Talk to Me Rankings And Opinions

Every few years, horror fans get a new “you have to see this” movie.
In the 2010s it was Hereditary and The Conjuring. In the early 2020s,
a scrappy Australian film about a cursed embalmed hand quietly walked in,
whispered “Talk to me,” and suddenly everyone was arguing about where it ranks
among the best horror movies of the decade.

Talk to Me isn’t just another possession flick. Directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker
brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, it blended teen party chaos, grief,
and absolutely brutal supernatural consequences into a film that critics adored,
audiences debated, and horror lists quickly promoted to the top tier.
Let’s break down the rankings, the opinions, and where this movie honestly lands
in the modern horror landscape.

How High Does “Talk to Me” Rank?

Scoreboard: Critics vs. Audiences

First, the numbers. Across major platforms, Talk to Me consistently posts
“elite horror” scores:

• Rotten Tomatoes: mid-90s critics score and low-80s audience score,
  putting it firmly in “Certified Fresh” and “widely liked” territory.
• Metacritic: a weighted score in the mid-70s out of 100, which translates to
  “generally favorable reviews” from mainstream critics.
• IMDb: about 7.1/10 from well over 200,000 users –
  very solid for a horror film, a genre that often gets
  punished by casual viewers for being too weird, too violent, or not scary enough.
• CinemaScore: a B+ from opening-weekend audiences, which,
  for a dark and downbeat horror story, is actually quite good.

Put simply: critics loved it, horror fans largely embraced it, and general audiences
liked it enough despite the movie’s absolutely merciless final act.

On “Best of 2023” Lists

If you look at year-end horror roundups, Talk to Me shows up everywhere.
On curated lists of the best horror movies of 2023,
it routinely lands near the top – often in the top five alongside titles like
Scream VI, Skinamarink, and When Evil Lurks.
Some outlets even crown it the standout horror film of the year,
praising it as the rare movie that works both as a crowd-pleaser
and as a deeply upsetting character study.

Streaming-focused rankings also give it love.
Writers compiling “scariest movies currently on Netflix” and similar lists
frequently call it one of the most fun and terrifying horror releases
of the last few years, and even toss around phrases like
“future classic” and “instant staple of possession cinema.”

Among the Best A24 Horror Movies

To really feel how high the film sits in the genre,
you have to look at how it stacks up inside the A24 universe.
This is the studio behind The Witch, Hereditary, and Midsommar,
so the bar is already sky-high.

In recent rankings of A24 horror movies, Talk to Me often lands
in the top three, sometimes right behind those heavy hitters.
It’s not just a “good for a debut” entry – it’s regularly listed alongside
the most influential horror titles of the last decade.

Add to that its financial performance:
made for around $4.5 million, the film pulled in about $92 million worldwide,
becoming A24’s highest-grossing horror title to date.
That’s the kind of over-performance that turns a buzzed-about indie
into a long-term franchise prospect – which is exactly why a sequel
and even a prequel project are already in development.

Why Critics Ranked “Talk to Me” So Highly

Practical Effects and Nerve-Shredding Set Pieces

One of the biggest reasons critics fell hard for Talk to Me
is its commitment to gnarly, practical effects and brutally staged scenes.
The possession ritual – grab the hand, say “Talk to me,” then “I let you in” –
is shot with a mix of humor and tension that pulls you in.
But once the movie starts pushing beyond the “party game” phase,
it doesn’t flinch.

The bathroom sequence with Riley, in particular, is frequently cited
as one of the most shocking horror moments in recent memory.
It’s graphic, yes, but what really sticks with people is how sudden,
desperate, and chaotic it feels. The scene isn’t just gross for shock’s sake;
it’s the moment where the teen experimentation spins out of control
and everyone realizes just how badly they’ve misjudged the rules
of the supernatural world they’re playing in.

Performance-Driven Horror, Not Just Jump Scares

The performances are another big reason the film ranks so high.
Sophie Wilde, as Mia, carries the entire emotional weight of the story:
grieving her mother, desperate to belong, and increasingly unable
to tell reality from manipulation. Critics repeatedly point to her work
as the film’s secret weapon – she’s not just screaming; she’s unraveling.

