Grief is too often seen as a linear journey: it may start off pretty bad, but it lessens with time, until we find we’re ready to move on. As anyone who’s lost someone can tell you, though, grief can be a thorny path that doesn’t get easier.
Talk to Me, the new A24 horror film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, digs deep into one teen girl’s grief, exploring the ways that the veneer of healing can crumble. On the anniversary of her mother’s untimely death, Mia (Sophie Wilde) is desperate to get out of her own head. Hanging out with her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), Mia becomes intrigued by viral videos of her classmates performing what looks like spirit possessions. Mia drags Jade and Jade’s little brother Riley (Joe Bird) to a possession party, where she learns that what she’s been seeing online is no hoax: the local teens are using the embalmed hand of a dead psychic to let the souls of dead people inhabit their bodies. Apparently, it’s quite a rush.
Like It Follows, Talk to Me uses a common form of teen transgression—in this case, getting high—and dissects it through the lens of horror. What if being possessed by a ghost felt really, really good? What if it was also really, really dangerous, with each possession carrying the risk that a spirit could set up shop in your body permanently? It’s a simple premise, and it works. The teens’ adventures in mediumship feel chillingly authentic, from their jittery excitement at having a go to their obsession with filming everyone who goes under. When things inevitably go wrong and the spirits get loose, you can see the clear trail of bad adolescent decision-making that got them there.
Sophie Wilde’s performance is the beating heart of the film. Although Talk to Me struggles to find its footing at the beginning, drifting through teen concerns like who’s dating whom and how many cigarettes you can smoke without getting cancer, the story gets good when it zeroes in on Mia. Wilde expertly conveys Mia’s confusion and paranoia as she gradually becomes more and more embroiled in the spirit world, losing track of what’s real and what’s supernatural, whom she can trust and who’s trying to trick her. At the core of Mia’s troubles is the fact that she just wants her mom back, and what spirals out of that desire is both scary and deeply relatable.
The horror elements of the film, which rely on creative camera work and practical effects, are fantastic. The Philippous know exactly when to confront you with a ghost, and when to keep its presence implied. The point of view throughout the movie is tight, our glimpses of the most terrifying spirits are brief but explosive, and the overall result is a taut supernatural thriller. Some scenes get a little hard to watch, especially where poor Riley is involved, but stick with it. The end is shocking, but it ties everything up beautifully.
How do we relate to the dead? The teens in Talk to Me see ghosts as playthings, a way to get high and chase clout. To Mia, though, the world of the dead is all too close. For her, reaching out to the spirits is a sort of wish fulfillment, but it’s never going to bring her the closure she needs. Echoing the often tortuous path of grief itself, Mia can dip into the spirit world again and again, and come out no closer to the other side of her pain.
Talk to Me premieres in theaters on July 28.
(featured image: A24)
