How supernatural hauntings and the horror genre overall is handled in film has lately come across like it's all kind of the same to me. A gem like Talk to Me however can spark my imagination again by being effective, unique, and memorable. There's a great balance of maintaining a pretty straightforward plot involving demon possession and characters trying to escape malevolent spirits, but features some gnarly and genuinely creepy developments and imagery that hasn't been done before, some of which could be open to interpretation. To no surprise since it's from A24, Talk to Me stands out from the typical Hollywood fare of exorcism movies and the generic family-in-haunted-house movies, most of them essentially ripping off The Exorcist. Talk to Me closes with an especially haunting ending that will stick with you.

This debut feature exudes confidence and an authentic portrayal of independent minded but woefully misguided youth who must balance family tragedies with interpersonal dynamics. These issues are exacerbated and sometimes directly related to the escalation of hauntings and danger from having meddled with supernatural forces after playing party games with an embalmed hand having belonged to a spiritual medium.

While there could have been a higher body count and some technical details changed, like the at times too loud sound effects and a nearly relentless shallow focus visual style, Talk to Me is an effective, unpredictable psychological horror film with an unnerving atmosphere. There's just enough comic relief to provide a bit of a release, especially in the first act, but is fairly toned down with that in favor of an emotionally intense and devilish series of events with an effectiveness that surpasses plenty of other horror movies, especially in the mainstream.

There could have been more of an attempt by the characters to find out the origins of this curious hand, but we see glimpses of the spirit world it accesses which culminates in a fantastic and truly eerie final scene that feels bittersweet, fitting, and ironic. Talk to Me is one of the best horror movies of the year and an impressive debut that delivers scares aplenty and might even make you think a bit, especially about the consequences of messing around with the other side!