YouTuber twins try their hand at modern horror with debut film Talk to Me

Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou have turnedtheir social mediasuccess into a big screen debut.

Known for making horror comedy videos on their RackaRacka YouTube channel, which has 6.74 million subscribers and more than a billion views, the pairdirectedTalk To Me, a horror film about a group of teens who use an embalmed hand to conjure spirits at a house party and end up dealing with some unexpected consequences.

Talk To Me had its world premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where theU.S. distribution rights were quickly snapped upby indie production juggernaut A24. It also screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, South By Southwestand Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival ahead of its North American theatrical releaseFriday.

The Philippoubrothers'YouTube channel, started in 2013, describes the pair as "Wannabe filmmakers on a rampage!" Michael saystheir early experience allowed them to constantly grow and expand their filmmaking abilities.

"Every video we did we were trying something new," he said. "Even stuff that failed, you have to take that experience into the next thing you make. I think it was invaluable to just get the experience of making stuff."

The Philippou brothers spoke with CBC News about directing their first featureand channeling the house parties of their youth to help createa modern horror film.

House parties get out of hand

In Talk To Me, a group of young people gather at a house party where they take part inseances conducted through an embalmed hand. Dannysays the hand and theseances represent vices or other coping mechanisms.

"Whether it's drugs, alcohol or sex or social media, I think that anyone who's latching on to those things to get themselves out of a rut [is] going to end up deeper in that rut."

"We wanted to show those parties throughout the film dwindle, and get less and less, until it's just lonelyand sad."

While the hand is the dominant symbol in the film, Michael says the script originally referred only to a nondescript haunted object.

"Hands and human touch and connection was always very prominent in the first draft of the script," said Danny, noting the hand was a physical representation of some of the topics they were discussing.

"Once we found [the hand], it felt like it had been there the whole time."

Under the influence of spirits

In addition to movies likeThe Exorcist, The Vanishingand Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder,the brothers say Talk To Me draws inspiration from their real-life experiences.

"The house parties were sort of based on house parties that we'd known and went to, and the characters were sort of based on people that we know," said Danny.

Michael said it can seemlike something out of a horror movie thefirst time kids see somebody drunk or under the influence of drugs.

"It feels like a different person entirely. It kind of does feel like a demon," he said. "That's them, and that's not them at the same time."

Social media scares

Social media also plays a prominent role in the film, which Michael says was inevitable, given their desire to make a movie that was current and modern.

"It's a world we understand, it's our job, social media and YouTube," he said. "It's what we've been doing for the last eight years."

Right from the beginning, the brotherspursued the rights to use brandslike Snapchat and Apple in the film to help the world seem real.

"The social media aspect, we wanted to feel really authentic," said Danny.

The risks social media can present to youth was something Michaelwantedthe film to address.

"The idea of you making a mistake or doing something when you're drunk growing up and it being filmed and immortalized is kind of scary," he said.

"We all are trying to do things for attention and gain attention, and some people fall down the hole of getting attention in the wrong ways."

Danny saidthey also tried to capture the spirit of peer pressure.

"Even online, we're sort of victims to it, and we're made to think a certain way with whatever we're consuming."