Talk to Me is a Cutthroat Tale of Grief and Horror

 

Credit to Talk to Me (2023) | Rotten Tomatoes

I have watched this movie several years ago, and I was so impressed by how disturbing and gory this film was. The trailer barely gave anything away, and I knew I was in for a good time once I saw this film in theaters. It takes a lot for me to look away from the screen from gory scenes, but man, some parts of this film were so damn brutal!

We follow the story of a group of kids, who discover a supernatural sculpture in the shape of a hand. There are random writings all over this hand, and the kids learn that this hand is special, and can be used to communicate with the dead, inviting them into their bodies for a quick possession. 

In the beginning of the film, we already get a terrible introduction of the kind of damage this hand can do. A random kid at a college party goes on a rampage, attacking his brother out of the blue with a knife. While everyone is running away in fear, the kid doesn’t hesitate to shove the blade through his face.

We then get to meet our main characters, who will unfortunately experience true madness and pure terror. 

Credit to ‘Talk to Me’ Sequel in the Works, Titled ‘Talk 2 Me’

A young girl named Mia decides to go to a party with her friend Jade and her boyfriend, Daniel. Mia has a bit of a crush on him too, but she keeps her jealousy to herself. We notice right away that Mia doesn’t seem to be alright. 

She is going through the loss of her mother, and now holds a bad relationship with her father, refusing to believe that her mother ended her own life. Luckily, Mia has her friends to keep her together, that she considers as family. During this party, the group learns that two people named Hayley and Joss possess a random artifact of a hand that has allow people to communicate with the dead. 

Mia volunteers to go first, but it’s obvious that no one is really believing this right off the bat. Once Mia says the words: “Talk to me,” she freaks out upon witnessing a spirit right in front of her. Hayley and Joss tell her she must let the spirit in, and she gives the spirit permission. Mia becomes possessed, her eyes becoming a full black. 

The group freaks out, realizing that this is indeed real, and people at the party end the possession, letting the group know that they must never allow the possession to last a long time. 

Mia and her friends decide to attend another get together to use the hand one more time…but one of the possessions leads to disaster. 

Credit to The American Society of Cinematographers | Talk to Me: Lighting With…

Once Jade’s brother, Riley, hears about Mia’s experience with the hand, he begs his sister and Mia if he can attend the next get together. Jade reluctantly complies, but they only let him watch. While the group is having fun using the hand, and experiencing batshit crazy possessions, Riley begs the group to let him try it out. 

While Riley is about to let the spirit in, he shows slight hesitation, as if he is afraid to let the spirit in. Once he does, we immediately learn why he didn’t want to. The spirit turned out to be Mia’s deceased mother, and she begs the group to let her speak with her while they are warning Mia they have to let Riley snap out of the possession. 

Shit hits the fan, and Riley suddenly starts to bang his head against the desk, injuring himself, and at one point, attempted to rip out one of his eyes. His sister Jade is able to prevent him from slamming his face again, barely saving his life. 

Mia is blamed for what happened to Riley by Jade and her mother, and while she is traumatized by the experience, she secretly had stolen the hand, in order to continue communicating with her mother. 

Daniel offers to stay with her to comfort Mia, knowing that she is going through a lot. Mia is then possessed out of nowhere, attempting to taste Daniel’s feet…this part really disgusted me. Daniel gets really pissed off at Mia, and he storms out of her bedroom, leaving Mia alone. 

She slaps herself across the face, grief completely taking over her body as she struggles to snap out of everything going wrong in her life. 

Mia decides to use the hand to contact her mother, and she tells Mia that her death was accidental, and that Riley is in danger, his soul trapped by the spirits. 

Credit to ‘Talk to Me’ Ending Explained: What Happened to Mia and Riley?

While Jade is looking after her brother in the hospital, she witnesses her brother still under the spirits’ control, as he injures himself again, laughing. The group hunt down the brother in the beginning of the film, who had survived the sudden attack by his brother. 

He tells the group they never should have messed with the hand, warning them that was why his brother was now gone. Hayley and Joss both decide to split, no longer wanting anything to do with the cursed hand. Mia and her friends head over to the hospital with the hand, and Mia uses the hand to figure out where Riley is trapped. She sees a disturbing vision of Riley being held hostage by multiple spirits, torturing him. 

Mia goes home, and learns that her mother left behind a note, and her father reads it to her, confirming that her mother did end her life. Mia’s mother appears to her, telling her that her father is lying to her, and her father suddenly appears, attacking her. 

Mia defends herself with a pair of scissors, realizing that her father was never attacking her, it a was all an hallucination. 

Mia is officially gone at this point of the film, and she heads over to the hospital to kill Riley, because her mother claimed it is the only way to free his soul from the hand for good. 

Credit to Talk to Me Ending Explained

Jade decides to go over to Mia’s house, and discovers that Mia has stabbed her father, but he is still alive. Jade quickly tries to get to the hospital, realizing that Mia could do the same to Riley. Mia picks up Riley with a wheelchair, taking him all the way to busy traffic. 

Her mother’s spirit appears, but the spirit is now resembling the spirit she had let in the first time she took hold of the hand, hinting that it was never truly her mother to begin with. Mia realizes this truth, and she throws herself in traffic instead, saving Riley. Mia wakes up on the road, in total confusion as time appears to be going fast around her. 

Riley has fully recovered, and is spending time with Jade and his mother. Mia sees her father going into an elevator, and while she is calling out to him, he goes up in the elevator. Then everything around her goes black. 

Until she sees a light, with a human hand waiting for her. 

She takes hold of the hand, and learns a dark truth. 

She is now the spirit, about to be let into a human, who is now using the hand. Mia gasps in shock, ending the film. 

I love how brutal this ending was. 

We got a full-on film about grief, and the consequences that followed as Mia continued to make bad choices with continuing to use the hand. 

There are so many theories if Riley was indeed possessed by her mother, and I believe that he was for that time, but since the spirits knew that Mia was now attached to the hand, they used Riley as their scapegoat to cause pure terror, to lure Mia to them. 

It’s so tragic what happened to Mia, and even though she had loved ones around her, it wasn’t enough to save her soul in the end.