YouTube was their film school. Australian twins Michael and Danny Philippou’s live action videos on their RackaRacka channel attracted over 6 million subscribers. Some even came to the attention of the likes of Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. No wonder the two observe, with a large dollop of irony, that it’s been “all downhill after that!”
Now the word is spreading that their first feature, Talk To Me, is a deeply unsettling mix of traditional horror and modern culture. The story of a group of friends conjuring up spirits using an embalmed hand premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and, despite what the duo say, the only way since has been up.
We spoke to them during Sundance London and in the video, they talk about their approach to special effects…
And, below, they reflect on their influences as horror filmmakers, in particular their time on the set of The Babadook.
What horror movies and makers, and classic stories, have influenced you? The film reminded me of The Monkey’s Paw at times.
Danny: Oh, Monkey’s Paw! That’s an old school classic. It’s really awesome. I’m really drawn to The Exorcist – from this film you can really see that – and the realistic way it presents the characters. We love Bong Joon Ho and the way he’ll jumble a whole load of different tones – he will jump from horror to comedy to drama in a couple of seconds and we love the way he moves between different genres. I guess Sam Raimi as well ….
Michael: We were able to have dinner with Sam Raimi! He was asking us questions about our film and we were asking him questions about all of his stuff as well. We’re big fans of his, so it’s awesome to be friends with him now. It’s so cool.
When you started out in the film industry, you both worked on The Babadook.
Danny: We were crewing a lot when we were younger and just getting our foot in the door. We were getting work experience on film sets and Michael was able to get his first paid job on The Babadook because he’d done a bunch of free driving gigs and been a runner on a bunch of films and I was able to get work experience in the lighting department. It was amazing to be on that set. Incredible.
How much did working on The Babadook cement in your mind that horror was what you wanted to make? And how much did it influence Talk To Me?
Michael: It influenced us more in terms of directing style. We saw how much Jen [director Jennifer Kent] cared about every single frame. She wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect. She was like “this is my vision”. Before then, it felt like people were just there for a paycheque but she wasn’t there for that. She was creating art and we loved that about her. I was really inspired by the way she directed so we carry that kind of mentality with us. But wanting to do horror films goes back to when we were little kids. We’ve always wanted to do it.
Talk To Me is released in UK cinemas on 28 July.
Read our review here and check out our final video below where we ask Michael and Danny what we should officially call them…