"Talk to Me" - Review

Best friends Mia (Sophia Wilde) and Jade (Alexandra Jensen) are going through some tough times at the moment: the former lost her mother a few years ago and is still reeling from it, and the latter is trying to help her through it. When they learn about an online trend involving taking an embalmed hand of a psychic, saying "Talk to me" and messing around with spirits: for a bit of fun they decide to fuck around and find out...

Directors Danny and Michael Phillipou have made a movie geared towards the urban legends "3AM Challenge" crowd, but with a little more going on beneath the surface and a little weird to boot due to its age rating and themes of trauma. It has excellent practical effects, 2 excellent supporting performances from Zoe Terakes and Chris Alosio as the dickhead friends, a good possession performance, and some good gore. There are some details I enjoy, such as how Mia's father is always shot out of focus and off screen because she's distant from him, and the particularly good shot of what happens to a character when their soul is not here... It's fun.
However, I never was as scared as I wanted to be. Maybe I'm just sick of possession movies, but the scares were never quite there for me, as well made as it was.