Talk to Me is a horror film about grief, addiction, and the price of wanting to talk to dead people. It is also a movie about teenagers who find a severed embalmed hand at a party and decide to try it. That premise is better than the execution gets credit for.
The Philippou brothers direct from a script they wrote with Bill Hinzman, adapting a concept by Daley Pearson. The film stars Sophie Wilde as Mia, the girl who becomes obsessed with the hand, and Alexandra Jensen as Jade, her best friend. The rest of the cast includes Joe Bird as Riley, Otis Dhanji as Daniel, Miranda Otto as Sue, Zoe Terakes as Hayley, Chris Alosio as Joss, Marcus Johnson as Max, and Alexandria Steffensen as Rhea.
Trailer, via A24.
Mia’s Grief and the Hand’s Rules
The setup is simple. Mia, 17, is still hurting from the anniversary of her mother’s death from an accidental sleeping pill overdose. She lives with her father, Max, and her relationship with him is distant. At a party thrown by Hayley and Joss, a severed embalmed hand is the main attraction. Hold the hand, say “Talk to me,” and a spirit appears.
There is a safety rule. Someone else must pull the hand away and blow out the candle within 90 seconds to break the possession. The film spends its runtime testing how often that rule gets broken.
Mia volunteers to go first and is possessed by a spirit fixated on Riley. The other guests struggle to break the connection, and the time limit is exceeded. Mia describes the experience to Riley as euphoric.
Riley’s Possession and the Family Secret
The next night, Mia, Hayley, Joss, and Jade’s boyfriend Daniel gather at Jade’s house. Everyone except Riley and his friend James takes turns being possessed. Jade refuses to let Riley join in, but when she leaves the room and Riley pushes for it, Mia lets him hold the hand for 50 seconds.
Riley appears to be possessed by the spirit of Rhea, Mia’s mother. The spirit tries to reconcile with Mia, and Mia stops the group from ending the possession to keep talking to her mother. The spirits take over Riley’s body, making him violently bang his head against the table and walls. He is hospitalized in critical condition.
The film knows exactly what it wants to do with this sequence. It is tense, well-timed, and genuinely frightening. The problem is that the tension builds slowly across most of the runtime, and the payoff feels rushed.
A Familiar Formula, Slightly Improved
Talk to Me borrows heavily from horror films about found footage and demonic conjuring. The candle, the countdown, the disembodied voices — none of it is original. What distinguishes it is the specificity of the hand ritual and the way the filmmakers lean into the idea of possession as a drug.
Mia’s grief is the engine of the film. Her desire to speak to her dead mother is understandable, even admirable, and the film treats it with some genuine feeling. The problem is that the supernatural mechanics feel like a convenience. The hand works the same way every time, and the rules are never really questioned once the film gets going.
The supporting characters exist mostly to be threatened or used. Daniel, Hayley, and Joss get little to do beyond holding the hand and reacting to the chaos. Jade is the moral center of the film, refusing to let Riley risk himself, but her arc is thin. The film is at its best when it focuses on Mia and Riley, and at its worst when it tries to juggle everyone at once.
The Critical Reception and Its Limits
Talk to Me premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival on 30 October 2022. It was released in Australia on 27 July 2023 by Maslow Entertainment, Umbrella Entertainment, and Ahi Films, and by A24 in the United States the following day. The film grossed $92 million worldwide against a production budget of $4.5 million, becoming A24’s then-highest-grossing horror film.
The critical reception was strong. At the 13th AACTA Awards, the film won eight awards, including Best Film. The Philippou brothers won for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay, and Wilde won for Best Actress.
| Category | Result |
|---|---|
| Director | Danny and Michael Philippou |
| Writer | Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman |
| Concept | Daley Pearson |
| Lead actress | Sophie Wilde |
| Studio | A24 |
The Verdict on Talk to Me
Talk to Me is a solid, if predictable, horror film. It is well-acted, especially by Wilde, who carries the weight of Mia’s grief and obsession. The practical effects are effective, and the final act delivers a scare that lingers.
But the middle section drags. The film spends too much time explaining the rules of the hand and not enough time building dread. The characters outside Mia and Riley feel like cogs in the machine.
The film is a reminder that a good premise is not enough. Talk to Me knows exactly what it wants to do, but it spends too long getting there.
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