Talk to Me

Michael and Danny Philippou lay out the rules early in their debut feature: light the candle, take the hand, say talk to me, then I let you in, and someone must pull the hand away and blow the candle out inside 90 seconds. Past that, the spirit attaches to whoever holds it. Tension comes from a rule broken on purpose, not from surprise. The sittings are also shot like party footage, phones raised, laughter loud, so horror reaches these characters as entertainment before it becomes a threat. The harshest scene was cut in editing from 2 minutes 30 seconds to 15 seconds, leaving the violence brief but unsoftened. Shot in Adelaide, written by Danny Philippou with South Australian writer Bill Hinzman. Holding out for Sophie Wilde cost about a million dollars of financing because she was not a known name, so the brothers put their fees back in and a seven week schedule shrank to five. The hand was not in the first draft. It won eight AACTA awards, among them Best Film, Best Direction, Best Lead Actress for Sophie Wilde and Best Screenplay. A good fit if you want that 90 second rule tested rather than explained. Not for viewers who would rather not see self harm and suicide staged directly, with a child badly hurt as well.