History Film / TalkToMe

** Jade tries to block Riley's head from smashing against a table with her hand, which breaks her fingers.

** While driving Riley home, Mia comes across a severely injured kangaroo, and despite Riley's encouragement, she is unable to put it out of its misery. [[spoiler:Later on, she is told that she needs to kill Riley in order to rescue him from limbo, but cannot bring herself to do it.]]
** Earlier in the same scene, Mia and Riley sing along to Music/{{Sia}}'s "Chandelier", a song widely perceived as being about suicide, [[spoiler:which is something the spirits will attempt to their hosts if they stay in possession for too long.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Apart from being hit by a car, the exact circumstances of Mia's death are unclear. Was she pushed by Jade, or did she throw herself in front of the car to avoid being manipulated by the ghosts? When the scene is slowed down, the viewer can see Jade reach Riley and Mia before Mia is flung in front of the car, and Mia's confusion over her sudden death suggests that her death was not intentional on her part, implying that she was pushed rather than jumping. Having said that, Jade does not appear to be punished in any way for killing Mia, which further muddles things]].
** The state of Max, Mia's dad, at the end of the film. [[spoiler: After Mia comes back as a spirit she sees Max walking away from her, with him not responding to her cries. Either he managed to survive being stabbed in the neck (he was still conscious by the time Jade found him) or his wounds were fatal and the ending is representative of him going to heaven (notably, he's shown heading towards an exit door that has [[FluffyCloudHeaven bright white light pouring out of it]]).]]

* HeadDesk: PlayedForHorror. While under the influence of the conjured spirit, [[spoiler:Riley]] smashes his face to a pulp on several tables, putting himself into a ''coma''.

* DeliberatelyCuteChild: [[spoiler: A potential interpretation of the ghost of the little girl - she's just a plant to gain Mia's trust]]. It is never confirmed, but the lie is far more likely than the situation being honest.

* BittersweetEnding: Leaning ''heavily'' on the bitter side. [[spoiler:Riley is able to make a full recovery, and it's implied the same goes for Mia's father Max, but Mia's entire journey to save Riley was entirely pointless as his possession was going to wear off over time. She manages to stop herself before accidentally playing into the spirits' scheme to claim Riley's soul forever, but does so at the cost of her own life and permanently being bound to the spirits instead. Even worse, Max has now lost both a wife ''and'' a daughter. At the very end, Mia is summoned as the spirit to a new group that has the hand, with the hint that the cycle of what happened with her and Duckett will begin again.]]
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Full possession of a ritual participant is visibly signified by their eyes turning completely black. We see this happen in real time when Mia first tries it, with her pupils slowly dilating until the darkness in her irises completely fills her eyes.

* HorrorHatesARuleBreaker: Instructions for the ritual clearly specify that the candle that "opens the door" must be blown out within 90 seconds, but the consequences are not made clear until we see it for ourselves. [[spoiler:The spirits become bound to you, and the strength of the bond can only fade over time, but if you die while the bond is still there, your soul will become the next spirit cursed to wander in darkness forever, only stopping to be conjured by the hand the next time someone uses it.]]
** And it gets worse: [[spoiler: if you are a soul the spirits want, and you cross the time limit, you will stay possessed and it will attempt to make you commit suicide at the first moment it gets (Riley begins banging his head into the desk down to the skull mere moments after his 90-second breach); the only way to prevent it is to be physically restrained until the spirit's grip weakens and fades away. This is also the fate of Duckett in the intro.]]
** [[spoiler:Mia goes over 90 seconds, but seems to be OK at first...then she gets visits from her dead "mom" urging her to kill Riley, swearing it will save his soul when in reality, it's exactly what the spirits need to keep him.]] Overall, the motives of the spirits are not spelled out, but what '''is''' spelled out is that breaking 90 seconds is indeed deadly.

* AmbiguousEnding: One key moment in the final 5 minutes is left open-ended. [[spoiler:After Mia steps away from the wheelchair when she realizes the spirits have been manipulating her to kill Riley, it is unclear if Mia throws herself into traffic or Jade pushes her into it to save her brother (the latter being more tragic, as Mia was just coming to her senses unbeknownst to Jade).]] Nevertheless, the end result is the same.

