The leading indie horror entertainment company A24 — that brought us blockbuster hits like Midsommar, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Hereditary — just dropped the latest trailer for its upcoming supernatural horror Talk To Me and thought we wouldn’t notice. Our first look at A24’s latest (no doubt) masterpiece appeared in the second week of April, but as we close in on the July release date, A24 is pulling out all the stops to promote what promises to be a wild ride for horror lovers.
Twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou will be sharing directorial duties, while Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji, and Miranda Otto star in the lead roles. According to A24’s website, the official synopsis reads as follows:
“When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.”
From what we can see in the trailer, the story follows a handful of teenagers who decide to use the embalmed hand of a deceased medium to contact the dead. We hear some dialogue exchanges as the characters spin stories of where the hand came from, assuming it to be that of a Satanist. In order to converse with the dead, one must hold the hand in a handshake gesture and speak the phrase “talk to me” aloud. We’ll take a guess that whatever evil spirit haunts the hand will possess whoever touches it, so that spells bad news for the youngsters foolish enough to try it.
It has all the key ingredients that make an A24 project successful, and the trailer is delightfully engaging. Although the concept has been done before, the idea feels refreshingly new and creative, as is the kind of groundbreaking horror that A24 has become known for in the last decade. Sophie Wilde, in particular, is an absolute stand-out, and if the movie is even half as good as the trailer suggests, we’re in for a real treat.
Talk To Me possesses theaters worldwide on July 28, 2023.