"I let you in"

This might just be the freakiest horror film of 2023. I genuinely cannot for the life of me believe that this came from two YouTubers, and those YouTubers being RackaRacka of all people, who were one of if not my favorite YouTube channel for a good few years. I absolutely adore the short films they'd make, and the acting from the Racka brothers in them were wildly entertaining and I was and still am beyond excited that they got to make a feature length horror film (and they're already working on a sequel?!). And I am very happy to say that it more than met my expectations and was an amazing hour and thirty five minutes spent.

The story itself was super intriguing and might actually be my personal favorite spin on any kind of possession in a horror film. I loved the usage of the hand, it's just innocent looking enough that it makes sense to exist irl, but also just ominous enough that looking at it gives an uneasy feeling about why it was made (which I do hope they explore that further because they give jokey explanations as to what the hand is and how/why it exists, but I am very curious on the actual reasoning behind it that they come up with). I also really like the concept of the hand being used as a parallel to drugs, and the way some of the characters are peer pressured into using it, plus the way once they use it once they can't seem to get enough of getting possessed and keep doing it over and over again.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the film is its use of social media, there is one specific scene right before the movie takes a drastic turn where one guy gets possessed and everyone is recording it and it goes over the top and they, instead of being normal people and stopping it, stand there recording it, and after he begs them to delete the videos they post them immediately. It's a very real portrayal of how people actually act during stuff like this, and even when someone irl is having a freak out after having a bad reaction, instead of helping them they'd rather stand there recording it and laughing at them. It definitely made those specific characters even more dislikable. Then they already were.

The acting in this film was top notch as well, and it's even crazier that pretty much every single person that they got to act in the movie were just local Australian actors who didn't have a ton of experience, it really added to the feeling of realism that the movie had and helped elevate its horror by having them feel like real people instead of just characters being played. Sophie Wilde was the obvious standout of the film, and she did an amazing job as Mia, the way she played the possession scenes was done really well and I have a strong feeling she'll be in a lot more horror movies than just this one. The other actor I loved in the film was Joe Bird as Riley, the scenes he had were very well acted and even though his character doesn't have that many scenes where he's front and center, the ones he did have he added a lot of depth and personality to the character that really made the events of the movie hit much harder.

Finally probably my favorite part of the whole thing was the effects they used, it wasn't very over the top gory or anything, but a lot more laid back most the time with the gore, yet when stuff like that did happen it was done insanely well. My favorite being the second ghost that Mia sees during her first time using the hand, the way she is designed is incredible and the sound design as well was amazing. Such a fresky character that we barely see, but when we do is instantly some of the most beautiful prosthetic and makeup work in any horror movie of late. Also something pretty minor but that stood out a lot to me that I thought was done really well, was the very last scene with Mia where her hand is all messed up, I hate the look of broken bones and it looked way too good that it freaked me out. (Also the way the people look when they're possessed is done pretty well and looks cool).

Overall one of, if not the best horror movie of the decade (so far), and more than worth a viewing. I can see how it couldn't be for some people and how it could be a little too much for others, but in my opinion this is tied with Hellhouse LLC Origins as my favorite horror movie of 2023, and the 2020s as a whole. There's so much to live here and I genuinely cannot wait until we get the trailer for Talk 2 Me, and of course I'll probably be there day one in the theaters when it finally releases.