* PartingWordsRegret: After humiliating Riley in front of the friend group and him saying he hates her, the last thing Jade says to him before [[spoiler:his turn with the hand goes horribly wrong]] is a sarcastic [[KickTheDog "Like you’re my favourite person in the world."]] It's not stated outright, but it's implied that this is how she feels until he thankfully wakes up.

* AloofBigSister: Jade has this additude towards Riley, dismissing any of his attempts to be closer with her, which clearly has an effect on him. After being shaken by Mia's possession, she refuses to let him sleep in her room, [[KickTheDog and then later makes fun of him for it in front of everyone.]]

* PartingWordsRegret: After humiliating Riley and him saying he hates her, the last thing Jade says to him before his disfigurement is [[KickTheDog "well you're not exactly my favorite person either".]] It's not stated outright, but it's implied that this is how she feels until he thankfully wakes up.

** In one scene, Riley falls asleep while watching the WebVideo/{{Sidemen}}'s second ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wufks28CiYw video]] on his phone; at one point, the video is shown in a dedicated close-up shot. This was likely inspired by the Philippou brothers being friends with the Sidemen, as they have collaborated on numerous videos in the past.

* TheOner: The film's opening scene, consisting of a man named Cole entering a crowded house party to find his brother Duckett, breaking down a door to retrieve him, and [[spoiler:getting stabbed in the chest with a butcher knife by Duckett, who then proceeds to fatally stab himself in the face]], is depicted in one take.

* TheNothingAfterDeath: [[spoiler:When Mia dies at the end, she has a surreal vision where she is first transported to the hospital, but the lights progressively turn off, engulfing her in darkness. This darkness turns out to be the afterlife, an unending void of black lit only when another person uses the hand.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: One key moment in the final 5 minutes is left open-ended. [[spoiler:After Mia steps away from the wheelchair when she realizes the spirits have been manipulating her to kill Riley, it is unclear if Mia throws herself into traffic or Jade pushes her into it to save her brother (the latter being more tragic, as Mia was just coming to her senses unbeknownst to Jade).]] Nevertheless, the end result is the same.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Downplayed. Jade and Riley don't hate each other throughout the film, but they get into an argument in front of the main group when Jade refuses to let Riley use the hand. Riley accuses Jade of only being concerned about "trying to suck Daniel's dick", to which Jade embarrasses him by revealing that he went into her room scared after the first ritual he attended. They then have this exchange:
-->'''Riley''': I hate you.\\
'''Jade''': Like you’re my favourite person in the world.

* JerkAss: Hayley is a crass and inconsiderate party animal who gets annoyed when anyone or anything is disrupting them from having a good time, but this is portrayed more as the immaturity that comes with teenage years than anything. [[spoiler:They are also concerned if Mia is OK when the time limit goes over, and is hesitant to disrupt when Mia is talking to her "mom" again through Riley.]]

* MassOhCrap: Shortly after the main group has passed the hand around, laughed at a possessed Daniel humiliating himself, and excitedly agreed to [[spoiler:let Riley try the hand]], their moods slowly dim when they realize that [[spoiler:Mia's mother is the spirit possessing Riley]], and immediately react with shock and horror when [[spoiler:Riley begins smashing his face into the table]].

* AffectionateNickname: Mia's close friends and family call her "Mi". [[spoiler:The spirit that possesses Riley does the same, ostensibly presenting itself as Mia's mother, and the fact that it knows about the nickname convinces Mia that it really is her mother.]]

** Throughout the story, we see hands as a symbol of human connection, as people use their hands to bond with others (such as when Mia and Daniel playfully compare hand sizes) or distance themselves from them (such as when Jade tries holding her mother's hand after [[spoiler:Riley is hospitalized]], and she pulls her hand away).

