The excitement around Talk to Me is palpable. A new horror film from A24, the people who brought us Hereditary, The Witch, and Midsommar, is something to be excited about. And Talk to Me is certainly a film that deserves to live in that pantheon–it’s one of the best horror films of the year.
On the anniversary of her mother’s untimely death, high schooler Mia (Sophie Wilde), her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and Jade’s little brother, Riley (Joe Bird), sneak out to a house party. While there, they discover a new game going around: Talk to Me. A couple of Mia’s classmates have a plaster hand, posed at an awkward angle. A person shakes the hand and says, “Talk to me. I let you in.” The spirit of a dead person then enters the living person and speaks through them. The catch? If you don’t let go of the hand and blow out the candle after 90 seconds, the spirit could decide to hang around.
It is such a rush that Mia and Jade decide to have a couple of people over and do it again. Everyone has fun, taking turns talking to the spirits, until Riley goes under. It seems the spirit talking through him is Mia’s mother. There is panic, as Mia begs to leave Riley under longer so she can talk to her mother. Unfortunately, things go very, very wrong for Riley before the group finally disengages him. He ends up hospitalized in a coma, as Mia is desperate to reach him–all while being haunted by visions of her dead mother.