I appreciated Talk to Me, thankfully, since I actually paid for it in the theater. I was curious about the high ratings and simply hadn't seen a horror film on the big screen in a few months. I was not disappointed, though I also was not wowed or blown away. I don't consider Talk to Me a ten, because you do have to plod through a good 15-20 minutes of Gen Z college kid stuff to get to the good parts. As a Millennial, I look on such films with trepidation, expecting them to be kiddie high school horror. However, Talk to Me has the subtlety of 1970s supernatural horror flick with its ordinary awkward, suffering people who are neither exceptionally beautiful nor wealthy nor popular, but overall just average and sort of likable.

Yet there are 90s vibes, younger Gen Z and older Millennials as well as younger Gen X may feel right at home with the way the main characters dress and behave though they have smart phones.

None of these homages to the 1970s or 1990s are overt, everything about this film is subtle, in fact so subtle a certain segment of the viewing audience might find it boring or nothing special.

However it is this average-ness, this subtlety, that makes Talk to Me genuinely scary. You're there for every moment of chipping Mia's nail polish or agonizing in the hospital over Riley. You start to wonder if people self-destruct due to malignant spirits instead of due to mental illness, a very old theme presented in a refreshingly relatable way.

I did not expect the end at all.