** While driving Riley home, Mia comes across a severely injured kangaroo, and despite Riley's encouragement, is unable to put it out of its misery. [[spoiler:Later on, she is told that she needs to kill Riley in order to rescue him from limbo, but cannot bring herself to do it.]]
** Earlier from the same scene, Mia and Riley sing along to Sia's "Chandelier", a song widely perceived as about suicide. [[spoiler:Something the spirits will attempt to their hosts if they stay in possession for too long.]]
** Duckett's behavior in the initial scene mirrors much of what befalls [[spoiler:Mia later: unstable and seeing spirits at will, attempting to kill someone at the behest of a dead family member, all culminating in his own violent death.]]

** Mia's nightmare while Daniel stays over is very much like a scene in ''Film/{{Hereditary}}''. Mia seeing a figure in the corner of her room parallels Peter imagining a ghost in his corner in ''Hereditary'', and Daniel being assaulted by the spirit before a snap to reality showing Mia in the same position in the room parallels Peter's head being pulled from behind his bed, only for his mother to suspiciously be in the room when he wakes up, denying she did anything.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[spoiler: After hearing her mother Rhea talk to her during Riley's possession, Mia, who clearly wants to believe it's her, notes that the voice used the AffectionateNickname of "Mi", which is what Rhea always used. The more cautious Daniel theorizes that the sprits learn everything about someone when possessing them, so something could have the information to impersonate Rhea effectively.]]

->'''Hayley:''' Alright, somebody time it, as soon as she lets it in. It cannot go for more than 90 seconds. Am I clear?\\

Mia (Creator/SophieWilde) is a 17-year-old girl coping with the second anniversary of her mother Rhea's death by suicide and a distant relationship with her father. She finds refuge in her best friend Jade and her family (Alexandra Jensen), mother Sue (Creator/MirandaOtto) and little brother Riley. One day, Mia, Jade and Riley sneak off to a party with their friends. For fun, the group plays a game involving an embalmed hand that is said to belong to a medium. A ritual allows the participant to conjure a spirit by grasping the hand and saying "Talk to me", after which the spirit proceeds to possess the participant. They must be careful not to let the possession exceed 90 seconds.

A sequel, ''[[Letters2Numbers Talk 2 Me]]'', [[https://deadline.com/2023/08/talk-to-me-sequel-a24-1235457341/ entered development]] shortly after its release, while a prequel featuring the character Duckett has also [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/talk-to-me-prequel-philippou-brothers-1235550521/ reportedly been filmed]].

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: All of the spirits we see are heavily disfigured and actively malevolent. The only one we see that is helpful is a little girl who looks perfectly normal.
* BittersweetEnding: Leaning ''heavily'' on the bitter side. [[spoiler:Riley is able to make a full recovery, and it's implied the same goes for Mia's father Max, but Mia's entire journey to save Riley was entirely pointless as his possession was going to wear off over time. She manages to stop herself before accidentally playing into the spirits' scheme to claim Riley's soul forever, but does so at the cost of her own life and permanently being bound to the spirits instead. Even worse, Max has now lost both a wife ''and'' a daughter. At the very end Mia is summoned as the spirit to a new group that has the hand, with the hint that the cycle of what happened with her and Duckett will begin again.]]

* BodyMotifs: Hands, both as a symbol of reaching out and of something taking hold of you. The hand used for the spirit ritual is something the player grasps onto before spirits take hold of them, and through the story, we see hands as a symbol of human connection as well as the trauma manipulating Mia, related to the idea of trying to scratch at a door like she imagines her mother did.
* DemonicPossession: The whole point of the ritual is to conjure a spirit and consent to be possessed. When the "do not exceed 90 seconds" rule is broken, [[spoiler:an evil entity is unleashed in the participant's body, and grievous bodily harm (if not death) becomes a very real possibility. Later in the film the reverse is shown to be possible with Mia being pulled into the spirit's realm, a particularly hellish place.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** Mia and her friends get freaked out when trying the possession hand the first time, but then get really into it. Things also go south ''fast'' when [[spoiler:the youngest member of the group tries to get involved]]. The allusions to a bad drug trip are not exactly subtle, Sue and Max outright asking after [[spoiler: Riley's disastrous turn with the hand]] if he was given something.

