From Smile to Evil Dead Rise to Insidious: The Red Door, horror seems to be the one fool-proof genre left in Hollywood. Even in the aftermath of the pandemic, when audiences were reluctant to return to cinemas, these chilling films were turning a profit. It’s in this atmosphere that Talk To Me arrives, an Australian-made spook story that has already been picked up for its US release by A24 – the company behind the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once. In other words, this is surely going to smash it this summer.
Already this tale of Australian teenagers who find a way to communicate with the dead has gained traction after successful screenings at Sundance and the Berlin Film Festival. Written and directed by identical twins Danny and Michael Philippou, 30, it’s got a universal feel about it, something these fledgling filmmakers really worked at.
“We just wanted the world to feel real and lived in,” Danny tells The National. “[It’s why] people are relating to it all over the world. It feels global.”
His sibling nods in agreement.
“We're Australian. We have Australian accents, but we never created stuff for Australia. We're not in the Outback.”
The twins, from Adelaide, began making short films more than a decade ago, uploading them to their YouTube channel RackaRacka, a hugely popular platform filled with live-action comedy-horror skits that has racked up more than one billion views. When you factor in their Facebook fan base, too, the duo's wide-reaching platforms have been the perfect places for them to experiment as burgeoning filmmakers.
“We're always using it to see if we can accomplish different ideas,” says Michael. “Can we do a set that's sinking in water and we're fighting in it? How do we pull that off this specific rig or look or location?”
Talk To Me is more serious-minded than their YouTube work, and more polished. The story follows Sophie Wilde as Mia, a young woman still grieving the loss of her mother. After attending a party with her friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), she finds a way to, potentially, reconnect with her late parent. A plaster cast – rumoured to be the severed, embalmed hand of a psychic – is being passed around. Grip it and say the phrase “talk to me” and a dead person appears in front of you. Then, after saying, “I let you in”, you’re fully possessed by this decomposing soul, which cannot be seen by anyone else in the room.
Needless to say, when Mia starts messing around, it doesn’t go well, with the Philippous really turning the screw. “I think they have such a great understanding of their audience, and they know how to hook an audience in and scare an audience and surprise an audience and make an audience laugh,” says Wilde, who first watched the film with a Sundance crowd that were spooked during its midnight screening. “And I think what's so amazing about this film ... it is a communal experience being in that theatre together. And you feel it energetically. And I think that's a testament to them as filmmakers.”
Influence-wise, the brothers naturally raise the spectre of The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s seminal possession movie, but there are more surprising inspirations, too. “A big influence in terms of tone and genre is Bong Joon-ho as a director. How he's able to genre dip and jump between comedy and dark drama,” says Danny. Curiously, they don’t cite Bong’s Oscar-winning Parasite as influential, but his 2003 movie Memories of Murder. “It’s our favourite film,” says Michael. “That's what we wanted to do – we wanted to make a genre film that had a strong emotional core. And that didn't feel like two separate things. We wanted it to try and be seamless.”
Like so many filmmaking siblings – the Coens, the Wachowskis, the Russos – these two seem entirely in unison. “We have the same overall vision,” says Michael. “The stuff we'll argue about, or debate about, are very small things. How loud a sound-effect is or cutting a few frames out of a shot.” Danny chips in: “Or don't wear that black shirt, I'm wearing a black shirt!”
So who normally wins? “It's whoever is faster at punching!” laughs Michael.
For the actors, this pair were ideal. “Their energy is just amazing,” says Wilde. “It’s what we needed – that kind of intense energy to pump us all up.”
Another thing that psyched the brothers up was their real-life love of the supernatural. Before shooting, they visited the Rhode Island house where the terrifying events seen in The Conjuring movies took place. They even took psychics and their collection of “haunted dolls” there in the hope they might get spooked. “Even if you don't necessarily believe 100 per cent in it, I’m open to it,” says Michael. “And I want to experience those things. I'm curious about it.”
Sadly, nothing too freaky happened, though the way he sees it, the more you embrace the idea, the more likely you are to experience the paranormal. “If you walk into a room with that mindset of being scared ... all this stuff happens,” he says. “If you didn't know someone died in there, you don't care, you're less likely to experience it. I think if you open yourself up, energy-wise, maybe you do respond to things or create things in your mind.” Whatever the case, he and his twin have channelled it all into one of the most terrifying movies of the year.
Talk To Me is in cinemas from July 27
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
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Total eligible population
About 57.5 million people
51.1 million received a jab
6.4 million have not
Where are the unvaccinated?
England 11%
Scotland 9%
Wales 10%
Northern Ireland 14%
Sting & Shaggy
44/876
(Interscope)
The%20specs
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The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Co-founders of the company: Vilhelm Hedberg and Ravi Bhusari
Launch year: In 2016 ekar launched and signed an agreement with Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. In January 2017 ekar launched in Dubai in a partnership with the RTA.
Number of employees: Over 50
Financing stage: Series B currently being finalised
Investors: Series A - Audacia Capital
Sector of operation: Transport
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ELIO
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Director: Andrew Rossi
Starring: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, John Paul Gaultier, Rihanna
Three stars
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How being social media savvy can improve your well being
Next time when procastinating online remember that you can save thousands on paying for a personal trainer and a gym membership simply by watching YouTube videos and keeping up with the latest health tips and trends.
As social media apps are becoming more and more consumed by health experts and nutritionists who are using it to awareness and encourage patients to engage in physical activity.
Elizabeth Watson, a personal trainer from Stay Fit gym in Abu Dhabi suggests that “individuals can use social media as a means of keeping fit, there are a lot of great exercises you can do and train from experts at home just by watching videos on YouTube”.
Norlyn Torrena, a clinical nutritionist from Burjeel Hospital advises her clients to be more technologically active “most of my clients are so engaged with their phones that I advise them to download applications that offer health related services”.
Torrena said that “most people believe that dieting and keeping fit is boring”.
However, by using social media apps keeping fit means that people are “modern and are kept up to date with the latest heath tips and trends”.
“It can be a guide to a healthy lifestyle and exercise if used in the correct way, so I really encourage my clients to download health applications” said Mrs Torrena.
People can also connect with each other and exchange “tips and notes, it’s extremely healthy and fun”.
Barbie
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