A24’s Talk To Me chronicles the story of 17-year-old Mia, played by Sophie Wilde, whose desperation for genuine connection makes her a dangerous candidate for possession. The possession is voluntary and happens to anyone who grabs the movie’s signature embalmed Hand before a lit candle and recites two incantations. The first is “Talk to me,” which summons a spirit for the person holding the Hand to see. Lastly, “I let you in” grants the spirit permission to enter the person’s body for 90 seconds. Any longer, and the spirit may become too attached: a lesson Mia unfortunately learns in the worst way possible. Spoiler’s ahead.

According to the kids in the movie, the mysterious hand once belonged to a medium, who had their hand severed and then embalmed. It’s now used to conjure spirits.

The Talk To Me Game Explained

The film opens with a party going off the rails when a disturbed young man stabs his brother and himself (in the face) in front of everyone. Before learning their place in the story, we meet Mia and the people in her life, including her best friend’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird), a good kid. While Mia’s driving Riley down a country road late at night, the two encounter a severely injured kangaroo on the road. Mia’s left with the decision to either put the kangaroo out of its misery or leave it to suffer. She cannot kill it, so she chooses option two.

Mia’s best friend and Riley’s older sister, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), go to a party. Mia’s been struggling to cope with losing her mother, Rhea (Alexandria Steffensen), so she jumps at the first chance for a cheap thrill at the party: the Hand. Whatever spirit possessed Mia wantingly fixated on Riley, likely because it could control younger vessels more easily.

Letting go of the Hand and blowing out the candle ends the possession, but everyone around Mia fails to do that within the 90-second window. Despite this, she loved the experience and didn’t seem possessed after they removed the spirit from her. At this point, the film’s message of codependency and maladaptive coping mechanisms for grief becomes clear. The possession via supernatural spirits is not unlike the experience of drinking liquor (also referred to as spirits) or taking other substances. The camera angle when the teenagers are lighting the candle is reminiscent of “lighting up” certain other substances, as another example.

Riley’s Overdose

Everyone continues playing with the Hand night after night, and Mia loses herself in the good times until the night of Riley’s first possession. Riley’s not taking well to being possessed, but Mia prolongs it because she believes the spirit is Rhea’s. Mia’s grief has been so unbearable that she’s risking her friend’s well-being just for a chance to talk to her mother again.

Whatever Riley lets in nearly kills him by throwing his body around the room. The scene seems to be a gruesome reminder of the bodily, mental, and spiritual harm overdosing poses to anyone using mind-altering substances and those around them.

Riley’s family casts Mia out because they blame her for what happened to him, inadvertently contributing to her downward spiral. Even worse, she’s stolen the Hand and continues using it mostly privately. She believes the ghost she’s connecting to is her mother, despite clues seemingly pointing to the contrary.

Desperate for connection, Mia uses the Hand alone for a chance to see her deceased mother one more time.

Why Did the Struck Kangaroo Return?

What appears to be Rhea’s ghost convinces Mia that Riley’s soul is being tortured in limbo and instructs her to free the boy by killing him. The spirit tricks Mia into stabbing her father in the neck with scissors before she heads to the hospital.

While Mia’s working up the courage at Riley’s bedside to do the evil deed, she sees the kangaroo they saw on the road earlier in the film. The vision reads like an eerie goading from beyond their physical world to put the boy out of his misery.

Mia puts Riley in a wheelchair and kidnaps him from the hospital, taking him to the side of a busy highway. She intends to push him into oncoming traffic until she realizes Rhea’s ghost is a spirit posing as her mother. It possesses Mia, and she ends up severely injured on the road like the kangaroo. However, Mia’s death isn’t the end of her misery.

Mia’s Nightmare Becomes Reality

Mia’s a ghost but doesn’t realize it, so she tries without success in the hospital to talk to those around her. How did she end up here? I imagine Mia was still alive after getting struck on the highway, and she died while the medical support team fought to save her.

Mia can’t see her reflection in a mirror, which is her recurring nightmare made real. Next, Mia finds herself in complete darkness until a faint light appears. A new group of kids is playing with the Hand and Mia’s become part of the game.

Some questions remain, but a Talk To Me sequel is in the works, so we’ll likely understand more about the creepy Hand and its obscure origins soon.

You can watch Talk To Me on VOD or purchase the Blu-ray starting October 3rd, 2023.