YouTube-famous Philippou twins on making new horror film Talk To Me

The Australian brothers began making short movies more than a decade ago

Sophie Wilde in a scene from Talk to Me. Photo: A24

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