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Trailer Watch: Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me

The trailer for A24’s latest buzzy horror title, twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me,  has finally landed after a pretty extensive festival run. The film had a special preview screening last year at the Adelaide Film Festival in the brothers’ native Australia, followed by its world premiere at Sundance back in January. It’s since screened at SXSW and was the secret screening at the Overlook Film Festival a week and a half ago. Despite receiving raves from audiences, the first trailer for Talk To Me is keeping specific plot details under wraps.

Without spoiling too much, here’s the gist of the film as revealed by the trailer:

Feeling forlorn on the anniversary of her mother’s death, Mia (Sophie Wilde) convinces her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) to crash a party with her. This isn’t your typically teenage rager, though, as the hosts have recently acquired a freaky artifact that produces the most social media-worthy party trick: a ceramic hand that’s supposedly been cast over that of a real-life medium’s, allowing anyone who grasps it and says “talk to me” to be possessed by a random spirit. However, if you don’t break the hand’s clasp before 90 seconds have passed, “They’ll want to stay.” When Mia believes that a fellow partygoer is communicating with her own deceased mother, something goes terribly awry, threatening to give a very malicious entity control of an innocent life.

Though this is the Philippou brothers’ first feature film, they’ve cut their teeth considerably with their LA-based, horror-oriented RackaRacka YouTube channel, much like Skinamarink director Kyle Edward Ball and 17-year-old Kane Parsons, who will be adapting his YouTube video The Backrooms for A24 during the fast-approaching summer vacation.

Talk To Me will arrive in theaters on July 28, and you can catch Natalia Keogan’s capsule review out of Overlook on the site shortly. In the meantime, read the Philippou brothers’ response to our annual Sundance Question.

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