After a grand showing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the surging A24 picked up Talk to Me and will almost certainly add it to their collection of greatest hits after its July 28 release. The Aussie indie sees a group of people looking for viral social media videos to unleash evil, and while that can feel like a dull premise, it’s incredibly well-made and puts a distinct spin on the sub-genre.
Talk to Me is a true chiller that’s bound to join the likes of Hereditary as a modern horror classic. Part of its appeal is, in a way, its simplicity, coupled with how it fully delivers on what it sets up. Core to this simplicity is the centerpiece of it all: a ceramic-encased embalmed hand belonging to a medium. The aesthetic of this ready-to-shake hand and everything that we draw from it perfectly sets the creepy tone for what’s to come.
Something creepy about that hand
Trailer tomorrow 🤚 #TalkToMe pic.twitter.com/JP3XzJZvtY
— Talk To Me (@talktomemovie) April 10, 2023
In the new trailer released by A24 for its upcoming horror flick, once again, the hand is such a core feature. Cut off a bit below the wrist, it contorts throughout the trailer, and yet, in the set-up for what’s to come, it’s so opening and inviting in its gesture. The promo posters for Talk to Me show it reaching out, much like the demonic entities do once the séance has been completed. It’s simple, very clear, and the fact that it’s embalmed just hits home very effectively.
Embalming is the process of preserving human remains and has famously been enacted by many civilizations, leading to some grand historical discoveries. Xin Zhui of the Han Dynasty, for example, was incredibly well preserved, but of course, the most famous examples span from ancient Egypt. They were the most dedicated to the embalming process, and finding what’s been preserved has inspired so many great turns in entertainment and horror.
The detached and decayed body parts are what stick with us from the depictions of ancient Egypt, even to the extent we imagine their tombs as being cursed and, therefore, exciting. Entertainment products, from movies to online slots, lean into this well-known line of thought.
Mask of Amun, Book of Fate, and Lara Croft: Temples and Tombs are all based around delving into the ancient tombs to find treasure. The Lara Croft game even features Anubis, the deity who oversaw funerary rites.
All of them play on the inherent creepiness of entering these burial sites to dig around for jackpots because, as we know, embalmed people remain. It’s because of this that The Mummy – the 1999 flick with Brendan Fraser, not that thing from 2017 – can be seen as a part-horror. The mass mummification scenes, pre-death embalming, and the reanimation of Imhotep all play heavily into the creepiness of the rituals and results. Embalmed people are creepy as, from what entertainment shows us, the spirits behind the parts persevere.
Get to the cinema this July
Talk to Me could be the surprise horror hit of the year. Powered by Australian talent like up-and-comer Sophie Wilde in the lead and featuring The Lord of the Rings legend Miranda Otto, our Sundance film review labels it as “one of the finest fright-fare features in recent memory”. There is something to be said about the played-out modern tech supernatural movies, which center on people generally being dumb to get a win online. Here, this is merely the start and doesn’t underpin the true plot and story of Talk to Me.
It’s not just Horror Fuel that sees it as a rousing success. The 62 critic scores that have come in hit 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. On the “Top Critics” list, nine of the 11 certify it as fresh. If you’d like a small idea of what’s to come, the filmmakers (Danny and Michael Philippou) have their own YouTube channel. On @RackaRacka, they create a bunch of live-action short films that are predominantly of the horror persuasion. Talk to Me will be their feature debut and almost certainly the launch pad for several more supernatural horrors.
With the creepiness that comes with an embalmed hand, Talk to Me somehow makes it even more menacing. Yet, there’s much more going on than simply opening the door to the dead here. Out on July 28, it looks to be a must-watch for those who enjoy a toe-curlingly sinister atmosphere and a good fright.
