AT JUST 17, Mia, the protagonist of haunting new supernatural horror film Talk To Me, has already been through a lot.
We meet her at the start of the film at a memorial for her late mother, and see her father ravaged by grief as well as witness the love she has for her best friend Jade and her family: supportive mother Sue and funny little brother Riley.
Being a teenager is hard enough, and with Mia struggling to come to terms with the loss of her mother on top of all the usual teenage tribulations, it is no surprise she looks for a means of escape – even if that escape is through voluntary demonic possession.
When some children from school acquire a ceramic hand that is allegedly the embalmed limb of a psychic, discovering it can be used to become temporarily possessed, it becomes the local teens' favourite new high.
All you need to do is grip the hand, say the magic words "talk to me", and you will be thrillingly possessed by a spirit from beyond the grave. There is just one catch: you have to exorcise the spirit within 90 seconds, or it will try to stay.
In their first feature-length film, YouTube stars turned film directors Danny and Michael Philippou, best known as RackaRacka, branch out into the world of high-concept horror for a film that promises to shock and haunt even the hardiest of horror fans.
Mia becomes hooked by the hand and its spiritual powers, hoping to be connected to her mother somehow and get the closure she was never able to find.
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However, the temptation to stay too long is all the more powerful for Mia, and when young Riley has a go, the teenagers soon realise how the dark side beyond the thrill of possession might be more than they bargained for.
The Australian twins' first film features a plethora of Aussie talent, from prestige actor Miranda Otto as Jade's mother to newcomer Sophie Wilde, recently seen alongside Hannah Waddingham in ITV's Tom Jones, as Mia.
Lord Of The Rings star Otto (55) says she hadn't heard of RackaRacka before reading the script, but the work of writers Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman captivated her nonetheless.
"I loved the script, and I was really engaged by Danny's energy," says Otto.
"I really admire people who are self-starters – like Peter Jackson is a self-starter. He just started shooting films and I admire people who just get the equipment and start creating their own content.
"I enjoy horror, but I think horror is hard to do well. This was such a good script because the voices of the teenagers felt really authentic.
"With horror, one of the most important things is to make it feel like a very real world in the beginning, a very relatable world, before the horror kicks in. The whole setup of Talk To Me with the parties and the kids felt very true."
Danny Philippou says the idea for the film came from seeing some neighbourhood children experiment with drugs when he was younger, an experiment which, for one teenager, went wrong.
"There were these neighbours that we watched grow up. And like we watched them from a young age into young men. And one of them, as I was growing up, was experimenting with drugs," he says.
"He was having a really negative reaction to the thing he'd taken, and everyone that he was with were filming him and laughing at him, and no-one was helping him. And that footage always really stuck in my mind and really bothered me. So that was like a big nugget of inspiration."
"There was a short film that a guy named Daley Pearson had written that's about kids having fun with possession, and the two things just sort of fell into place," he adds.
"I re-wrote that, and I changed the tone to be a bit more serious, because it was like a bit more of a comedy. Once I started writing, I couldn't stop. And then it was collaborating with my co-writer, Bill Hinzman, and just putting it together from there."
Philippou's closeness to the inspiration behind the subject matter has resulted in a script and story that feels authentic about the experience of teenagers – albeit with a supernatural twist.
"What struck me when I first read the script was how relevant it felt, especially to young people and young audiences," says Wilde (25).
"Danny's writing of the vernacular and slang of Australian teenagers was so authentic, and I thought that was really interesting to see on screen.
"The story itself is so original and interesting and I was really attracted to the complexity of Mia."
While Talk To Me is a supernatural horror, there are some moments of striking gore and some horrifying special effects at play.
The Philippou twins wanted to use practical effects as much as they could, having garnered plenty of experience through their YouTube work.
"It was always our approach to tackle everything as practical as possible," says Danny.
"So like, our make-up bubble was so thick, and we just knew that we just wanted everything to be pulled off in-camera.
"There's even scenes that would take like six hours of make-up, that were on screen for like two seconds. But those two seconds, that flash, can be so memorable."
Alongside the striking horror effects and the haunting storyline of demonic possession, Talk To Me is, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. That is perhaps not surprising considering the creators' background, but the comedy offers both welcome reprieve and a juxtaposition to the terror that makes it all the more intense.
"Like life, it's not just one emotion, it's never just sad, or just happy, or just scary – we want it to be a human story with characters that you relate to," says Michael.
"And that's the way life is, you know, it's a mixture of all things. That is the beautiful thing called life.
"The films that we respect are the ones that put you on side with the character, and the way to do that is by having them be relatable and funny. And them being just human."
:: Talk To Me is in cinemas from Friday July 28.
