Talk to Me 2023

The film starts at a party, where a man named Cole (Ari McCarthy) is walking through a house looking for his brother Duckett (Sunny Johnson). Cole finds him locked in a room, so he breaks the door down and pulls Duckett out of there while he is shirtless and mumbling to himself. Cole then yells at everyone filming the scene on their phones and tells them to stop before Duckett stabs Cole, and then goes outside to stab himself in the eye, to the horror of other partygoers.

Elsewhere, 17-year-old Mia (Sophie Wilde) is going through the second anniversary of the death of her mother Rhea (Alexandria Steffensen), whom Mia believes suffered an accidental overdose. She lives with her father Max (Marcus Johnson) and doesn’t communicate with him much after the incident. Mia spends more time with her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and her younger brother Riley (Joe Bird), plus their mother Sue (Miranda Otto).

One evening, Mia picks up Riley from hanging out with his friend, and on the way back, they find a kangaroo on the street that has recently been hit. It is moaning in agony, so Riley tells Mia they should put it out of its misery. Mia attempts to drive over the kangaroo’s head, only to find herself unable to do so and just drives around it instead.

Jade convinces Mia to join her for a party, mainly because Jade’s boyfriend Daniel (Otis Dhanji) will be there. Riley joins them as they sneak out. The party is hosted by Joss (Chris Alosio) and Hayley (Zoe Terakes). Everyone gathers as they take out an embalmed hand of a medium with writing scribbled on it. The purpose of their game is to hold onto the hand so that spirits may be conjured. Mia volunteers to go first. Hayley lights a candle and instructs Mia on what to say. She grabs the hand and says “Talk to me.” Mia sees the spirit of an old man and freaks out at first, but then goes back and repeats the phrase, followed by “I let you in.” She sees the spirit of a grotesque looking woman and holds for longer than before, though Mia appears possessed and starts speaking in a creepy, threatening voice toward Riley before the hand is pulled from her grip.

The group later plays the game again at Jade’s house when Sue steps out for the night. The older teens play and have various encounters with the undead, including one instance where Daniel is possessed and starts unintentionally making out with Jade and Riley’s dog. Riley then asks to go next, despite Jade going against it and the others thinking he is too young. Still, they go through with it and opt to go for less than a minute. Riley is possessed by what sounds like Rhea’s spirit, speaking to Mia and saying how much she misses her. When the time limit passes, Mia wants to keep talking to Rhea before Riley begins smashing his head against the table and nearly gouging his eye out. Jade stops Riley from fatally breaking his skull before he is taken to the hospital.

When Mia tries to visit Riley at the hospital, both Jade and Sue turn her away, blaming her for what happened to him. She spends more time with Daniel, as she has a crush on him and previously had a brief encounter with him. He sleeps over one night, and Mia appears to see the spirit of an old woman sucking on Daniel’s foot. While Mia tries to yell at him to wake up, she wakes up and finds that she is the one sucking his foot, to his horror.

Mia takes the hand for herself and sets up her candle to try and speak to Rhea’s spirit. She is told that her death was accidental and that she would never want to leave her daughter. Rhea tells Mia that Riley is in pain and needs help. Meanwhile, Jade tries to help Riley at the hospital, but he is still possessed and bites her before falling to the floor and smashing his head against the wall in the bathroom before the doctors subdue him.

Mia joins Daniel, Hayley, and Joss as they track down Cole, who blames Joss for showing Duckett the hand. Cole tells them that the longer the spirits stay in Riley, the weaker they get, so they will just have to wait it out.

Mia comes up with an idea to try and finish the game because she doesn’t think they blew out the candle. She goes with Jade to the hospital to try and get the spirits to repossess Riley and find a way to pull him out, but it doesn’t work. Mia then goes back in and finds the spirit of a little girl who shows her that Riley is being tormented by dozens of other malevolent spirits.

When Mia returns home, Max approaches her and tries to come forward with the truth about Rhea’s death. He shows Mia her suicide note, confirming that her death was not an accident. As Mia cries in her room, she sees Rhea’s spirit claiming that Max wrote the note as a lie, and also tells her that Riley is suffering and can only be saved through death. Max then appears to be banging on the door, but it’s really the evil spirits tormenting Mia. Max hears Mia struggling against Spirit-Max and he enters the room, just as Mia tries to stab the spirit and ends up stabbing her father in the neck with scissors.

Mia tricks Jade into leaving the hospital and going to her house, while Mia goes back to the hospital and talks to Sue. She tells Mia that she was never to blame for what happened to Riley, and she lets Mia be alone with him. She tries to kill him with a pair of scissors but cannot bring herself to do it. She takes Riley out in a wheelchair just as Jade finds Max injured and realizes Mia is going to do something to Riley. Mia wheels Riley out toward traffic, seeing him as an old, decaying spirit. Rhea’s spirit tries to make Mia push him, while Jade arrives in time. Mia ends up letting go, but Jade pushes her into traffic, causing a car to strike her.

Mia wakes up, not realizing she is dead. She finds herself transported to the hospital, where Riley has made a full recovery and is seen going home with Jade and Sue. Max also appears to be healed from his wounds, but as Mia tries to follow them, nobody can hear her as the lights in the hospital begin to go out. She then sees a dim light and finds a hand reaching out. When she grabs it, she finds herself facing a man in another country playing the “Talk to Me” game, and she is now part of it.