Some teens need a better hobby. Especially if their go to activity is messing with the dead. TALK TO ME is a great display of teenage recklessness and the perfect lesson of “fuck around and find out.” Directed by twin brothers Danny Michael Philippou who are better known as YouTube sensation RackaRacka. But if you’re familiar with their wild antics and expect something similar you’d be both incredibly right and oh so wrong. Mia (Sophie Wilde) is still processing the death of her mother which she believes was suicide. Her friends are compassionate but keep themselves distant, they are teenagers after all who barely have begun to process their own feelings about major life events. Instead of talking they instead attend parties that involve conjuring up the dead. You see one of Mia’s classmates has come into possession of a relic that allows you to not just contact the dead but also allow it to enter your body and take over. Anyone with half a brain would easily claim “no thanks” but the Philippou brothers know that teenagers crave connection. Here is a group of kids that are lost even if they don’t know it yet.

Well you don’t have to be a spiritual genius to know that none of this will go well. But before all hell breaks loose the directors know to have a bit of wild fun. TALK TO ME is a party movie straight out of your worst nightmares but it so brilliantly features some of the most exciting moments you’ll see in a horror film in recent memory. Quick pan editing and non stop aggressive camera work allows you to feel both enthralled and horrified. Here is a film that never wants to go for cheap moments of short scares but rather hold onto you, get under your skin and never let up. But for all it’s aggression the movie is incredibly compassionate. It knows it’s behavior has consequences and while never sets out to point fingers it wants you to be concerned. The film doesn’t shy away from the what happens when bullying and social media are combined but finds a way to horrify you without even coming close to preaching. Instead it allows you to come to your own emotions of larger situations. Very few horror films today leave you feeling unnerved but TALK TO ME will have you tensed up long after its final frame. While we like to claim every upcoming director is the new voice of horror TALK TO ME actually does the work. It is a clear indication that Danny and Michael Philippou have already grabbed the genre but its throat and are ready for a deadly good time.

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TALK TO ME SCREENED AT THE SXSW MIDNIGHT SECTION AND WILL BE RELEASED IN THEATERS JULY 28