They Talk to Me (2021) User Reviews

Can we make a secret

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 1 September 2022]

Alex (Jonathan Tufvesson) is the camera and sound man for a documentary being made on lost history. Laura (Margaux Billard) is the "diva" host who has her eyes on Alex as does Emily (Sydney White) an assistant. Alex gets ringing in his ears that is not sodium related. He records voices of the dead and seeks the help of an expert. Also they just so happen film at an orphanage where he was raised and has nightmares. Amanda (Agnese Patara) who was his BFF at the orphanage shows up in town.

The film seemed like a decent ghost/spirit mystery. The fact they were driving automobiles with Missouri plates and this was filmed in Italy was a head scratcher. At about 70 minutes into the film a scene doesn't make sense and let's you know there is a twist, except it is not a good twist, but one that makes the film confusing. Is this like an Oman Thing?

Guide: F-word. Sex. Nudity (Margaux Billard ) 2 1/2 stars.

Incoherent muddled plot

[t2do2dl2da · 3/10 · 6 June 2022]

Too may loose ends that were never tied up....

Not enough explanation. The flashback to the past didinot explain why anything was happening.

Just incoherent.......

You may not even know what is going on.

Great acting but super weird pacing

[borgolarici · 4/10 · 8 December 2021]

This movie is incredibly slow, i don't know what other way to say it. It starts well, acting is great and is very dark and bleak but... I just lost interest along the way.

Beautifully Shot, Hopelessly Muddled

[HughBennie-777 · 21 October 2021]

A thriller with its plot-heavy scenes creating a weighty, incomprehensible story. Meanwhile the impressive acting surfaces here and there amidst all the unanswered questions. The documentary film subplot, itself, is abandoned, so too many of the movie's characters disappear, leaving the effective protagonist alone with too many computer scenes, and too many drone shots. There's a gorgeous synthesizer score and the special effects are top-notch--and practical. Only a few obnoxious stutter-cuts interrupt what the director maintains in traditional style and pace. Rocio Morales is superb as the movie's most tragic character. There's a large quantity of atmosphere, and the movie's art direction and locations support this. If only the writers and editors had collaborated more on communicating suspenseful information over just creating beautifully photographed suspense, and some quality gore.

They Talk

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

Alex (Jonathan Tufvesson) is a sound engineer who has accidentally recorded supernatural sounds while shooting a documentary. The voices that he's captured may not sound human, but they are trying to warn him about someone or something, With a past filled with mystery and a future filled with dread, Alex is haunted by what he has found. Amanda (Rocío Muñoz) shared a past with Alex and a secret, and when she comes back into his life, she also brings numerous dead bodies. Is she the danger he's been warned about?

Director Giorgio Bruno has put together a film that looks and sounds gorgeous, yet really doesn't do anything you haven't seen before. That's fine -- it does have some genuinely wild kills, a bravura moment where a nun is lit ablaze and is way more professional than 99% of the movies you find streaming these days.

I've often discussed the sad fact that the Italian horror industry died off by the 90s, but if the films that come out of the country keep looking this good -- and can start embracing the off the rails insanity that they once did instead of looking to Hollywood for what's frightening -- then perhaps a comeback can be discussed.

Until then, there are moments in this to enjoy.

A generally bland feature without much going for it

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 4/10 · 10 May 2022]

While working on a documentary project, a sound engineer continually receiving messages on his equipment informing him of a deadly presence coming to him eventually comes to believe his reconnecting with a now-troubled childhood friend is to blame and races to stop a supernatural threat.

