Movies on Netflix come and go due to licensing deals that begin, expire or circle back around. Now, as we head toward Halloween, I suggest you watch one of the best horror movies of the 2020s before it leaves before October, which is poorly timed.
The movie is Talk to Me, the 2023 horror film from Danny and Michael Philippou, where this was their first major feature ever, a stunning achievement. The film landed a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes from 300 critics, an unusually high amount, and that made it one of the highest-scoring horror movies of that year.
What’s Talk to Me about? Here’s the synopsis:
“When a group of friends discover 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.”
“Possession as a party game” is one of those ideas that could either turn out awful or be amazing, and you can guess where things landed here. There’s one sequence in the film that’s one of my favorites in a horror film in ages, and no one needed to die. Annnd then there’s a brutal one that’s burned into my brain forever.
Talk to Me is getting a sequel (Talk 2 Me) due to both its critical success but also the fact that it made $91 million on a $4.5 million budget. The joys of horror film production. But before that the Philippous released Bring Her Back, another possession film, of sorts. It got an 89% score that time, and while it was good, I didn’t like it quite as much as Talk to Me, which is one of my favorite modern horror films.
I’m writing this a bit early, as you do have three full weeks to have time to watch Talk to Me before Halloween season kicks off in full. The movie departs Netflix on September 30, along with a long list of other movies, but this is one of the best. It will probably circle back around again, but it’s always sad when this happens (I can’t believe Netflix lost It Follows). If you like horror, I think you’ll like this very creative spin on the exorcism genre, and I’m looking forward to the sequel, as I think there’s a lot more to explore here. Not that we need to turn it into 13 Saw movies, but still.
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