10 Recent Horror Movies That Broke All The Rules
3. Talk to Me (2023)
Rule Break: Demon possession gone viral?
Possession horror used to be all about Latin incantations, dusty tomes, and a priest with a drinking problem. Talk to Me flips that on its head. Here, the dead don’t need a Ouija board - just a party, a crowd, and a severed embalmed hand.
Directed by Aussie twins Danny and Michael Philippou (best known for YouTube chaos), this breakout hit turns the demonic into a dare. Teens take turns gripping the cursed hand, letting spirits inside them for 90 seconds at a time while their friends film and laugh. But what starts as a dark thrill becomes something much uglier, fast. One possession goes too far, and the fallout is deeply unsettling.
The genius of Talk to Me is that it treats possession like addiction: messy, impulsive, and self-inflicted. The kids want the rush. They chase it. And when things go to hell, the damage isn’t just supernatural, it’s emotional. Grief, guilt, and self-harm spiral into the film’s core.
It also breaks horror’s "rules" around escalation. There's no exposition dump, no ancient book explaining how to beat the curse. The rules are never obvious because when you're young and grieving, nothing is. Talk to Me ends not with closure, but with a gut-punch that lingers long after the credits roll.
Possession horror for the TikTok age - and it absolutely wrecks you.