This was a decent enough if underwhelming genre effort. What works quite nicely here is the idea of the noises being recorded and the whole inability to believe what's going on with them. The initial manner in which these first start to show up to him, with the noises appearing as background noise in their videos before turning into much more overt pieces that sound much more inhuman and mysterious. The idea of turning to the scientist for help and tracking down the cause of the communications is a bit of fun here with the gradual discovery and revelation of the location concerning their deaths focusing on building a rather impressive overall setup that pays off rather well here. Combined with the shocking ending that's hard to see coming, these are all that work for this one. There are some major issues to be had with the film. The biggest drawback here is the pacing which just manages to make for one of the most lifeless and inert investigations in the genre. Rather than bring about a sense of fear and macabre menace looking into the cause of the messages he's receiving, there's very little here that scares with seemingly endless shots of looking at recording setups and computer screens hearing muffled voices over and over again. Hardly any of it makes an impression and renders a lot of the film to be a thoroughly tough pill to swallow with the lack of energy or interest in what's going on during this part of the film. That also leads to the main big drawback with the film's main focus appearing to get away from the killer spirit to appearing as a drama by not making it the featured part of the film. The incidents here regarding the supernatural figures at the center of the film are kept to such a small part of the film's running time that there's the opportunity to mistake the kind of film this is by not going for the more enjoyable facets when it can. The rather uninvolving ending that explains nothing and contains the only real gore or threat of the spirit doesn't help either, and a rather ridiculous subplot involving his girlfriend thinking he's supposedly going through an affair with a friend takes out even more time away from the killer figure here. These all combine to hold this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Nudity, Graphic Violence, and a sex scene.

A waste of good photography

[hampersnow-41369 · 2/10 · 14 May 2022]

The person who shot this knew what they were doing but no one else connected with this did. It kind of had a story, if you can say this is about a guy who hears voices, but that's about all there is to it. It's as if totally random scenes are just strung together, even love scenes that just seem to be inserted for no reason. The movie was all over the place, as if they couldn't decide what this was suppose to be. The lead actor tried, but every supporting actor was awful. Worst of all, were the accents. Although they show a car with a Missouri license plate, it would seen most of the cast was foreign and English was not their first language. While the movie is in English, some actors really struggled with their lines, making listening to the bad dialogue even worse. No chemistry between actors, no scares, no suspense, just a mess and a waste of time.

They Push REAL Hard To Sell That This is Set in America

[rebeltaz-18705 · 3/10 · 23 May 2022]

I want to start with what bothered me the most about this movie. They try to sell really hard that this movie is filmed in America - they make a show of panning down to a Missouri license plate; the local diner (called "Eats") has American flags draped in no less than two or three places throughout the interior; the menus in the diner each feature an American flag imprinted on them; the cabin in the woods has an American flag flying outside.... Yet every single actor/actress in the movie has an foreign accent, despite two of the main characters supposedly raised since they were young in an orphanage in America. The roads don't look anything like roads in America. The hospital looks less like a modern American ER and more like a hospital you might see in the 1930's. The movie was filmed in Italy with Italian actors. Why on Earth would you try so hard to make it look otherwise. I'd have enjoyed it more if they'd played up the Italian angle - but as a second (third?) generation Italian immigrant, I might be slightly biased.

OK, so the movie itself.... This is your basic EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) flick up until about the last thirty minutes or so. Up until then, it's a little slow, but then things get weird. I'm not really sure why what happens happens. It leaves you with more questions than answers.

The acting is ok. It does feel like a low budget film, though, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just is what it is. It's good for a weekend night, "escape from reality" flick but don't expect anything spectacular.

OK for a free-bee on tubi

[illmade · 4/10 · 15 June 2023]

Okay what can you say about a low budget foreign movie, the tries surprisingly hard to pretend that it was filmed in America. Everyone speaks with a European accent, but we have American flags flying everywhere and a Missouri license plate on one of the vehicles. Most of the actors/characters really need to wash their hair and take a bath, it has a dirty, grungy, smoky feel to the entire movie, which really does nothing to enhance the movie, and actually took me out of it a number of times because all I could think of is my God they need to take a shower. The pacing is incredibly slow, nothing unusual for a low budget foreign horror movie. The plot overall is predictable and plodding. Acting is so so, playing bunch of people that you can't understand why they have anything to do with each other, but that's pretty much the norm for modern horror films. It feels low budget, it looks low budget, it is low budget. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it just gets old after a while. Since it's basically a free movie on a free service, there's not a lot to complain about. Would I watch it again? No. Do I regret watching it? Not really. It gave me something to listen to while I was folding clothes.

