The year’s scariest sleeper hit, Talk to Me became A24’s second highest grossing horror film with $48 million at the domestic box office on a $4.5 million budget. The Australian movie marks the feature debut of co-directors Danny and Michael Philippou, who rose to prominence with their YouTube channel, RackaRacka.
The film’s home video release includes an audio commentary with the excitable Australian twins. They begin by stating that they won’t discuss the movie’s themes, as they want to leave it open to interpretation (although they let a few hints slip), but they have plenty of other insight to share.
Here are seven things I learned from the Talk to Me commentary. (Note that the brothers’ voices are nearly identical, but I tried my best to accurately identify the speaker.)
1. The opening shot took 10 takes.
Talk to Me opens with an ambitious, two-minute tracking shot through a house. It took 10 takes to get it right, which is the maximum amount they could do since they had ten doors to break through.
“This is the opening shot, but it was the last scene that we filmed. And right now, when we got this take, this is the tenth take. We had 10 doors, because the door gets smashed,” Michael explains.
“It was getting better and better each time, but it didn’t feel right. We had one last take, because we only had one door left.” They finally got it right after going three hours into overtime.
2. The lead actors appear as extras in the opening scene.
Several of the main actors appear as extras in the opening scene, disguised by wardrobe and out of focus in the background.
“All the actors we put in costume and they’re hidden in the shot,” Michael mentions. Danny points out, “Sophie [Wilde] who plays Mia is in there. Otis [Dhanji] is there, who plays Daniel. Jade [actress Alexandra Jensen] is in there. Joe [Bird] who plays Riley, they’re all there.”
“And I was in it too!” Michael exclaims. Danny notes, “I was meant to be in it but once we started directing we weren’t getting the takes, I was like, ‘I just need to focus on actually getting in the shot,’ so I couldn’t be in it.”
3. Sia allowed the filmmakers to use her song after Lorde turned them down.
After the filmmakers’ first choice of Lorde’s “Green Light” didn’t work out, Sia allowed her hit song “Chandelier” to appear in the film at a discounted rate.
“This song, we got it for a quarter of the price. There was no way we were going to be able to afford this song,” Danny says. Michael adds, “But Sia is from Adelaide [South Australia], the same city that we grew up.”
“We really tried to get ‘Green Light’ by Lorde, but we got turned down,” notes Danny. “I’m not allowed to say that? Oh well, I said it.”
Beyond music, iPhones and Snapchat also had to be cleared for use on screen, which was important to the filmmakers in order to make the film feel authentic.
4. The Philippous’ sister makes a cameo appearance.
Danny and Michael’s sister, Helene Philippou, makes a brief cameo as the girl getting possessed on Snapchat. She previously appeared in several of her siblings’ internet videos.
“That’s my sister right there! Shout out to Helene. That’s the first thing we shot for the entire movie,” says Michael. “That was the day we were trying to figure out what the possessed look was going to be, so we just had makeup artists and a bunch of artists and explored different looks for the thing.”
5. The production took a budget cut for Sophie Wilde.
Danny and Michael felt so strongly about casting Sophie Wilde despite being relatively unknown that they took a $1 million budget cut to keep her in the lead role.
“We lost a million dollars out of the budget just by casting Sophie, because some of the people thought she wasn’t a name and all this other stuff, but we felt so passionately about casting her,” explains Danny.
“She is a name, you just don’t know it yet!” interjects Michael. “That’s what we told them. Take as much money as you want, we’re using Sophie.”
“We had to reinvest our fees, and our producer, Sam [Jennings], reinvested her fees. We just did everything we could to get her,” Danny continues. “If one thing comes out of this film, just being able to help present her to the world means so much to me, because I think she’s such a talented performer and she’s going to have a huge career. Same for all of our cast.”
6. The film shot at the Philippous’ high school, renamed after a childhood friend.
The school scene was shot at Para Hills High School, which Danny and Michael attended as teens. For the film, they renamed it Seiuli Hills High School in tribute to their childhood friend.
“This is our old high school, Para Hills High. We’ve changed the name up there to Seiuli Hills High School. That’s actually the last name of our best friend’s sister, Nellie and Ben.” Danny goes on to explain that Nellie encouraged their creative side during their rebellious youth.
7. The hand has great significance to Danny.
Danny shares a personal story in regards to the significance that hands play in the film:
“I was in a really bad car accident when I was 16, and I’d split my head open just above the eye. They thought I might have broken my spine. I was in hospital, and I just physically couldn’t stop shaking. They didn’t know why I was so cold. The doctors would bring in blankets, turn on heaters. They were trying to get me warm, but I just could not stop shaking.
“My sister came and she sat next to me, and she held my hand and the shaking just stopped. I wasn’t shaking ’cause I was cold; I was shaking ’cause I was in shock, and the touch of someone that I loved brought me out of it. So hands and human connection was a thing that always stood out to me.”
The swelling on Riley’s face after his possession was also based on the injuries Danny sustained in the crash.
Talk to Me is available now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital.