* DrugsAreBad: The hand ritual is framed as a dangerous drug--it gives visions and unsettling euphoria, dilates their pupils, and requires other people present to be more safely partaken, akin to trip sitters, and prolonged exposure to the hand and spirits starts to create residual effects that cause emotional instability and dangerous actions. The hand is also framed as an inappropriately-accepted social experience that everybody ought to recognize as the danger it is, and goes especially poorly with a younger participant.

* FamilyOfChoice: Jade and her family (mother Sue and brother Riley) are this for Mia, who is distant with her father Max. When both Jade and Sue tell Mia they don't want to see her after [[spoiler:a possessed Riley nearly kills himself, this devastates Mia and sets in motion the rest of the film.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Downplayed. [[spoiler:The two teens who possess the hand suffer no true consequences for parading it around, but they are as horrified as the rest of the group when things go wrong, and they ''did'' try to prevent Riley from going over 90 seconds. Ultimately, they were just being reckless teenagers, but neither of them thought someone would get hurt, and they are left shaken by the experience, especially Joss, who is cussed out by Cole for bringing the hand into people's lives despite knowing what happened to Cole's brother.]]

* TheOner: The events of the film's opening scene, consisting of a man named Cole entering a crowded house party to find his brother Duckett, breaking down a door to retrieve him, and [[spoiler:getting stabbed in the chest with a butcher knife by Duckett, who then proceeds to fatally stab himself in the face]], all occur in one take.

* SequelHook: An atypical case, where the primary question of intrigue for a potential sequel to mine is thrown out fairly early, rather than the end. The film has a self-contained and even open-and-shut story concerning Mia, but earlier in the film, the characters discuss the hand and throw out the possibility that it has a companion in the ''right'' hand of whoever the one they're using (a left hand) came from. Where this right hand is and what it would do are prominent questions brought up by and not explored by the film, leaving an enticing narrative thread open for a sequel to explore that wouldn't require continuing with the same characters.

** Mia's nightmare while Daniel stays over is very much like a scene in ''{{Film/Hereditary}}''. Mia seeing a figure in the corner of her room parallels Peter imagining a ghost in his corner in ''Hereditary'', and Daniel being assaulted by the spirit before a snap to reality showing Mia in the same position in the room parallels Peter's head being pulled from behind his bed, only for his mother to suspiciously be in the room when he wakes up, denying she did anything.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[spoiler: After hearing her mother Rhea talk to her during Riley's possession, Mia, who clearly wants to believe it's her, notes that the voice used the AffectionateNickname of "Mi" which is what Rhea always used. The more cautious Daniel theorizes that the sprits learn everything about someone when possessing them, so something could have the information to impersonate Rhea effectively.]]

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[spoiler: After hearing her mother Rhea talk to her during Riley's possession, Mia, who clearly wants to believe it's her, notes that the voice used the AffectionateNickname of "Mi" which is what Rhea always used. The more cautious Daniel theorizes that the sprits learn everything about those who they possess, so a spirit could have the information to impersonate Rhea effectively.]]

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: [[spoiler: After hearing her mother Rhea talk to her during Riley's possession, Mia, who clearly wants to believe it's her, notes that the voice used the AffectionateNickname of "Mi" which is what Rhea always used. The more cautious Daniel theorizes that the sprits learn everything about those who consent to the possession, making it very possible that something is impersonating Rhea effectively through information gained through the ritual.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: While driving Riley home, Mia comes across a severely injured kangaroo, and despite Riley's encouragement, is unable to put it out of its misery. [[spoiler:Later on, she is told that she needs to kill Riley in order to rescue him from limbo, but cannot bring herself to do it.]]

* Duckett's behavior in the initial scene mirrors much of what befalls [[spoiler:Mia later: unstable and seeing spirits at will, attempting to kill someone at the behest of a dead family member, all culminating in his own violent death.]]