Horror is defined by the McGuffins it uses. Evil can often be found in the items its characters encounter. And the object at the centre of Talk to Me is a doozy. A ceramic, embalmed hand, reaching out to be held, one that allows its users to communicate with spirits in an intimate fashion. But be warned, if you keep the doorway open for too long the impact on the living can be great. For Mia, a teen still processing the loss of her mother, and her friends, what starts as harmless fun leads them to dark, unnatural places.

Violence bursts into the world of Talk to Me, a brutally effective means to punch through the rest of the film’s quieter, sombre mood. From the opening moments onwards the dangers that threaten to envelope the characters of the film are shown. The lore at the heart of the narrative is handled delicately, effectively as the Philippous weave the kind of ghost story M.R. James would be proud of. Early on, the use of the ceramic hand gives a giddy thrill and the standout sequence is when Mia first lays hand on this item and lets the entities in. Sophie Wilde’s body clinks, crunches and moves unnaturally as her fellow partygoers revel in the glee of the ‘is-this-real?’ spectacle. But as is to be expected, if you open a door to the other side, the consequences will not be good. Those bursts of violence become more frequent all the way to a haunting finale.

And haunting is a good word to use for Talk to Me. It’s a chilling, effective ghost story, one that shares its DNA with other breakout horror films of the last decade or so. There’s a thick wedge of It Follows, which is perhaps the last film to successfully marry supernatural horrors with an intimate portrayal of teen life. The cast here do effective work, all headed by a remarkable performance from Wilde. A likeable, glowing presence from the start, the grief that consumes Mia, that propels them through the narrative is present in Wilde’s mannerisms. The way she holds herself in an early scene, as if the weight of living is pushing down her, makes the audience want to reach out and help. This is one dark narrative we wish Wilde’s Mia could escape.

From its audacious start to a deeply impactful finale, Talk to Me is a gem of a horror debut. It gives audiences something rather lacking in the genre of late. And in Sophia Wilde it has a star-making turn that will break the viewer’s heart.