Spiritual possession takes center stage in A24’s latest horror sensation, Talk to Me, as a group of teenagers recklessly indulge in a supernatural thrill they cannot resist—ultimately leading to devastating consequences.
Seventeen-year-old Mia (Sophie Wilde) finds herself at the heart of this group, still grieving the loss of her mother exactly one year before the film’s events comes to play.
In the absence of her mother, she has grown distant from her father (Marcus Johnson) and instead seeks comfort in the family of her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), which includes Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) and their mother, Sue (Miranda Otto). Rather than attempting to reconnect with her father, Mia leans on them for support.
Mia’s search for connection leads her straight into the unknown (Photo: Talk to Me/Causeway Films, Bankside Films, and Talk to Me Holdings)Directed by Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou—best known for their RackaRacka YouTube channel—the film follows Mia’s descent into madness, fueled by grief and a desperate need to escape her reality.
The High of the Hand
A chilling opening sequence sets the stage before the story picks up on the anniversary of Mia’s mother’s death. That evening, her father makes an attempt to engage her in conversation, but she quickly welcomes an interruption when Riley calls and asks for a ride home from the park.
On their way back, the two share a lighthearted moment, scream-singing along to Sia’s “Chandelier,” until their journey is interrupted by a dying kangaroo struggling in the middle of the road. Riley urges Mia to put the suffering animal out of its misery, but at the last moment, she swerves to avoid it, leaving it to its fate—an ominous foreshadowing of events yet to come.
Later, at Jade and Riley’s house, Mia shows Jade a viral video of classmates appearing to be possessed after holding onto a white ceramic hand. While Jade dismisses it as a hoax, Mia is intrigued and eager to experience it firsthand.
At a party that night, she volunteers to go first, taking hold of what is said to be the embalmed and severed hand of a deceased medium. Hayley (Zoe Terakes), one of the hand’s keepers, lays out the rules: Light a candle, grip the hand, utter the phrase “talk to me,” and invite the spirit inside. However, there’s a strict limit—possession must not exceed 90 seconds, or else the spirit will refuse to leave.
An even graver warning follows: Anyone who dies while possessed will have their soul trapped in limbo, bound to the spirits already imprisoned within the hand.
As Mia undergoes the ritual, she experiences an intense supernatural rush, channeling a spirit that immediately fixates on Riley. The experience is supposed to be brief, but when Joss (Chris Alosio), the other keeper of the hand, attempts to remove it, the spirit fights back, pushing past the time limit. Once they manage to pry it away, Mia emerges from the trance, exhilarated by what she has just felt.
“They’ll Want to Stay”
The rules have been broken, and now there are repercussions. At the next gathering, the group continues using the hand, each taking turns seeking out the supernatural high while recording the eerie encounters for social media.
When Riley begs to participate, Jade refuses and leaves the room, hoping to put an end to it. With Jade gone, Mia decides to let Riley try, but she insists on keeping it under 60 seconds.
As soon as the possession begins, the spirit inhabiting Riley addresses Mia, claiming to be her deceased mother. Overcome with emotion, she allows the ritual to continue well beyond the safe limit.
Without warning, Riley’s body reacts violently—he repeatedly slams his head against the table as the spirit’s hold tightens. Desperate to end the ordeal, the others fight to remove the hand, but Riley claws at his own face, attempting to gouge out his eye before being hurled across the room.
Jade rushes back just as Riley is about to deliver a fatal blow to himself, throwing her hand between his head and the desk. The group finally separates him from the hand and immediately calls emergency services.
How it All Ends
With Riley clinging to life in the hospital, Mia finds herself tormented by horrifying visions of the dead. Even more terrifying, every time Riley regains consciousness, spirits seize control, attempting to end his life and claim him forever.
Believing she can undo what has been done, Mia devises a plan. She intends to close the spiritual doorway on Riley’s behalf—lighting the candle, placing the hand in his grasp, commanding the spirit to “talk to him,” and then blowing out the flame herself.
Teenagers play with possession, unaware of the horrors ahead (Photo: Talk to Me/Causeway Films, Bankside Films, and Talk to Me Holdings)However, when nothing changes, she seeks answers by asking the spirits to reveal Riley’s current state. In a disturbing vision, she sees him trapped in torment, ensnared within a mass of suffering souls.
Desperate for closure, Mia uses the hand again in an attempt to contact her mother. Her mother’s death was ruled a suicide due to an overdose of sleeping pills, but Mia recalls her mother clawing at the bedroom door in distress, leading her to believe it was an accident.
The spirit posing as her mother validates this belief, assuring her that Riley’s death would spare him from his current suffering, as she would care for him on the other side.
Later, Mia’s father presents her with her mother’s suicide note, which he had hidden to protect her. However, the spirit disguised as her mother convinces her that her father is an evil entity trying to harm her. Succumbing to the deception, Mia stabs him.
Determined to carry out what she now believes is her mother’s will, Mia heads to the hospital. After deceiving Jade and Sue into leaving her alone with Riley, she places him in a wheelchair and takes him toward a busy highway.
The sinister spirit of her mother urges her to push Riley into the oncoming traffic, but in a moment of clarity, Mia resists and instead throws herself in front of a speeding vehicle.
In the result, Mia finds herself standing at the crash site before being abruptly transported to the hospital. She watches as her father and Riley, now healed, leave together, yet she is unable to reach them.
Suddenly, a tunnel of light appears, drawing her forward. As she steps inside, she realizes she is now the one being summoned—her hand gripped by strangers conducting the ritual with the embalmed hand.
The film concludes with Mia permanently trapped among the spirits bound to the hand, lost in the very darkness she once sought to control.
