The movie Talk to Me was very hyped up on social media by A24.(A24 being the entertainment company that released the movie.) A24 claimed it to be the scariest movie of 2023, and when I went to see it I was not disappointed.
I’ll have to give a spoiler warning, though, because I don’t really see a good way to talk about this movie without some spoilers. However, I’ll try my hardest to avoid telling exactly what happens.
The plot of this movie was that the characters could connect with and talk to the dead. It’s a classic trope, but in this movie they grab a plastered hand to begin a connection with the spirit.
This hand is used as a party trick by a bunch of teenagers. The first party they have is, of course, spooky because they are letting themselves become possessed for a moment while they grab the hand, but the first party doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect on the kids. They find the hand to be great entertainment, and a few of the teens hang out again to try it once more.
This is of course where things start to backfire.
Jade’s little brother, Riley, would like a turn with the hand. All characters but the main character, Mia, insists he is too young to hang out with them and much too young to do something dangerous and scary
Mia lets him have a turn when Jade steps out of the room and all hell breaks loose. The spirit possessing Riley forces him to hurt himself in pretty violent ways. In the process of calling the ambulance, they never blow out the candles to properly rid the spirit, which seems to still be in Riley’s body at the hospital.
Mia is also affected by her time with the hand now, and begins to see dead people. The most cringe worthy part of the movie comes when Mia believes she is seeing a demon sucking on her friend’s foot. It’s revealed there was no spirit and Mia was actually just sucking her friend’s toes (It’s very uncalled for.) However this scene tells us that Mia has become an unreliable narrator.
Which is why, even as Riley begins to recover from his injuries she thinks he’s getting worse.
The movie uses some good foreshadowing at the beginning of the film to show that Mia is unable to put an animal out of its misery even when it is suffering. She now believes Riley’s suffering to be worse and is forced with a decision.
The ending was pretty good. It left room for a second movie, and shows us the aftermath of the events in the film, too. I really do hope we will get that second movie because this film was extremely scary, just like it claimed to be.
