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| “ | I'm so proud of you. Take him, my darling girl. You're doing the right thing. Show him the way. I can protect him. We'll have him forever. | „ |
| ~ The Spirits to Mia. |
The Spirits are the main antagonists in the A24 supernatural horror film Talk to Me, which was directed by Danny and Michael Phillipou, founders of the YouTube channel RackaRacka.
History[]
According to the film, millions of years ago, there was a medium who was capable of communicating with the dead. As a consequence, the medium's hand was cut off and embalmed in ceramic. From there, several Australian teenagers would use the hand at parties in a way similar to an Ouija board. The summoner would have to touch the hand, say "talk to me," and allow themselves to become fully possessed by the spirit. However, the connection must be severed within 90 seconds, or the spirits would want to stay. Once the 90 seconds has been extended, the spirit would often try to force the summoner into killing themselves, or do other atrocious things which is why the person would be tied to a chair.
After the second anniversary of her mother Rhea's death, Mia learns about the ritual from her friend Joss (who was given the artifact by the brother who was attacked by his possessed brother who then killed himself). Mia volunteers to be the first one to do the summoning ritual, seeing a waterlogged and bloated female spectre. Realizing that she could use the hand to communicate with her deceased mother, Mia has her friends do the ritual in Jade's house. When Riley gets possessed, the spirits trick Mia into believing that she was speaking to her mother.
In desperation, Mia lets the possession exceed its 90 second time limit and he repeatedly bashes his head into a desk. He becomes hospital-bound leading to Mia's relationship with Jade's family souring. Believing that they forgot to blow out the candle when they last performing the summoning, Mia is met by the ghost of a young girl who gives her a vision of Riley suffering in a Limbo-like realm of existence where it is revealed that the spirits intend on trapping his soul in their world.
Believing she is communicating with her mother, "Rhea" explains to her that in order to save Riley, she had to put him out of his misery in a parallel to the kangaroo she had accidentally hit with her car and did not mercy kill. Little does she realize, by killing Riley, that would cause him to be trapped in their realm. Just as it seemed like she would push Riley into ongoing traffic, Mia refuses at the last minute and jumps into a car which kills her. The film ends with Mia realizing that she had no reflection and finds herself on the other end of the hand being summoned by a different set of teenagers.
Trivia[]
- It's heavily implied that the spirit that tricks Mia by taking the form of her deceased mother is the very same spirit that appeared before her when she first made contact with the hand, as Rhea begins to progressively look more and more similar to this specific spirit as the film continues and the spirit's disguise as Rhea grow weaker.
- With a sequel announced, many theorise that Mia herself could become the new main villain now that she herself has become one of the spirits, with her goal being to get back into the real world by trying to take over someone's body.