Danny and Michael Philippou, better known in YouTube circles as RackaRacka, are no strangers to practical filmmaking. Having racked up more than two billion views on their channel dedicated to horror-comedy vignettes, 2023 has seen them turn their talents to the world of feature film.
Their debut, possession-horror flick Talk to Me, is an exceptional, piercingly modern look at our attention economy and things that go bump in the night. Sophie Wilde stars as the introverted Mia, who joins a group of classmates using a mummified hand to commune with the dead. We spoke to the twin directing duo about jumping from YouTube, shooting a possession, and using rice for an exorcism. Where did the idea for Talk to Me come from? DANNY: I think many different things inspired different parts of it. We had these neighbours that we watched grow up from early teens to adults, and one of them was experimenting with drugs with some friends. He was having a really negative reaction to the drug and was convulsing on the floor. And all the friends that he was with were just filming him and laughing at him. No one was helping him. I thought that was a striking image, which bothered me. And then there was a short film we got sent by a producer, Tim Daly Pearson, of kids having fun with possessions. And it just all fell into place. I rewrote the short, and I just couldn’t stop once I started writing. After six days, I had about 80 pages that I sent to my co-writer, Bill Hinzman, and we just kept throwing it back and forth. And that played into the opening scene, which looks like one continuous take… DANNY: That came in after probably three or four drafts – we wanted to have a really big opening that pulled the audience into the story’s world. So as Cole (Ari McCarthy) entered the party, so was the audience. MICHAEL: And we wanted to reveal something new with every corner. It was the last scene that we shot and started out as a fake party, then when we got the take it was, like, 4:30 in the morning, so it just turned into a real one. It was crazy.
Was it frustrating adjusting to the slower pace of working for a film?
MICHAEL: It was different. We did this video once where we wanted to film on a railway, so we set up this fake fence and reversed a car onto a real train track. And then the car broke down just when a train was coming. We were all dressed in suits, covered in fake blood, trying to move this car.
The train was stopping, so it wouldn’t have hit us, but still.
Anyway, we drove off. And I thought, if this was a real film shoot, how much would it cost to get that footage? So, of course, it’s slower. But then it is more rewarding.
Talk to Me takes a different approach to the standard possession narrative, was that angle always key to the film?
MICHAEL: What was important to us was the modern angle. We’ve got used to these attention-seeking antics through social media, things that, back in the day, we all agreed you shouldn’t do. Now you get rewarded for doing them, you know? Anything to get attention, positive or negative. If that hand was a real thing now, that’s exactly what kids would be doing – and I’d be there doing it too.
It does feel like a really authentic film, almost a current-day period piece: how difficult was it to keep that modern touch?
DANNY: Yeah, even before pre-production, we got the rights to use Snapchat, Apple phones and all that. That stuff really feels important to me – I wanted it to feel as authentic and real to now as possible.
MICHAEL: It probably will age badly when we all get the neural link, what do you call it, the chips in our brains? In ten years, it’ll be like, “phones? What do you mean, phones?”
Daniel’s very Christian in the film, but the possession isn’t specifically religious at all – how important was that religious element to the film?
DANNY: Yeah, yeah. There’re so many characters that are based on different people that I know, and growing up, I remember watching some close friends that are Christian, and they all wanted to rebel.
MICHAEL: I felt bad once. There was this Christian friend of mine. He was really drunk, vomiting, and in his underwear, and everyone thought it was funny. But then his mum walked in and started crying. In the lens she’s viewing it through, it’s this horrible thing. And when you’re younger, you don’t really understand how people can perceive things so differently, you know?
DANNY: Yeah, when you’re viewing someone that’s wasted, or they’re on drugs, it’s like they are a different person. I think those possessions represented that.
How were the possession scenes to film?
DANNY: So fun. Every single actor did each other’s possessions, and even we joined in, so no one was embarrassed about what they were doing. Because there are obviously so many embarrassing things that happen…
MICHAEL: We all kissed the dog.
DANNY: It’s not only about getting everyone comfortable, but there are parts from each interpretation you can grab and put into each performance. So that was fun, putting that together and having the camera feel like it’s anchored to each spirit and be this floaty representation of each one.
