Imagine if those awful high school ‘films’ you made with your mates ever saw the life of day now.
Back in the good days, when you’d go the park with your friends and film stupid videos that weren’t TikTok dances. You’d post them on your Snapchat Stories thinking you were absolutely hilarious. But looking back now, they were f**king embarrassing.
And yet that’s just how the directors behind this year’s highest rated horror film started out. Well, kind of.
Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou might be better known as RackaRacka to their 6.8 million YouTube subscribers.
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A load of their videos saw mad cross overs, like putting Harry Potter up against Star Wars or Ronald McDonald against Burger King.
They even put DC up against Marvel - the ultimate test.
Their mad parody, gory, juvenile videos were massively popular - not to mention just plain weird. But it worked.
In August this year Michael told GQ Magazine: “Danny was filming fake fail videos - like, sticking a knife in the toaster, and it suddenly blowing up - and they'd spread like wildfire on Facebook. They'd end up on these big talk shows, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien.
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“And a friend of ours said, Why don't you make a YouTube channel, just to say where they're coming from?”
And now, at 30-years-old, the twins have blown from their YouTube fame of funny, gory videos to the mega A24 horror film, Talk to Me.
Although, it’s still pure RackaRacka with gore and fun in its theme, making you flinch here and there with the grim scenes.
The movie follows a group of friends who come across an embalmed hand which allows them to conjure spirits.
Obviously everything goes wrong from this point as the group gets carried away with a power they don't understand, and they end up unleashing a horrific slew of supernatural forces.
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The brothers told Looper how starting out with their online videos led to them getting their A24 horror movie, which is now on Netflix.
"YouTube was a practice ground for us as filmmakers, and we used every video that we did to sharpen our skills and learn something new and try a stunt for the first time, or try a certain [visual] effect, or try a certain makeup effect," Danny explained.
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"Each of those videos was building up to finally taking that leap and doing the feature film."
Michael added: "Now, with story and stuff, we're excited to take a leap and have a go at the more narrative-driven stuff."
As far as the critics go, Rotten Tomatoes says that 94 percent of them liked the film, while 82 percent of general audiences gave it the thumbs up.
A sequel has even been confirmed already, with the twins returning to direct.
Topics: TV and Film, YouTube, Netflix
Jess Battison