Talk to Me (2022)

Summary: When a bunch of teenagers are holding a late night party in the house of one of them someone introduces a mummified hand with some instructions. Apparently anyone holding onto the hand and saying the words “talk to me” will be visited by someone from the spirit world, and if they say “I’ll let you in”, the spirit will take over their bodies, but if the hand is not removed before one and a half minutes are up, their body may be taken over for good. Invasions take place and they get a lot of laughs until Riley a fifteen year old boy gets a go, and his body appears to have been taken over by the spirit of Mia’s mother, who has committed suicide. Mia attempts to speak to her mother resulting in Riley exceeding the time limit and apparently being taken over. This results in him attempting to kill himself, by beating his head against sharp objects. Mia begins to see visions of her mother and her reality is invaded by grotesque humans. What to do?

Content:  No sex or nudity, but some drinking and drug taking. An opening scene shows a young man committing suicide by stabbing himself in the face. When one young man is taken over he simulates having sex, snogging a dog.  When Riley is attempting to kill himself the result is bloody and unpleasant. Mia is variously visited by spirits as well as that of her mother. She seems sometimes to be seeing them and sometimes to be taken over by them, sometimes both.

A View: On a minuscule budget this outing has made a lot of money. At the beginning of the film they feature Chandelier, the song by Sia who I did not know, is Australian. It got us on side right away. Much of the film is either shocking, or creepy. I wanted to know how they knew the rules for communicating with the hand. And indeed, over the duration of the movie new things seemed to be happening, outside the scope of the initial rules. It just seemed that after a while they threw away their rule book and included whatever took their fancy. Even so, well done and probably worth its admission price.

The film probably fits into the genre which includes Scream, Final Destination and Friday the 13th.