‘Talk to Me’ horror flick a bit overwhelming

By Matt Pascarella

Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 34 minutes

At a party, Mia and her friends Jade and Hade’s brother Riley play a game where you hold an embalmed hand and say,

“Talk to me.”

Your body becomes possessed momentarily and what or who you see is anybody’s guess. When things get out of hand after Riley plays, Mia must find a way to save him, all while having visions of her own. This was an OK horror movie, but I found it complex and kind of busy, with almost too many intense things happening.

“Talk to Me” stars Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes, Marcus Johnson, and Ari McCarthy.

At a big party, Cole (McCarthy) is looking for his brother. When he eventually finds him, his brother has marks on his body and says,

“They’re inside me.”

After this some very serious stuff happens.

Mia (Wilde), who recently lost her mother, convinces her friend Jade (Jensen) to go to a party. Jade’s brother, Riley (Bird) goes with them. At the party, Mia plays a game that has gone viral where you hold an embalmed hand and say,

“Talk to me. I invite you in.”

Mia becomes momentarily possessed and sees visions of dead individuals. You need to stop after 90 seconds otherwise the spirit will stay with you. Things at this party get creepily out of hand.

The next night Mia wants to try it again and this time, Riley plays and things get very strange and grotesque. On a side note, this is a very violent, bloody scene which took me by surprise.

Riley is injured and Mia gets blamed. Mia realizes that there is still some sort of presence with her; she sees visions of her mother in mirrors.

She wants to see her mother again so bad that she plays the game on her own.

In the hospital, Riley gets worse. This scene is pretty gross, so be forewarned.

Jade and Mia go to talk to Cole about how to save Riley. Mia has a plan about how to bring him back.

Mia continues to see her mother who has a warning for her.

This is a dark, heavy at times, gruesome horror movie. A lot happens that, as much as I wanted to, just couldn’t get into. I will say, it was good, but was more creepy than scary and may have held more gravitas on the big screen. I also found it to be a little confusing. There were good and evil versions of people and sometimes, more toward the end, it was hard to figure out who was who. The end left me with questions. On the plus side, if you are looking for a reasonably decent movie to watch on Halloween, this might be the one for you – if you’re interested. Otherwise, I’d recommend something else like “Smile” or “Us.”

Only one flickering candle up.

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