Amidst the colossal juggernaut of Barbenheimer – the combined box office force of blockbuster films , Barbie, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, is a smaller success that is getting overlooked but should be noted – Aussie horror flick – Talk to Me.
Written and directed by the Philippou brothers – Danny and Michael Philippou, who are Youtube stars, Racka Racka – Talk to Me is an original gripping horror feature and one of the best Australian films of recent years.
It has already recouped its budget and marketing costs and is now sitting in profit.
As of writing it is currently tracking at $26M box office worldwide on a reported budget of $4.5M [not including Marketing and advertising]. Even if the budget was possibly $10M – as was rumoured — it is still in profit. Remember – the general rule – a film has to make at least double of it’s budget to break even. Talk to Me has done better than that.
Sure, it’s not the meteoric heights of Barbie and Oppenheimer, but it’s enough to launch directing careers and put shine on a producers door and funding slate.
It’s a small scale success but it should be celebrated – it occurred in a really tight competitive film market where nearly all press and attention was on the collective clout of Barbenheimer. It has far less exhibition times, but at least it is showing at most of the big cinemas and the independant ones [many Aussie flicks are lucky to get a slot in half these exhibitors release schedules]. Regardless , it has succeeded against the odds – it has no big name stars [other than a supporting role by Miranda Otto but Miranda Otto is no Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling], no established IP, or viral marketing gimmick.
It’s proof that we can get horror and speculative genre films right. So why don’t we support horror flicks and sci-fi flicks and thrillers more in this country ? We’re lucky to make one or two a year – and only a fraction of these get any traction overseas.
Frustrating though it is, it seems – We always have to wait for overseas acclaim before we recognise a good genre film here in Australia. Distributors and sales agents keep telling me there’s no market of homegrown horror amongst Aussie audiences. A conclusion that has been disproven on several occasions – i.e. Wolf Creek.
Talk to Me got picked up for distribution by A24 – a maverick success amongst distributors for their films, Midsommer, Hereditary, Everything Everywhere all at Once. The latter film walking away with all the Oscars this year. The fact that they picked Talk to Me, demonstrates it’s quality.
It has made $10M at the box office, and has already recouped it’s budget. By the end of it’s run, especially with growing word-of-mouth, it will be a success.
But if you were to judge them strictly on their Youtube output , which is mostly funny skits and silly comedy stunts, you’d never guess that something like Talk to Me would be in the Philippou brothers capability. And one shouldn’t underestimate the involvement of the producing team from Causeway Films – the producers of The Babadook , Cargo, Of an Age – a team who knows how to shape and shepherd a good horror film into the market place. An Aussie powerhouse producing team lead by Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings who know their stuff and are far more involved in the whole creative process than most industry people realise. [Good producers don’t get enough credit – but that’s a subject for another article].
Talk to Me is unusual in Aussie films as after a shocking opening, it takes a breather to develop all the characters and their relationships to each other , it takes a foot off the horror jump scare pedal to the point that you wonder 20mins in if this will be a horror film at all, and then the horror really kicks in, and the first act developing the character relationships really pays off.
It’s a different approach to horror – this one grabs you by the throat at the opening, but slows down for a gradual buildup, and then all hell goes loose when the protagonist joins the viral possession group and lets her young friend take part.
The ending is a nice circular structure that harks back to the themes and plot of the film – addiction, responsibility and the consequences of ignoring it. That you’re trapped in a prison of your own making.
While it’s light on jump scares or claustrophobic tension, there are several scenes that genuinely made me flinch and I had to cover my eyes for a part. That’s the mark of a great horror film – to do something on such a visceral level without resorting to gross out gore.
The last time I flinched like that was watching the lady in Julia Ducournau’s Titane, do something awful to herself . I rocked in my chair and squirmed. Titane won the 2021 Palme d’Or at Cannes for a reason. I loved it but it’s unafraid to shock and provoke. And some of that vibe is going on in Talk to Me.
In the 2nd to 3rd act of Talk to Me, I was almost yelling at the protagonist onscreen for the bad decisions she made, but I couldn’t hate her for them, because I knew and the audience knew what was driving her. This is where the 1st act character development and relationship exploration really supported the motivations of the 3rd act. Too many genre films have characters that act stupid for no reason – our protagonist has reasons. She’s not an unsympathetic unrelatable lead – you know what drives her.
And if there’s one lesson Aussie filmmakers should take from Talk to Me , it is to spend time nailing your characters and giving them some fleshing out that pays off later. Foreshadowing, , relatable compelling characters, character beats, script structure – get it right and you’ve got an audience.
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