Baby's first horror movie

[phenomynouss · 1/10 · 23 July 2023]

I caught right at the start the opening credits mentioning Calabria, and realized this was basically an Italian movie. I was concerned because the listing said English, which worried me that I would be watching a badly dubbed version, but in retrospect that probably would've been preferable.

This is a film set in America, and almost none of the main characters has an accent that could discernably be called American. This is not a problem since America is a land of many people except that the main character is described as having been born and raised in America, in Missouri, and has a Scandinavian accent thick enough to have a speaking role in "The Last Kingdom" or "Vikings".

It's all mildly amusing but it's not the reason this movie is so bad. That falls almost entirely on the writing and the overall acting.

Firstly, the depiction of EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomenon is absolutely cartoonish. The incredible crystal clear audio clarity with which these ghostly voices are picked up makes it as though people would be unable to record anything anywhere because they'd be constantly picking up ghosts talking over everything else.

A whole lot of things depicted here are very cartoonish in how they come across, which speaks a lot to either a gross misunderstanding of the subject matter, a severe lack of research, or a very bad writer.

There's constant little things that break what little immersion this film has. The way a whole lot of the dialogue and behavior comes across feels like it was written by someone who has never gone outside and experienced the real world. It comes across as if written by a child imagining this is what grownups sound and act like.

One of the better comparisons to this sort of dissonance I can make is the example of trying to translate a story using a computer translator rather than a native speaker.

On top of this, the story itself is just a boring mess that seems to be trying to set up something, but never actually gets around to it. Then it goes for a completely incoherent twist ending that feels as though a whole lot of the original idea ended up being cut out and they forgot to update the ending accordingly.

Great Acting

[rotini-52586 · 4/10 · 11 May 2022]

Too bad the storyline died halfway through . It could've been a descent movie....but it just got stuck in its own bullcrap . No scares....little suspense...lost interest.

Interesting story with a couple nice twists only one thing I had a issue with so watch enjoy and you may not have any issues

[donaldwaynestephens · 8/10 · 29 June 2023]

So Alex, a sound engineer, who hears a ringing in his ear well let's see who is on the other end when he decides to answer,

This movie is great in my personal opinion part of me would have like for it to have gone into more studies and research into what is going on and there are some spots in the film that are difficult to follow and understand at times yet I feel with any good movie or film their has to be a point at which they make you truly think and if they do not allow you to go into deeper thought then it os just like most movies but to be a great movie you got to make the view Lee think. Now one scene I feel could have been different Alex has been dealing with these spirits talking to him for a long time and they always sound the same to him and when he makes his phone call and his dead friend speaks to him, yet he can't seem to realize he is dead sorry but I think after hearing dead people your whole life you would know or at least suspect it. That's is just my thoughts on this. I do not feel that I have any spoilers but I hope they make a part two I would like to see what the writer does from here.

A boring and cluttered mess of a movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 10 May 2022]

Well, the synopsis for this 2021 horror mystery "They Talk" definitely sounded interesting enough. This movie was one that came in under the radar, but sadly as quietly as it came it also went. Writers Vinicio Canton, Stefano Ceccarelli and Chiara Barbo just didn't manage to put together something extraordinary here.

Sure "They Talk" had potential, but the storyline just collapsed in on itself, suffering from a slow narrative and having absolutely nothing entertaining or worthwhile to offer. So the script made for a poor transition from paper to screen. I certainly wasn't enjoying the storyline here as directed by Giorgio Bruno.

There were a couple of interesting enough visuals here and there throughout the course of the prolonged 96 minutes that the movie ran for. But it just wasn't enough to do much of anything to alleviate the shortcomings of a boring and mundane script.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is usually something I enjoy when I watch movies. However, in "They Talk" it just didn't really count for much of anything, since the actors and actresses virtually had nothing worthwhile to work with in terms of storyline, dialogue or character development.

