Film

Talk to Me

Name: Talk to Me
Genre: Horror
Released: 2023
Cast: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto

Talk to Me is a lean, brutal piece of A24 horror from Australian YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou, dressed up as a party game but really about grief nobody knows how to name. The possession sequences are horribly convincing, Sophie Wilde is superb, and the whole thing moves fast. For horror fans who like their scares physical, social and close to the bone, not lore-heavy.

TMDb rating

7.1

If you liked this

Hereditary2018

Ari Aster's family horror shares the same DNA — grief metastasizing into something literal and monstrous, with a lead performance so raw it barely feels like acting. If Talk to Me's ending wrecked you, this one goes further and doesn't apologise.

But It's slower, stranger, and considerably longer — patience is required before the horror properly detonates.

It Follows2015

A different kind of contagion — dread passed between teenagers like something you catch rather than choose. Same eerie sense that the young cast is playing with forces they can't take back, and the same refusal to explain everything.

But Its scares are slow-burn and atmospheric rather than jump-out-of-your-seat; some find it more melancholy than frightening.

The Babadook2014

Another film where grief is the actual monster, and the horror is really about what happens when you refuse to let it in. Essie Davis gives a performance as fearless as Sophie Wilde's.

But It's a domestic, claustrophobic film rather than a party-horror thrill ride — quieter and sadder than you might expect.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

We're All Going to the World's Fair2022no page yet

Both are about teenagers using a ritualised game — a hand, a screen — to summon something they don't fully understand, mistaking thrill-seeking for control until performance and possession blur together.

A quiet, unsettling indie about a lonely teenage girl playing an online horror role-play game alone in her room at night. It captures the same dissociative, addictive pull as Talk to Me but with almost none of the gore.

But Deliberately slow and ambiguous — nothing is confirmed, nothing is explained, and some will find it maddeningly opaque.

Raw2017

French body horror about a young woman discovering an appetite she can't control, with the same queasy mix of youthful bonding and escalating physical horror. Visceral in a way that lingers long after.

But Genuinely stomach-turning in places — this is not one for anyone squeamish about flesh.

Smile2022no page yet

Another modern horror built on contagion and trauma passed hand to hand, with a similarly nasty, unshakeable final stretch. Slicker and more mainstream than Talk to Me, but cut from the same cloth entirely.

But Leans harder into jump scares and a big-studio gloss some find less interesting than the ideas underneath.

Midsommar2019

Ari Aster again, this time turning grief into a ritual with rules nobody outside the group understands — sunlit instead of shadowy, but just as unbearable to watch unfold.

But It's a two-and-a-half-hour slow burn; anyone wanting quick scares will find it a real commitment.

Host2020no page yet

Made during lockdown, on Zoom, in under an hour — proof that a seance gone wrong can be terrifying with almost no budget at all. Same reckless teenage curiosity, same swift punishment.

But Its scrappy, screen-life format and short runtime mean it's more of a sharp shock than a full meal.

The Craft1996

Teenage girls discover real power and can't resist pushing it too far — the original blueprint for 'friend group dabbles in the supernatural and someone doesn't survive it unscathed.'

But Very much a product of its era — campier and more melodramatic than Talk to Me's stripped-down dread.

Kill List2011

British horror that starts as something else entirely before ritual and dread take over completely — a film that ambushes you the way Talk to Me's final act does.

But Bleak, confusing on purpose, and considerably more upsetting; not a comfortable watch by any measure.

Trainspotting1996

Swap the embalmed hand for heroin and the shape is identical: a friend group chasing a high together, competing for it, until one member's overdose forces the rest to reckon with what they've done to each other.

Danny Boyle's addiction classic is funnier, faster and more alive than its subject has any right to be, but underneath the style is the same story — a group thrill that curdles into something nobody can walk back from.

But It's a drama, not a horror film, and its energy is deliberately abrasive rather than scary.

Carnival of Souls1962

A low-budget American indie from decades before A24 existed, about a woman who drifts through a town where the living and dead blur — the same trance-like dread that defines Talk to Me's possession scenes.

Made for almost nothing, it's eerie in a way modern horror still steals from — dreamlike, silent-feeling, genuinely strange, and a crucial ancestor of the 'caught between worlds' horror mode Talk to Me trades in.

But Black-and-white, low-budget, and paced like nothing made today — patience for its style is essential.