Philippou Brothers Shake the Cursed Hand of Meta for Talk to Me VR Spinoff

In the 2022 A24 movie Talk to Me, teenagers discover a cursed plaster hand that allows spirits to possess anyone who grasps it. Despite knowing that it leads directly to Hell, and despite knowing that opens them up to all sorts of evil, the teens grasp it anyway, leading to all sorts of horrible, horrible things.

Apparently, Talk to Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou are teenagers at heart, because they’ve decided to shake hands with Mark Zuckerberg and create a six-part sequel series to Talk to Me for Meta VR. According to Variety, the series will be shot entirely “in 3D, making for a fully immersive XR experience that will allow horror fans to feel like they’re living out the terror,” complete with what an announcement quoted in the article describes as “cutting-edge mixed reality technology to map viewers’ environments and immerse them in the story.”

Underneath all of the hype and techno babble, it’s hard not to feel disappointed about the Philippous’ decision. Yes, the New Zealand-born twins started their career making videos for YouTube, and it isn’t a huge leap from there to Facebook and Meta. But with Talk to Me and especially their follow-up Bring Her Back from earlier this year, the twins proved that they had the ability to create complex characters, not just gory shocks. Both films might have scenes of young people having truly unspeakable things happen to their faces (a rare and welcome case of cinematic childhood endangerment done right!), but they also craft well-observed and emotionally-rich protagonists to ground the grisly subject matter.

With that in mind, it is something of a relief to learn that the Philippous won’t actually be making any of the episodes of the series. All six will be written by Trent Atherton, who created the series with Darren Brandl, and will be directed by William Macneill. As of yet, there’s no word on the cast.

XRTV co-founder Brandl clearly sees the series as a natural marriage of technological possibility and a recognizable brand. “Talk to Me is the perfect immersive IP because it’s about young adults who seek the Hand, to experience the euphoria of possession but end up tormented by breaking through to the spirit world,” he enthused. “It made possession fun, and the scares unforgettable. Maybe we’re crazy, but we’re betting you’re going to want to feel possessed too, and with Meta’s new technology, we think for the first time you’ll believe it!”

Yes, a movie that more or less ends with a young woman going to Hell after destroying everyone who has ever loved her does sound like fun! And leave it to a tech bro to look at that experience and think it should become monetized content. It would just be nice if the film’s creators didn’t allow the techies to so fundamentally misuse the story they created.

Then again, I’m sure they were offered a lot of money to do it, and I’m sure that money can be used to make some really good movies. But as this one movie I know showed, once you shake the hand of evil, it’s hard to get away unscathed.