For a horror mystery then "They Talk" was just downright boring and pointless. There wasn't anything scary here, and even the voices and their messages were just worthy of a single shrug of the shoulders.

My rating of "They Talk" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Slow and boring

[my_belle-00174 · 2/10 · 14 May 2022]

Honestly have no idea what the ending was about. I got bored in the first 5 minutes, so I got up and did some cleaning, messed around on my phone, started reading a book, and played with my dog. From what I saw there was little tension, no scares, or anything all that interesting. He hears voices, can't make out what they say, sleeps with a couple of women, talks with "experts, reconnects with and kills a crazy pregnant old friend. Oh and there's an evil nun that pops up towards the end. Sadly the poorly done movies on syfy channel were more interesting.

Hillariously Nonsensical

[alchemistresss · 1/10 · 18 August 2023]

Let me first say it was beautifully shot and the actors definitely gave it there best. No one has an american accent even though it takes place in Missouri, but I could let that slide. The story was interesting at first but it slowly derailed and tangled itself into something that had me and my family literally laughing and loud and scream at the screen "WHAT?? WHATTT??".

A great movie to laugh at with friends, especially if you're American. But just get ready for absolutely no answers. It's very good at stringing you along, and I welcome you to try and figure it out but I GUARANTEE there's absolutely nothing of substance outside of a good laugh.

They talk... they don't make much sense, but they talk...

[tmccull52 · 1/10 · 16 April 2023]

We have our female lead and her sound engineer boyfriend. Female lead wants to investigate a mystery that was never recorded in any history book or text, but she knows that these events happened, damn it!

She also somehow knows precisely where these events happened,even though there was never any record of them actually having happened. She can FEEL it. Female Lead and her boyfriend set up a camera and sound equipment in the woods, because she knows that THIS is the spot. After Sound Engineer Boyfriend sets up, Female lead beckons to him, and of course, the camera is recording everything. Female Lead puts the make on Sound Engineer Boyfriend, and they begin to grope one another and tumble to the ground. While they're getting jiggy with it, the camera records a series of strange sounds.

Suddenly, Sound Engineer Boyfriend feels uneasy and breaks things off before he and Female Lead can get undressed and bump ugliest. Female Lead is confused by this, but she goes along when Sound Engineer Boyfriend decides to pack up and leave.

Sound Engineer Boyfriend reviews the recordings, and hears what he comes to believe are ghostly whispers in the audio portion of the recordings, and he becomes obsessed with identifying the source of these whispers.

To be honest, the plot was so stupid and the acting was so bad that I lost complete interest in the movie and turned it off about 20 or 25 minutes in, so I can't give you any more than I already have.

A Total Waste of Good Film

[edgewaterluv · 2/10 · 12 July 2023]

Throughout the whole film I kept waiting for the scenes that were supposed to be gripping and suspenseful. None of the so called "Talking" was audible or coherent. The plot started off one way and totally went off into left field. I'm still yet to figure out the girlfriends part of His Story that intertwined with the Nun at the Orphanage. Whoever wrote this needs to go back to school to learn their craft as they surely don't know what they are doing. This was worse than a B rated film at best. I can't ever get back the time I lost on this film and it really irks me that I wasted it watching this piece of garbage.

WHAT!?! What even was that ending?!?!

[FreakyDarling · 3/10 · 29 August 2023]

Ok but honestly it was truly shot beautifully like others have stated. For being an international film with clearly some money put into it with the special effects it wasn'thalf bad. However it was so confusing when getting closer to the end I can see why others said it was muddled. It felt like two different stories shoved together but in chunks instead of a good shuffling. It's the end that made me give it the low rating. That ending literally came out of nowhere and made absolutely zero sense as to why they even set it up like that.

So do go in to this knowing the acting was alright, scenery and filming was well done, but the story really gets out of hand.