You think the kids would know better by now: never converse with a disembodied hand covered in demonic-looking markings, no matter how much peer pressure you receive. The characters in Talk To Me—an Australian indie movie that A24 picked up after it got a ton of positive reviews following its premiere at Sundance this year—don’t follow that sage advice and, in the movie’s first trailer, find themselves a handshake away from hell.
The movie, which is directed by relative newcomers Danny and Michael Philippou (they worked as an electrician and production runner respectively in 2014’s The Babadook and to date are probably best known for their YouTube channel, RackaRacka) centers on a group of teenagers who (inspired by social media, of course) use the demonic hand as a party game, with horrifying results.
Here’s the movie’s short-but-terrifying synopsis:
When a group of friends discovers 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.
If the trailer is any indication, one teen in particular, played by Sophie Wilde, realizes that the door to the dead was left open and she and her friends are going to suffer for it. The movie’s script comes from Danny Philippou & Bill Hinzman and in addition to Wilde, stars Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Zoe Terakes, and Chris Alosi.
Talk To Me premieres in theaters on July 28, 2023. If you want another glimpse of the demonic hand in question, check out the poster below:
