The new séance horror with near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score

There is a new horror film that’s being unanimously praised by lovers of the genre.

The new release, which is set to be released this July, has received extremely positive word-of-mouth since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Directed by twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, the film follows a group of friends who become hooked on conjuring spirits using an embalmed hand.

One of them, a young woman played by Sophie Wilde, gets too involved in her curiosity with the supernatural and, after one séance, unleashes terrifying forces.

Also starring in the film are Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Marcus Johnson, and Alexandria Steffensen.

Damon Wise, writing for Deadline Hollywood, said that Talk to Me “attempts to do something new with an old idea”, adding that it “makes the crossing of infernal thresholds seem like an awful lot of fun”.

The film was compared to The Exorcist by Joblo’s Chris Bumbray, who said that Joe Bird’s performance of a “possessed” character is the best seen on screen since Linda Blair in William Friedkin’s 1974 film, The Exorcist.

Meanwhile, Slant Magazine’s Chuck Bowen said that “the film’s major achievement is how it manages to ground possession in the reality of modern teenage life”.

On Letterboxd, Evolution of Horror host Mike Muncer called it “my favourite horror film of 2023 so far”, with Andrew Pope adding: “When you know where it’s going it’s horrifically, soul-destroyingly bleak. The kinda movie where you won’t want to go to bed straight away”.

Pope also praised the climax as “an all-timer horror movie ending”.

Talk to Me will premiere in the UK at Sundance Film Festival: London, which runs from 6 to 9 July.

It will be released theatrically on 28 July.