Australian horror film Talk to Me has been getting rave reviews – I said before on here I was luckily enough to get to an advanced screening, and I enjoyed it.
However, a couple of stories have come out surrounding the film, and it makes me wonder how legit these are, and how much of it is just to stir up more interest.
People are fainting during the film
That’s right. People are actually finding Talk to Me so gruesome and scary that they’re actually passing out in screenings.
In an interview with Yahoo, Michael Philippou during a recent screening in Australia: “People were so hyped.” Danny Philippou then chipped in: “People were fainting. It’s happened in some of the screenings. One of the scenes is a bit intense. So people have been reacting, fainting.”
Okay, admittedly this first one’s not that interesting. I can well and truly believe some people are fainting during the movie. It does have some exceptionally squeamish scenes, and I did have to hide behind my hands and half watch some of it.
For a bit of background; I’m a jaded horror fan. Things don’t really scare me or get that much of a reaction out of me anymore, so I was quite pleasantly surprised that this… did.
Maybe it’s an age thing, but I see a lot of younger people being much more affected by horror movies than I am these days. I mean, myself and my partner laughed all the way through The Nun at the cinema, but there were people genuinely scared. Even with the most cringey of lines in that movie.
One cinema goer was so freaked out, that afterwards when they went to the men’s room and saw my partner in his long black leather jacket out the corner of his eye, he actually jumped.
So, is this a bit of clever marketing, or is it really that powerful a movie? Hmmm.
The creator of the cursed hand quit
Now, this one is a) much more up my alley and b) has even more of a possibility of being good marketing. BUT we like these weird stories anyway, so let’s just get to the details first.
So, there’s this creepy cursed embalmed hand in the movie, apparently made by a prop person. But they quit their job after they made it.
Here’s what Michael had to say about that:
“It was weird. The person that made the hand, that worked on the hand, they quit after they delivered it. Apparently, they had an uncomfortable experience with it the night before… Something happened that night… But they quit, and we felt bad, and we apologized.”
What did you apologise for, Michael? Surely this is again just a bit of fun, and we have absolutely no details of the real person who made the hand and whether or not they’ve been possessed by an evil spirit by now.
Here’s a wee blurb about the film if you’re thinking of checking it out:
Conjuring spirits has become the latest local party craze, and looking for a distraction on the anniversary of her mother’s death, teenage Mia (Sophie Wilde) is determined to get a piece of the otherworldly action. When her group of friends gathers for another unruly séance with the mysterious embalmed hand that promises a direct line to the spirits, they’re unprepared for the consequences of bending the rules through prolonged contact. As the boundary between worlds collapses and disturbing supernatural visions increasingly haunt Mia, she rushes to undo the horrific damage before it’s irreversible.
I can’t be 100% sure, but I suspect Michael and Danny Philippou are trying to get people talking as much as possible, with some clever marketing. And hey, it looks like it worked.
Source: GeekTyrant
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