MICHAEL: After the first possession, we edited it together, and Sophie did an awesome job. It felt like we had something special.
Coming from YouTube, I imagine your filming style is normally a bit more loose and improvisational…
DANNY: A lot of that actually came through in the rehearsal process with the actors, just going through and ironing out their characters and the script in that way. And then on set, I have a tendency to add a lot of shots…
MICHAEL: Man, the first day of shooting was like the biggest day. And we had to do all this massive stuff. You know, there were stunts, prosthetics, traffic control, all these prop things. It was huge. And Danny kept getting pickup shots of cars going past? We can get that later! This guy’s been in prosthetics for 18 hours!
DANNY: It’s because I’m editing my head, thinking, “Oh, we need that” or “Can we grab that?”
MICHAEL: Yeah, that first day was tough.
And are those car shots in the finished film?
DANNY: They are indeed!
MICHAEL: No, they are not.
READ MORE: Watch the first blood-curdling trailer for The Exorcist: Believer
Most possession movies have a grown-up save the day, but there aren’t really any responsible adults taking charge in Talk to Me – where did that idea come from? DANNY: Just that idea of having kids in over their heads and not understanding what they’re messing with. Like, the rules they have for the possessions, they’re not exactly the rules, you know, they’ve made up their own rules. MICHAEL: And then when things go wrong, they have no idea what to think. DANNY: And they’re trying things like you would do in this desperate situation. Like when your phone won’t turn on, and someone tells you to put it in rice. There are those things that, you know, sort of work, and they’re just experimenting with them to figure out a way to stop it. MICHAEL: That’s what they should’ve done. They should have put the possessed people in rice – suck the spirits out.
Talk to Me is in cinemas now.
Their debut, possession-horror flick Talk to Me, is an exceptional, piercingly modern look at our attention economy and things that go bump in the night. Sophie Wilde stars as the introverted Mia, who joins a group of classmates using a mummified hand to commune with the dead. We spoke to the twin directing duo about jumping from YouTube, shooting a possession, and using rice for an exorcism. Where did the idea for Talk to Me come from? DANNY: I think many different things inspired different parts of it. We had these neighbours that we watched grow up from early teens to adults, and one of them was experimenting with drugs with some friends. He was having a really negative reaction to the drug and was convulsing on the floor. And all the friends that he was with were just filming him and laughing at him. No one was helping him. I thought that was a striking image, which bothered me. And then there was a short film we got sent by a producer, Tim Daly Pearson, of kids having fun with possessions. And it just all fell into place. I rewrote the short, and I just couldn’t stop once I started writing. After six days, I had about 80 pages that I sent to my co-writer, Bill Hinzman, and we just kept throwing it back and forth. And that played into the opening scene, which looks like one continuous take… DANNY: That came in after probably three or four drafts – we wanted to have a really big opening that pulled the audience into the story’s world. So as Cole (Ari McCarthy) entered the party, so was the audience. MICHAEL: And we wanted to reveal something new with every corner. It was the last scene that we shot and started out as a fake party, then when we got the take it was, like, 4:30 in the morning, so it just turned into a real one. It was crazy.
Credit: Altitude
credit: Altitude
Sophie Wilde makes a brilliant debut as lonely teen Mia (credit: Altitude)
READ MORE: Watch the first blood-curdling trailer for The Exorcist: Believer
Most possession movies have a grown-up save the day, but there aren’t really any responsible adults taking charge in Talk to Me – where did that idea come from? DANNY: Just that idea of having kids in over their heads and not understanding what they’re messing with. Like, the rules they have for the possessions, they’re not exactly the rules, you know, they’ve made up their own rules. MICHAEL: And then when things go wrong, they have no idea what to think. DANNY: And they’re trying things like you would do in this desperate situation. Like when your phone won’t turn on, and someone tells you to put it in rice. There are those things that, you know, sort of work, and they’re just experimenting with them to figure out a way to stop it. MICHAEL: That’s what they should’ve done. They should have put the possessed people in rice – suck the spirits out.
Talk to Me is in cinemas now.
