Possession is the horror staple effectively revived in Danny and Michael Philippou’s Australian genre entry on the A24 label. Talk To Me is a brisk, cautionary tale about thrill-seeking Adelaide teenagers who get their kicks by contacting the spirit realm through an embalmed hand that either belonged to a medium or a Satanist. The hand never comes to life to stalk the young cast; instead, those who grasp it and say the words of the title find themselves host to something sinister.

Things start with a bang at a teenage house party where revellers are filming a young man attempting to rescue his brother; the scene ends in sudden violence but it’s not clear what’s caused the chaos or why. A mummified hand, ensconced in porcelain, falls into the clutches of teen owners, with Sophie Wilde playing Mia, one of those who unwisely attempts to harness its powers. Mia’s brother Riley (Joe Bird) has the worst imaginable reaction to his encounter with the hand, plunging Mia into a battle to protect him. But could her own recently departed mother be trying to make contact from beyond the grave? 

In the serious style of A24’s It Follows and Hereditary, this skips the random set-piece killings you might expect and tightly focuses on familial horror and doom-laden dream logic. Like most of the irresponsible kids around her, Mia doesn’t take enough responsibility to be a particularly sympathetic heroine, but Talk To Me manages to keep the tension going until an agreeably shocking pay-off that paves the way for potential sequels.

Talk To Me is in cinemas from Friday 28 July.