'Talk To Me': Danny, Michael Philippou got Sophie Wilde in a 'fractured headspace' for horror film

The premiere of the horror movie Talk To Me, by Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou (known to many as RackaRacka on YouTube), is one of the most exciting film releases of the year.

While the horror genre is incredibly popular for films, it can be tricky to get right in terms of balancing a story with shocks and scares, but these brothers absolutely blew our minds with how phenomenally they crafted their movie.

Set to be one of, if not the highest rated horror film of the year (it currently has a 96 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the filmmaking twins are still "nervous" about Friday's international, public theatrical release.

"So overwhelming and nothing feels real," Michael told Yahoo Canada in a virtual interview, while the filmmakers were in Montreal for the Fantasia International Film Festival. "We feel so honoured to be in this position and to have people even interested in talking to us, we're very excited by that."

"The slow rollout, because there's been lots of screenings and stuff, it's kind of like just getting eased into what the release is going to be," Danny added. "I'm very nervous."

What is 'Talk To Me' about?

Set in Australia, we meet Talk To Me's main character Mia (Sophie Wilde) on the anniversary of her mother's death. Her relationship with her father isn't particularly close and Mia spends most of her time with her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and her family, Jade's mom Sue (Miranda Otto) and her brother Riley (Joe Bird).

There's been a growing pattern amongst Mia and Jade's peers where the teens hold a white ceramic hand and say the words "talk to me," letting in a spirit that possess their body for a maximum of 90 seconds. Of course, all these moments have been caught on video and shared on social media.

Initially incredibly skeptical that this is even real, Mia decides to try this out for herself, which sets us off on this terrifying but incredibly alluring journey with the film's main character.

So why is Talk To Me such a fantastic horror film? It comes down to the way the movie is based on very specific, intentionally crafted Australian teens, paired with hair-raising scares that are still so incredibly intertwined in this larger, emotional narrative about the connections we make in life.

"It was important to us to make a film that worked as a horror film, but also as a drama," Danny explained. "The movies that we enjoyed watching were, say genre films, they had to have strong characters."

"We wanted the horror to really be rooted in character," Michael added. "I feel like there's more weight to those horror scenes if you have some sort of connection with the people that you're watching. We didn't want to make a splatter film, or be gratuitous for gratuitous sake."

'They were giving notes that we just weren't aligned with'

It's clear that the Philippou twins were very committed to telling this story the way they wanted to, choosing to make the film independently in Australia, retaining creative control.

"We were going to do it with a Hollywood studio, but we wouldn't have had creative control and they were giving notes that we just weren't aligned with," Danny said. "You always hear those horror stories of directors being screwed over by Hollywood or whatever, so we decided to do it independent, with a smaller budget, but retain that control."

"We care so much about filmmaking, to have someone come in and re-cut it or say 'no, you can't do that,' we wouldn't have reacted well to that."

"We were on the same page with our producer as well," Michael added. "We knew what we wanted and we were never fighting or butting heads with her. So we felt protected and safe with her."

"I don't even know how I can direct something if I'm not understanding the notes that I'm given, or if I'm catering to someone else's vision. I wouldn't know how to convey that to my actors. So I just don't think I'd be capable of doing it."

'She would come to set in like a bit of a fractured headspace'

Looking at the way the film portrays the teens in particular, it's a kind of masterclass in understanding and accurately portraying how teens interact with each other, what they do when they're just hanging out together, and how they communicate with the adults in their lives as well.

"Sometimes it's really cringy in films when they've got young people and they're portrayed in a weird way. ... There was always that sort of separation," Michael explained. "Even basing the characters on people that I know, like James in this movie, we cast James my neighbour, who the character was based on."

The twins stressed that they had the freedom to not only cast who they believed was best for each role, but they had the freedom to in fact portray very real-life teens, including not having to worry about pushback on the dialogue, particularly the amount of swearing.

"There's a lot of swearing in the movie, we didn't realize, over 100 swear words," Danny said.

"But it's just having the dialogue feel authentic. Even with the social media, having that portrayed in a real way, because it's just such a big part of today's culture."

As the Philippous revealed, they created a lot of backstory for this Talk To Me world, something they committed to with their actors as well. For example, after the casting process that lasted about two years, the filmmakers went through "every single beat" in the script with their actors to ensure that they were "comfortable" with the dialogue, taking feedback if an actor believed the teen they were portraying would say things differently.

In rehearsals, the Philippou brothers would have the actors act out scenes that weren't even in the film, but related to this rich history the twins had developed for the characters. The cast was also given their space to work through more serious and emotional moments of the film on their own, as each actor saw best.

"There were certain days where we'd asked Sophie to come to set not having slept," Danny revealed, with Michael comically cutting in to stress that it was Danny's request specifically. "She would come to set in like a bit of a fractured headspace."

"I think all of that stuff just added to the character and and the believability of it."

As you can expect, a large component of this story is watching people become possessed after holding this hand. To sort of break the ice with the cast, each actor would perform their interpretation of the possession. Going one step further, the Philippou brothers even acted out the possessions themselves.

"They also did that to help build each other's performances, so everyone could see each other's interpretations and take little elements of each possession to build their own," Danny said.

Possible 'Talk To Me' sequel? Talk To Me: Quebec?

So with all the success to date, which we're expecting to continue in the days to come, questions have already started popping up about a possible sequel. For the Philippou twins, they would absolutely be willing to continue this story. We won't spoil how the film ends but we will say that it leaves itself open to a possible continuation of this story about the ceramic hand.

"Even when I was writing the first film, I was writing scenes for a second film, and our mythology Bible for the hand and the history of the hand, and all the spirits of the kids we're connecting with, it's so deep and it's so thick," Danny said.

Spitballing ideas on the spot, the brothers already came up with a clever naming construct for a possible second film, "Talk 2 Me." Michael also came up with the idea of international directors taking on the story, with their interpretation of the hand possessions in their own country. Or maybe even a Canadian version, something like "Talk To Me: Quebec."