Talk to Me: Horror movie’s most horrific scene explained

Talk to Me is a new horror movie from Down Under. The film features several terrifying sequences, but one brief scene gave us actual nightmares, so we asked directors Danny Philippou and Mark Philippou to talk us through it.

Talk to Me kicks off with a genuinely horrifying sequence which we described as “a grandstanding way to start proceedings,” in the Dexerto review.

There then follows a couple of intense possession scenes, one of which is seriously gruesome, and horribly memorable.

But when we got some time with the brothers who made the movie, we asked about a very brief moment that plays out towards the end of the movie. One that grabs the attention for the few seconds its onscreen. So beware of SPOILERS ahead.

Talk to Me: Horror movie’s most horrific scene explained

The scene in question concerns protagonist Mia (Sophie Wilde) seeing what evil spirits are doing to her possessed friend Riley (Joe Bird). Or thinks she sees, as there’s ambiguity when it comes to all the possessions in Talk to Me.

Riley appears to be writhing in a living hell of twisted flesh, that reminded me of 1980s cult classic Society. And reminded my colleague Kim Taylor-Foster of an infamous sequence in Event Horizon. So when she interviewed the brothers, Kim asked if either movie influenced the scene.

“It’s so funny, I haven’t actually seen Society yet,” admits Danny. “I do need to sit down and watch Society. I’ve heard that parallel as well.”

“Originally, that scene, it went for a lot longer,” explains Michael. “So originally, it was like a two-and-a-half, three-minute scene. And we saw a lot more, there was a lot of stuff that we filmed that we put in. If you go through the scene frame by frame, you’ll see some interesting things. It originally wasn’t like that – that was what we came up with. We wanted to just kind of glimpse that side of things and then get out of there, as opposed to stick there.”

How Event Horizon provided inspiration

“It was too heavy,” admits Danny of the full sequence. “And there were just worries about it getting pushed past the ratings board because what we shot was just so horrific. So it was just our way to edit it down. I think out of those two inspirations, I’d say probably more Event Horizon than the other one for sure.”

So what of that extra footage? The sick stuff that was excised from Event Horizon got lost, with fans still searching for it today. So where’s the rest of Talk to Me?

Michael: “I don’t know who’s got it, to be honest.”

Danny: “We’ve got to make sure that we keep that.”

Michael: “There was an initial cut as well, like a Director’s Cut that went for 20 minutes longer that we have as well.”

Danny: “We have 20 minutes of deleted scenes from throughout the film, which we’ve got to make sure that no one throws that away [too]. We want to keep those!”

Talk to Me is in cinemas now, and for more coverage, see below:

Talk to Me review | Influence of The Babadook | Is it streaming? | Does Talk to Me have a post-credits scene? | Ending explained | Sequel plans