Joe Bird as Riley also gets singled out for praise.
His character goes from sweet kid brother to tragic victim,
and his scenes under possession feel genuinely dangerous.
Those performances give the scares teeth: we’re not watching anonymous
cannon-fodder teens, but kids whose bad decisions come from believable loneliness,
peer pressure, and unresolved grief.

Smart Themes Under the Chaos

On paper, “Teens do a dangerous supernatural challenge at a party” sounds
like it could be a disposable streaming movie. But Talk to Me
bakes in ideas that critics love to chew on:

• The hand functions like a metaphor for drugs or social media clout –
  you chase the high, you film everything, and you pretend there are rules
  that keep you safe… until there aren’t.
• The film explores grief and denial, especially through Mia’s desperate attempts
  to communicate with her dead mother, even when it’s clearly hurting her.
• It shows how quickly a friend group can fracture under guilt and fear,
  and how adults often arrive too late or don’t fully understand
  what the kids have unleashed.

All of that helps explain why critics treat the movie as more than
just a solid scare machine. It’s emotionally loaded, and that’s part of why
its ending hits so hard.

Audience Opinions: Overhyped, Perfect, or Somewhere in Between?

The “New Classic” Crowd

Among horror fans online, a big chunk of viewers call Talk to Me
one of the strongest genre movies of the last few years.
Reviews and forum posts regularly describe it as:

• “Fresh and frantic,” with a pace that never really lets up.
• “A Stone Cold classic” that they expect to revisit multiple times.
• “Exactly the kind of original horror people keep saying doesn’t get made.”

Fans in this camp love that the film doesn’t spoon-feed everything.
It hints at the rules of the spirit world instead of exhaustively explaining them,
and it leans into consequences rather than last-minute rescues.
For them, the bleakness is a feature, not a bug.

The “It’s Good, But…” Camp

Then there are viewers who liked the film but wouldn’t put it
on their personal Mount Rushmore of horror.
Common criticisms from this group include:

• Some of the teen characters feel frustratingly reckless, even by horror standards.
• The film raises fascinating ideas – like who made the hand and how the rules truly work –
  but never fully explores them.
• The ending is so harsh that it leaves some people more numb than thrilled.

A few viewers also say the film was “creepy and intense” rather than
“keep-me-up-all-night terrifying.” Depending on what you want from horror –
jump scares versus anxiety, closure versus doom – your personal ranking
of Talk to Me might shift up or down a notch.

The Vocal Minority: “Totally Overrated”

Finally, like any hyped horror release,
there’s a smaller but loud group that simply didn’t vibe with it at all.
These viewers tend to complain that:

• The movie feels like a “trauma horror” retread.
• The characters make too many obviously terrible decisions.
• The brutal violence crosses a personal line without feeling “worth it.”

And honestly, that’s fine. The fact that people are passionately arguing
about this film – instead of forgetting it a week after release –
is part of what pushes it into the “modern horror conversation starter” category.

How It Compares to Other Modern Horror Heavyweights

So where does Talk to Me really sit compared with the big names?
Think of a loose ranking of modern horror touchstones like:
Hereditary, The Witch, Midsommar, Get Out, It Follows,
The Babadook, and The Conjuring.

Talk to Me doesn’t necessarily dethrone every one of those,
but it belongs in the same general conversation:

• In terms of scares: it’s more relentless and visceral than
  something like Get Out, but less purely overwhelming than Hereditary.
• In terms of concept: the embalmed hand ritual is as instantly recognizable
  as The Ring’s cursed videotape or It Follows’ off-screen stalker.
• In terms of cultural staying power: if the sequel delivers,
  the “Talk to Me hand” could easily become a long-term horror icon.

Add in its huge box office success relative to its tiny budget,
and it’s fair to slot the movie somewhere in the top tier
of 21st-century horror, especially for the 2020s so far.

Should You Watch “Talk to Me”? A Quick Guide

If you’re still deciding whether to watch it (or whether to rewatch it),
here’s a quick breakdown.

