic possession via the embalmed hand is a welcome distraction from the realities of being a young person in the modern world. However, to the siblings, it isn’t a joke, just a prediction that Gen Z would respond to a gateway to the underworld with glee and switch on their phone camera.

“It’s a spin on how an old, ancient, haunted object would be used these days,” says Michael. “It was: ‘Don’t walk into the woods.’ And now it’s: ‘Do it and film it.’”

“Today’s generation is sadder, and social media plays a part in young people’s sadness,” says Danny. “Depression rates are up. I wanted to make a film that felt like it captured today’s youth.”

“Severe depression runs in our family,” says Michael. “Our grandmother took her own life, and our mum struggles with it. There’s that idea of inheriting it. Are we going to be depressed in that way as well?”

“I was tapping into things that scared me personally,” says Danny. “I can’t really pinpoint what the film is about, because it’s expressing so many different things.”

Consciously or subconsciously, the Philippous’ emotions spill onto the screen when its protagonists face their demons. Two years after her mother’s suicide, schoolgirl Mia (Sophie Wilde) investigates the hand with her best bud, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird); however, when Riley is possessed, he delivers words by Mia’s mother from beyond the grave. With Mia insisting that Riley clings onto the hand past the recommended allowance, the boy is overtaken by its evil powers – or whatever the hand is a metaphor for.

Could the hand’s addictive, social high be a metaphor for drugs, alcohol, or smartphones? Or does it represent something that’s rewarding but potentially frightening to young people, like love, sex, or simply opening up? Like It Follows, the hand benefits from its lack of explanation, and, as it turns out, all three of us have different theories of what It Follows is about anyway.

“Today’s generation is sadder, and social media plays a part in young people’s sadness. Depression rates are up. I wanted to make a film that felt like it captured today’s youth” – Danny Philippou

“I know what the hand means to me, personally,” says Danny. “But I like that people are able to interpret it however they want.”

“There’s a bunch in there,” says Michael. “Connection is one. Real connections and forced connections.”

“I say subtextually what it’s about,” Danny says, with a sigh. “But Michael says that it in every interview now. It was meant to be a secret!”

“Sorry,” says Michael, laughing and turning away.

“And he says it so dumbly as well,” says Danny. “‘It’s about connections.’ Shame on you!”

Through RakaRaka, the Philippou brothers have amassed viral success for the likes of “Ronald McDonald Tastes Burger King” (86 million views), “Star Wars in Public” (41 million views), and “Ronald McDonald Chicken Store Massacre” (65 million views). The videos, while effective, don’t exactly overlap with the nuances of Talk to Me’s depiction of subliminal fears invading one’s everyday existence.

“I was honoured that A24 [in the US] wanted to pick it up,” says Danny. “I was also very intimidated. Their films, their audience, it’s such a sophisticated cinema-going thing. I feel pretty dumb and inferior to a lot of things. I’m scared of that audience being like, ‘What is this shit?’”

Talk to Me, though, is very much a film made for the big screen, its set pieces incorporating sustained dread, emotional character beats, and a booming soundscape that would sound distorted on laptop speakers. In short, it’s the opposite of the RakaRaka videos that allowed the Philippou twins to make Talk to Me in the first place. Could they be injecting their YouTube energy into the indie film space?

“Talk to Me was originally going to be with a studio, guaranteed theatrical,” says Danny. “But we didn’t agree with their creative notes.” The unnamed studio was against casting Australian actors with Australian accents. They also suggested reworking the second half of the film to involve the hand’s backstory. “I was like: it’s so boring to be watching them research the thing, learning how to beat it, and then some priest comes in. We touch on it a little bit, but I like the kids being in over their heads.”

The twins’ next film is likely to be another original horror titled Bring Her Back, or a big-budget adaptation of the videogame Street Fighter. Whatever it is, the brothers speak of wanting to tap into their inner darkness.

“I was really down when writing Talk to Me,” explains Danny. “When your heart bleeds, you write with blood on the page.” It was like that during filming? “No, on set it’s all heaven. Writing is really lonely. You’re in your own thoughts and feelings.”

“It’s therapy for Danny,” says Michael. “You’ve seen the movie! I think he was one or two bad turns away from being a serial killer.”

“If I was a killer, he’d be my victim,” says Danny, pointing to his brother. “It’d be graphic and violent.”

Would they YouTube it?

“I’d livestream it for a couple of clicks,” says Danny. “That would go viral, wouldn’t it? Raka kills Raka?”

“Probably not,” says Michael.

“I’d really kill you,” says Danny with a grin.

“OK,” says Michael.

Talk to Me will be released in UK, US and Irish cinemas on 28 July

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