The Big Picture · Review · Discussion · Top Five · Interview
August 2, 2023/ 67 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean reviews the Australian horror hit Talk to Me, counts down his five favorite scary summer movies, then talks to directors Danny and Michael Philippou about their YouTube-to-Sundance path, and to Christian Petzold about his new film Afire.
36 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Talk to Me
Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, starring Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, and Otis Dhanji. A group of friends conjure spirits with an embalmed hand until one session goes too far. Sean calls it a horror MacGuffin movie in the vein of The Ring or Hellraiser, with a breakout performance from Wilde.
Scary Summer Movie Tropescursed objects and cabins in the woods
The cursed videotape as horror MacGuffin.
Chucky as horror MacGuffin.
The Necronomicon as horror MacGuffin.
John Carpenter's Stephen King adaptation, about the possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury.
The Lament Configuration puzzle box. Sean thinks it'd make a good double feature with Talk to Me.
The Kevin Williamson post-Scream boom.
The classic summer camp trope.
Sam Peckinpah's country-house-invaders picture. Not pure horror, Sean says, but a similar shape.
One of Sean's favorite genre satires of the 2010s.
Jordan Peele's film, which Sean thinks also fits the cabin-in-the-woods mold.
Sean and Amanda covered this horror-comedy on a recent episode.
The Top 5 Scariest Summer MoviesSean's picks, best to worst
No. 1: one of the most important movies ever made, in Sean's view. Most horror since is riffing on it in some way.
No. 2: David Robert Mitchell's STD parable. Still genuinely scary, with several truly chilling moments.
No. 3: one of Wes Craven's first films. A family road trip gone terribly wrong that Sean says plays differently after Oppenheimer.
No. 4: 40 years old and still, per Sean, best known for a genuinely shocking ending.
No. 5: Ari Aster's sunlit pagan-cult film, which Sean calls probably the single brightest horror movie ever made, an interesting contrast to Aster's own Hereditary.
In conversationTalk to Me
The brothers' debut feature, born out of the RackaRacka YouTube channel, picked up by A24 out of Sundance.
Michael's last-great-thing pick: a Jackie Chan action film he loves for the rawness and danger of the stunt work.
Danny's last-great-thing pick: he keeps returning to the scene of child soldiers marching into battle singing.
In conversationAfire
Petzold's new film, referred to on the show as 'A Fire': a summer-house portrait of a novelist. Written after Petzold caught COVID in Paris and binged Eric Rohmer movies while sick.
The German silent Petzold cites as the model summer movie, directed by Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Edgar Ulmer, and Robert Siodmak, all of whom later fled for Hollywood.
Petzold's example of a Swedish summer movie, from Ingmar Bergman.
Peter Bogdanovich screwball comedy Petzold showed his cast during rehearsals.
Another film Petzold screened for the cast before shooting.
Petzold points to a tennis-ball-against-the-wall echo of Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance.
Where Petzold first met Paula Beer, through their shared casting agent on François Ozon's Frantz.
Sean mentions rewatching this Petzold film the night before the interview.
The first film in what Petzold jokingly calls his 'Elements trilogy,' also with Paula Beer.
François Ozon's film, on which Petzold worked on the German dialogue; he met Paula Beer through it.
The Julia Roberts/George Clooney comedy Petzold watched on a plane and did not care for.
Petzold's last-great-thing pick: an Irish, Oscar-nominated film he went into cold.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing Oppenheimer
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
Ads TremfayaClinic KidsWells Fargo Active Cash Credit CardWhole Foods MarketFIFA World Cup Launch Edition
Podcast promos Do We Get to Win This Time? How Hollywood Made the Vietnam War
Web series TamafiRackaRacka (YouTube channel)
Unproduced projects Concrete Kings
Shorts Deluge