The Australian horror film, Talk To Me has finally had its international premiere, and it turns out it’s one of the best supernatural films to be released this week. Danny Philippou serves as the director, while the concept was provided by Daley Pearson.
First released in the US on July 28th, 2023, Talk To Me follows the classic plot where the main protagonist ends up disturbing the world of spirits only for them to become haunted later. In Talk To Me, the main character is Mia, a young teenager who lost her mom at a young age and spent all of her time at her best friend, Jade’s house.
Jade, Mia, and Riley (Jade’s brother) go to a party where they see a special porcelain embalmed hand that takes the person holding it into the world of lost spirits if they perform a ritual. After using the hand, both Mia and Riley are severely distraught and start seeing apparitions and visions of these lost souls.
Talk To Me is entirely filmed in Adelaide, with the main cast members of the movie being Sophie Wilde as Mia, Alexandra Jensen in the role of Jade, Joe Bird as Riley, Otis Dhanji plays Daniel, Miranda Otto stars as Sue and Zoe Terakes plays the role of Hayley. This Philippou brothers’ first feature film has received many positive reviews, especially owing to its plot and special effects.
Talk To Me: What Happens In The Film?
Talk To Me begins with a man named Cole escorting his brother, Duckett, out of a party when suddenly Duckett turns to him and stabs him, later stabbing himself too. The scene then shifts to Mia, a 17-year-old, who is having a tough time as it’s the day of her mother’s second death anniversary. Rhea had committed suicide, and Mia was taken care of by her dad, Max.
To avoid being an emotional mess at her home, Mia decides to spend her time with Jade’s family. The trio quietly sneak out to a house party, where one of the hot topics is a scary porcelain-coated hand. The ritual involves holding the hand and lighting a candle, followed by uttering the words “Talk To Me” and “I let you in,” which cause the lost soul to enter the body.
However, to avoid dangerous consequences, the user has to blow out the candles after 90 seconds. Any longer, and the spirit may just decide to stay. When Mia uses it, she is possessed by a lost soul that starts to threaten Riley, who was beside her the whole time. The possession, unfortunately, happens for more than 90 seconds.
Like all of that wasn’t scary enough, Riley volunteers to use the hand the next day, but he ends up being possessed by a spirit that claims to be Mia’s mom. Mia tries to stop Riley from ending the possession after 90 seconds.
This fatal mistake leads to Riley’s body being overtaken by the spirits, and he brutally smashes his face on the table. He is immediately taken to the hospital, and Jade’s family starts to blame Mia for what happened.
Riley’s condition gets worse, while Mia faces some spine-chilling visions of the spirit. Seeing all of the chaos, the friends who were there at the party track down Cole, who had used the hand previously and knew more about it.
He reveals that the spirits that possessed Riley would weaken if given enough time and that they should just wait it out. Mia decides to complete the ritual they began in Jade’s house that day by blowing out candles.
Later, Max decides to give Mia her mother’s suicide note. Mia is then attacked by a very angry spirit who takes up the form of her father. When she comes back to her senses, Mia sees that she has stabbed Max with scissors. The spirit then orders Mia to kill Riley if she wants Rhea to come back. In a desperate attempt to get back her mom, she sneaks Riley out of the hospital in a wheelchair.
Talk To Me: Ending Explained
By the end of Talk To Me, we see that the evil spirit convinces Mia to throw Riley into the traffic. However, Mia ends up running onto the road herself. When she gets to the hospital after waking up, she sees that Riley is thankfully now okay and Max is doing fine too. What’s strange is that Mia wasn’t able to talk to any of these people.
As she passes by a mirror, Mia notices that she can’t see her reflection. That’s when she realized she was dead and had become a lost soul, just like the ones that communicated through the hand. In the last scene, she notices a hand reaching out and sees random partygoers on the other side.
The ending is surprising and sad, but Mia does indeed become one of them. Lost souls that inhabit the hand are always looking to possess a living body to feel alive just for a short while. That’s why the 90-second rule was important, as by blowing out the candles after that time, the spirit would be sent back to limbo.
Since Mia wasn’t able to do it, she became possessed and haunted by desperate spirits. When Riley got possessed by Rhea, it was most likely genuine, but the other times when we see “Rhea” weren’t probably her. The spirit wanted Mia to die, as those killed by these lost spirits also become lost souls themselves.
Mia got herself involved with the supernatural world, and such things never end in a good way. She became just like those lost souls, wandering in limbo until a hand reached out, a hand that would let her experience being alive just one more time.
The movie is a hauntingly tragic tale that is filled with interesting elements. It relies more on its story than special effects, and that’s what makes Talk To Me such a scary yet intriguing film. Talk To Me is now available to stream on Hulu.
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