Can genre films not just be genre films anymore? When I see a horror film, I don’t go for character, theme, or plot. I can get that in other types of films built around those aspects that can execute them better. I want to see something shocking, something that unsettles me. And yet several of the most well-received horror features of the last few years spend ample time building out motivations, backstory, and an emotional core that bogs down whatever fun bits the movie has.
The freedom that can come with throwing all that out the window can lead to innovative, or at the very least unique, aesthetics because the style isn’t a distraction, it is the content. The insistence upon following conventional narrative structure and dramatic elements puts horror films in a box. It’s a regressive filmmaking tactic that favors commerciality over creativity. It also means extra attention on storytelling to give it purpose, but that only places more focus on the film’s dullest aspects and takes away from the thrilling, unsettling horror moments that you come to the movie for. If the drama were more complex or more engaging, the balance could work, but the conflicts and dynamics are ones we’ve seen thousands of times before. These filmmakers are working in genre films for a reason, they need to use that framework to their advantage instead of trying to make a horror film something it never will be.
“Talk to Me” is the latest in a seemingly neverending conveyor belt of horror films that deal with trauma and grief, but only in the most surface-level way. It’s an explicit part of the text so crucial plot points can hinge on it, but the film doesn’t seem to want to say anything about trauma and grief. If anything, those themes are used as an emotional crutch — an extra incentive for the viewer to care about the characters even though the stellar performances do the legwork just fine. The film doesn’t need Mia to have a traumatic backstory about the death of her mother to make us care, Sophie Wilde’s endearing awkward energy and her chemistry with Jade (Alexandra Jensen) is more than enough.
There are a couple of genuinely horrifying moments in the film. The centerpiece sequence, in which the teenagers take turns using a possessed hand to talk to the dead and Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) smashes his face as his body is taken over by a demon, is one of the more viscerally disturbing of the year so far. The image of Riley gouging his eye out is the kind of shocking effect the best horror films thrive on.
But these moments are scattered throughout mostly uninspired dreck. Without any ideas to explore, you mostly find yourself waiting for the next horror set piece — one that always comes later than it should. Danny and Michael Phillippou have honed their craft on short films, and one wonders if their first feature wouldn’t have made three or four better separate shorts rather than stringing them together with the most basic, boring narrative. “Talk to Me” may just be a victim of its hype, a movie I heard was special and different from what has been coming out of the genre of late. If this is what horror fans think is special, they need to raise their standards.