You’ll Probably Love It If…

• You enjoy horror that mixes emotional pain with physical horror – grief, guilt,
  and literal bodily damage all tangled together.
• You like movies such as It Follows or Hereditary that linger
  in your head long after the credits.
• You’re okay with bleak endings and zero safety nets for the characters.

You Might Want to Skip It If…

• You’re sensitive to scenes of self-harm or sustained graphic violence,
  especially involving younger characters.
• You prefer your horror with neat explanations, clear rules,
  and villains you can fully “understand.”
• You strongly dislike watching characters make impulsive, self-destructive choices
  – because this movie is full of them.

My Personal Ranking and Take

If we’re forced to put a number on it, I’d place Talk to Me
comfortably in the top ten horror films of the 2020s so far,
and in the upper tier of A24’s horror catalog overall.

It’s not flawless – the script occasionally leans hard on “trauma” shorthand,
and some characters are a little under-developed compared with Mia.
But the combination of inventive mythology, vicious set pieces,
and standout performances makes it the kind of horror movie
people keep talking about, arguing over, and showing to their friends
with a half-serious warning: “This gets rough.”

In other words, Talk to Me might not replace your all-time favorite,
but it absolutely earns its place on the shelf right next to them.

Experiences and Anecdotes: How “Talk to Me” Plays With Real Audiences

Rankings and numbers are one thing. But horror lives and dies
on how it feels in a room full of people. And in that department,
Talk to Me has some memorable “I was there” energy.

Picture a packed evening screening: the hand appears,
the teens start their little possession game,
and the whole theater shifts from nervous giggles to stunned silence.
Early on, the film cleverly encourages laughter – the possessed characters
say weird, wild things, the phone cameras are out, and everyone in the audience
recognizes that “We shouldn’t be enjoying this, but we kind of are”
vibe from real-life viral challenge culture.

Then the bathroom scene with Riley hits, and that playful energy
dies instantly. In many viewers’ stories, you can almost hear
the oxygen leave the room. People go from leaning forward to recoiling
into their seats. That’s the moment when the movie stops being
a spooky thrill ride and becomes something heavier – and it’s also
the scene that people bring up later as a dividing line:
some call it brilliant and unforgettable; others say it’s where the film
became too much for them.

After the movie, if you hang around the lobby long enough,
you hear the same conversations repeat:

• “Would you do it, though? Like… just once?” – someone always admits
  they’d be tempted to try the hand for 30 seconds,
  which proves the movie’s metaphor hits home.
• “Who do you blame the most?” – Mia, the friends, the adults, the hand itself?
  Everyone has a different answer.
• “What do you think really happened at the end?” – viewers dissect
  whether Mia’s final moments are self-sacrifice, punishment, or both.

At home, the experience shifts. Watching Talk to Me on streaming
in a dark room with just a couple of friends or alone
adds a slightly different flavor: it becomes less about jumpy crowd reactions
and more about stewing in the film’s atmosphere.
People who revisit it often say the second watch is even more unsettling,
because you notice all the early hints that things were never as under control
as the characters thought.

Online, the movie has spawned plenty of memes and running jokes.
Screenshots of the hand, fan art of Mia’s haunting final shot,
and hypothetical “house rules” for using the hand pop up across social platforms.
Horror fans compare it with their own party stories:
the time a Ouija board “moved by itself,” the night someone dared a friend
to spend five minutes in a supposedly haunted room, or the moment
a prank went too far and stopped being funny.

What stands out most from all these experiences is that
Talk to Me sticks with people.
Whether you loved it, liked it, or never want to see it again,
you’re probably going to remember the feeling of watching it:
the slow slide from laughter to dread, that one scene you can’t unsee,
the sick little twist in your stomach at the final cut to black.
And that, more than any numeric score, is why so many horror fans
rank it so highly.

If you’re making your own “best horror” list, Talk to Me
is the kind of movie that demands a spot somewhere near the top –
not just because critics say so, but because it leaves scars
on the collective viewing experience. In horror, that’s a compliment.