This Australian horror is the debut feature for directors Danny and Michael Philippou. It has a well-worn premise – a group of young friends play a party game and find that they can summon spirits. In this instance, they have acquired a hand that has been mummified. If someone grips it and utters the phrase “Talk To Me”, the spirits manifest themselves to that person only.
To start with, I thought I would find this a little bit tiresome. In typical fashion, the youngsters were both unlikeable and making terrible decisions, putting themselves at risk for no good reason. However, eventually the film started to grip me more. There were some genuinely scary moments during the scenes where the spirits appear and as the story develops, the focus was as much on how to cope with grief, as it was with making you squirm in your seat.
The performances were all fine without being eye catching but it is the Philippou brothers who emerge from Talk to Me with the prospect of an interesting career.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10