Talk to Me (Vietnamese title: Calling the devil's soul) is a 2023 psychological horror film, marking the first time that the two director brothers Danny & Michael Philippou, who are famous on YouTube with the RackaRacka channel, have taken on the role of making an impressive movie.
With a budget of only about 4.5 million USD but earning nearly 100 million USD worldwide, the film became one of the breakthrough horror blockbusters of A24. The film revolves around 17-year-old girl Mia (SophieWilde), struggling with the pain of losing her mother due to an overdose of sleeping pills. She finds a "game" at teenage parties: holding a mysterious ceramic hand in her hand, saying "Talk to me" to summon the spirit for about 90 seconds and escape before being . This game quickly became a "trend" livestreamed by a group of friends - easily reminding viewers of risky challenges on social networks. However, addicted to the excitement of this game, Mia broke the rules of time and let the spirit take over her body - which made the incident tragic. When the spirit's revenge did not stop at her, but also poured on her little friend Riley - her friend's younger brother, causing him to almost lose his life.
The scene where Riley pries her eyes open and bangs her head on the table is a creepy "twist", at the same time emphasizing the unpredictable consequences of the unintentional game. The climax of the film is when Mia, with the intention of saving Riley, is deceived by her mother's spirit, causing her to slash her father and push Riley out onto the street before throwing herself into a moving car. In the end, Mia dies and is trapped in the ceramic hand, becoming a summoned spirit in another group in a strange place, implying a never-ending chain of tragedies. The film is not only a simple horror but also a profound metaphor for pain, addiction and modern social pressure. The Pottery Hand is seen as a metaphor for stimulants – attractive but addictive and dangerous if overdosed.
In addition, the film cleverly touches on the loneliness of young people after a family incident, who are urged to join social networking trends to feel that they are not alone. In terms of technique, Talk to Me is highly appreciated for its practical effects, haunting sounds and Sophie Wilde's realistic acting – especially in the unexpectedly tense "haunted" scenes. The haunting scenes do not rely on jump-scare, but evoke deep fear from the transformation of the character and the camera angle that makes the viewer unable to look away.
In short, Talk to Me is a work that combines horror and psychological drama, deeply exploiting the broken soul of a young woman due to loss, while reflecting the state of being devoted to online trends, easily losing control of oneself. The film leaves a strong echo of the value of connecting to reality, awareness of responsibility and warning young people against seemingly harmless but actually very harmful games. This is worthy of being an "elevated horror" - a horror film with psychological depth worth watching in 2023.
