Talk To Me is a new psychological/occult horror film from A24.
This was actually pretty exceptional IMO. A bit like Hereditary, but actually more believable and grounded due to feeling smaller scale and more or less fixed from one person's POV.
The setup and premise is great, and I dig that it refuses to give you nuanced background details about the curse/threat. It's just an embalmed medium's hand that this dude happens to have, and uses for party tricks. The characters never do the generic "movie people testing the rules of the curse" thing and I think the overall film is very strong for it. Everything you learn about the hand is basically conveyed through the story actions rather than some laborious explanation, and even the characters give conflicting feedback about how it really works.
The ending is a bit more ambiguous and open to interpretation than Hereditary, and actually sticks a more compelling landing if I'm being honest.
SPOILERS IN TINY TEXT!!!
I also like that only two people (as I recall) die throughout the course of the film: Duckett, the first person to get cursed, and the protagonist, the second person. A few other people get messed up pretty badly but end up fine by the end of the film. The movie plays a bit with the "mental illness or occult" dynamic but, like Hereditary, it's pretty clear by the end that the answer is "a little bit of both." The ending makes it pretty clear that the protagonist is trapped in limbo and now has become the new spirits that communicate with other partygoers messing around with the hand. But how she got there and why is open to interpretation. There's also a "demon or ghost of a family" dynamic that I felt was played a bit too heavy handed and obvious, but it was effectively played nonetheless.
I absolutely loved Hereditary. Where can I watch Talk to Me?
Quote from: Gusington on August 10, 2023, 08:22:40 AMI absolutely loved Hereditary. Where can I watch Talk to Me?
Theaters for now, presumably streaming soon. When I went, it was only me and one other person :ThumbsUp:
^My fantasy, an empty theater.