Talk to Me is already on course to be one of 2023’s best horror films, if not the outright standout. Like last year’s Smile, the smaller-budget format that provided plenty of solid performances and direction saw word-of-mouth success. However, how scary is it?
Granted, you probably already knew the genre that Talk to Me operates in is horror, so there’s going to be at least some level of scariness. But there’s a difference between a horror effort like 2002’s The Ring and 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs.
The R-rated Oscar-winner Lambs is probably considered a more prestige piece of cinema, but compared to the jolting jump scares and creepy imagery of the PG-13 The Ring, I would say Samara’s haunting ghost story is probably more scary. That has everything to do with the former having more thriller elements, but you get my point. Regardless of a movie’s quality, some are just scarier than others.
With this in mind, where does Talk to Me fall on this spectrum? Moreover, how do we even measure the level of scariness? Like humor, scariness is a subjective value. But having seen Talk to Me, I believe I can provide a ballpark estimate for you. I like to use a scale of 1-5 to measure scary movies, per the below list:
- Not scary at all
- A little bit scary
- Very scary
- “I’m about to poop my pants in fright”
- “Not only do I need new trousers, I need a therapist”
Will Talk to Me haunt my dreams forever?
Talk to Me centers on a group of teenagers who use an embalmed hand to conjure spirits. It becomes something that’s popular at underground high school parties, like a drinking game. You see, there is only a finite amount of time you are supposed to conjure the spirit by way of holding on to the porcelain-looking hand before it permanently infects you so there’s a risk to it. Indeed, the film depicts the practice of the teens taking turns wrapping their fingers around the statue of an outstretched hand, only to have their bodies possessed by a spirit, as something akin to doing drugs — euphoric and addictive.
There are a high number of absolutely chilling scenes in the movie, particularly of spooky ghosts who are preserved in the graphic manner in which they died, such as a person who drowned appearing as a bloated corpse who has come to life. Plus, Sophie Wilde’s performance as the grief-stricken Mia, who spirals further down into the habit-forming nature of spirit-conjuring as the story progresses, thanks in part to a manipulative and hostile spirit pretending to be her deceased mother, is mesmerizing.
However, despite being intellectually titillating, original, well-directed, and full of fine performances, I nevertheless rate Talk to Me with a 3 – Very scary. Why is it not higher, you may ask? In my view, it’s not necessarily the goal of the movie, per se, to pack it with as many jolting scares as possible. Rather, the tone resembles that of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Hill House or even last year’s Scott Derrickson joint The Black Phone, in that it is more character-driven and atmospheric and lingers in our minds for those reasons long after watching it.
So yes, I wholeheartedly recommend Talk to Me for any horror fan. But it quite frankly is not the scariest movie I’ve seen, nor is it trying to be. With that in mind, if you’re curious to take the plunge, Talk to Me is currently available to rent or buy on digital, and will be coming to Netflix on October 27.