 Kids are always looking for that next big high, aren't they? Whether it's ecstasy, edging, or the Tide Pod Challenge. And now, 824 and a couple dudes on YouTube have crafted a brand new way for teens to trip balls. And that way is, communication with the dead, they grab a hand and they say, talk to me. And so let's talk about the film. Talk to me, tell me your name. Sophia Wilde plays Maya, or Mia. I already forgot how to pronounce the name. It doesn't matter. The takeaway is she's a troubled teen who lost her mom two years back and now she's looking for a way to escape her pathetic, miserable existence. She's got a dad who's incommunicado, constantly skulking around in the dark of their big house. Seriously, this guy doesn't know how to turn on a light. And really, she has a different family to hang out with, with her best friend Jade and younger brother. The plot of this is incredibly simple. There's parties, there's an embalmed hand, there's some ritual involved, and next thing you know, you're communicating with the dead for about 90 seconds. Any longer, and that dead can kind of take over your body and you cease to become yourself, but really just a vessel, a vegetable of sorts. But I guess the pro of this experience far outweighs the cons, at least at first. This is gonna be spoiler-free. That's really all I'm gonna say about the plot. And at this point, I would like to encourage you to take your own hand and pop that subscribe button with it or wherever it's at on the screen. I'm sure I don't know. I would appreciate it. I post tons of movie content each and every week. Would love to have you hang around. Let's get down to brass tacks. The film is an hour and a half long, which is just, it's just perfect. It's music to my ears. So many movies these days, I complain about often, overstay their welcome. So I like when a movie comes along, it knows exactly what it is, it knows how it's gonna present itself visually, how it's gonna present itself through sound, which is obnoxiously loud, by the way. One of the negatives I have about this movie is the sound design and implementation is about 10 times louder than it should be. A couple of examples come to mind. A door stall shutting. A pillow fight with friends that apparently contain bricks inside of each one of these sheets because every time they hit the poor girl with one, it's whoosh, whoosh. Like Rocky Balboa's punch in a raw piece of meat. At one point, the girl gets in a slapping fit with herself, trying to come back to. And each one of these things sounds like one of those YouTube videos where you see the people doing these slapping contests. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. I was half expecting her to break her own jaw. Audio grapes aside, this has a great look to it. I love the visuals, love the color grading. Done mostly at night, but it doesn't have any artifacting or ugly pixelation going on. Just very competently shot. We're going to this type of movie for the scares, right? It is rated R. There are plenty of bone chilling moments. I was actually pretty tensed up during a lot of this film. And what really sells it are the performances by these characters, especially the lead, Sophie Wilde. The way her eyes get extra large and dilated, it's creepy. It makes you feel uncomfortable. The camera's moving all over the place while they're having their little freak out attack. And what I really love about this 2023 movie are the practical effects. I didn't notice really any CG. And if it is there, they're doing a good job masking it. So often we see newer horror films relying using the crutch of computer-generated imagery and it takes you out of the film. It's kind of like in those dumb Now You See Me movies where they're doing the card trick and flipping it around the back and stuff, but you can tell the card was animated in after the fact. Not that impressive, when you know it's just an actor pretending they're throwing a card around. What a random reference. Anyway, I liked this movie. I didn't love it. And that's mainly because I found most of the characters unlikable. Even the lead was a little unbearable at times because of her frustrating choices, the way she's kind of a bad friend and a worse daughter. They go into the psyche behind it a little bit, but not quite enough for me to be on board with this character. And that is another common trope I've been noticing with modern movies. The people in them are often dog shit to each other. I missed the older 80s and 90s horror flicks where the kids were at least likable and seemed to be friends. They didn't just hang out with each other to be trash. As far as the gore and the violence is concerned, there's a decent amount of it. It's pretty intense. It's pretty realistic. I tread very lightly if you're thinking about taking the kids to this one. Not a family film. I would say 14, 15, 16 plus depending on their maturity and what they can handle. Talk To Me has way more pros than cons though. It's an easy rewatch because it is only an hour and a half. And it is worth rewatching, I think. I could easily put it on again, fire it up and notice little things I missed the first time because there's some fun Easter eggs for sure. There's some fun little tips of the hat and nods and references to things that you will see later. They call that foreshadowing, I suppose. That's really the word I'm looking for. And you know what else I'm looking for? Your comments below. I gave you my thoughts on Talk To Me. And for some reason, every time I'm about to say the title, I think it's Let Me In, which is a different horror film, also really good. The title of this isn't great for me. You know, it's about a severed hand that you can communicate to the other side with. I feel like there should be something hand related to the title, but moving past that. Let me know in the comments if you saw this movie or if you're excited for it. Please like the video if you had a good time. Subscribe again, I implore you. Take the hand, rip it off, tap the subscribe button and maybe try to reattach it. It's probably not possible at this point. You've already done too much damage, but you did the right thing by subscribing and I appreciate it. All right, see you next time.