Philippou brothers: 'It was always our main goal to get into feature films'
Twins Michael and Danny Philippou on their film Talk To Me, YouTube fame and horror films.
Australian twin brothers Michael and Danny Philippou began making films at around nine years old. Since then, they have found viral success creating live action, horror comedy content for their YouTube channel RackaRacka, which has won several awards.
The brothers' success online seems to have rubbed off onto their feature film making and their debut horror film Talk To Me, caused quite a stir at the 2023 Sundance Festival. The film follows a group of friends who video each other being possessed and upload it for a global audience.
Michael and Danny Philippou recently spoke to ABC Radio National's Jason Di Rosso about why they've branched out into feature films.
"It was always our main goal to get into feature film and television, and the YouTube stuff was just a cool way to express ourselves and experiment early," says Danny, adding: "It's like those tools are available to anyone now that's growing up that can tap into an audience on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube... It's like a way of making stuff and sharpening your skills."
"It was literally just sharpening ourselves and building ourselves up with every aspect of film making... with VFX, or stunts, or working with crew members and building sets, we had all that experience," he says.
The film Talk To Me was released internationally from 27 July 2023.
(Photo: Michael Philippou (L) and Danny Philippou (R). Credit: Robby Klein/Getty Images)
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