"It’s rewarding in another way" - RackaRacka duo Danny and Michael Philippou open up about YouTube's influence on Talk to Me

After years of being a sensation on YouTube, RackaRacka duo Danny and Michael Philippou have finally joined mainstream Hollywood with their feature, Talk to Me, which is currently one of the highest-rated horror films on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critically acclaimed film premiered in theaters on July 27, 2023, and has received further good reviews since.

The journey from being YouTube superstars to creating something that would hit the mass market and also be expressive artistically has not been a short one for the twins, who have cited in a recent interview with Slant Magazine that the limiting YouTube experience was a major catalyst behind them going for the bold horror film.

Speaking to Slant Magazine's Marshall Shaffer, Danny Philippou expressed how the limitations of YouTube were a key cog in unlocking the endless creativity that went into this feature.

"There’s such a hunger to express. When you do something for so long in group A, of course, you’re always thinking of group B. Eventually, when you go over, things just flow out, he said.

I’ve never expressed myself in this way, so the first draft of Talk to Me just really flew out of me...bouncing the script back and forth, we’d never done anything like that on YouTube. It’s rewarding in another way," he continued.

His brother Michael also shared something similar while talking to Slant Magazine, where the twins also expressed their affinity with Korean cinema and how that helped shape Talk to Me.

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"We were kind of giving into the stigma of YouTube a little" - Michael Philippou opens up about the writing process of Talk to Me

Talk to Me's great critical response is a nod to the great writing that has gone behind the Sophie Wilde starrer.

It is also one of the most important elements of a good horror film, a genre that has become extremely layered and complicated in the past decade compared to its earlier history with no-brainer monsters and ghosts.

Michael revealed that they were, at times, dragged down by the stigma of being YouTubers, which did not help their confidence while working on the project.

"I never thought of this, but we kind of needed permission to write. We were writing this thing called Concrete Kings, and we had so many different writers. They all fell through for various reasons. Then because Danny was really specific about some scenes, one of them gave notes on the scenes but basically wrote it. She said, “You should be the one writing this. I could do this and take the paycheck, but you have to write this film like that..." Michael said.

"That unlocked a thing in us like, “Oh, we could be writers if we wanted to.” We were kind of giving into the stigma of YouTube a little. “Oh, we’re just YouTubers, so we can’t write!” he further elaborated.

"Having this writer that I really looked up to say that to me did unlock confidence a little bit, so we were able to express ourselves in that way," Danny added.

Hence, by breaking free of the norms and associations that come with being YouTubers, the 30-year-old duo created something special with the potential to change the horror scene forever.

Talk to Me is playing in theaters.