Why Is TALK TO ME So Disturbing?

ABOUT THE SHOW:
This show celebrates Ryan's love for genre, film, games, art and entertainment through personal retrospective analysis that aims to explore what made them so good or even misunderstood.

SOURCES:

MUSIC:
Icelandic Arpeggios by DivKid
Where Are My Clothes by The 129ers
Melancholia by Godmode
Forest Lullabye by Asher Fulero
Breakfast Alone by The Whole Other
Frost by HOVATOFF
Heartbeat of the Hood by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[RyanHollinger]

*What was the BEST horror film 2023? ... Let me know in the comments!*

[ItsGattsu]

My read on the movie was that Miya was possessed and haunted by the one-eyed drowned woman, not her mother. There are too many times where the movie focuses on the vision of her mother being drenched, having the same single cloudy eye, and surrounded by underwater sound motifs.

[kingbash]

Felt really bad for Riley. My probably the most innocent character in the film, yet he probably suffers the most all because he didn't know any better. Despite how bleak the ending is, at least the silver lining is that he didn't die.

[RoseEyed]

Going further into your analysis on connection and drug use: Exploring the drug was fun until it suddenly wasn't. And everyone was so concerned about one friend's bad "trip" that they didn't notice the other friend's quietly building addiction until it was too late. Similar to how you may not realize the college friend who likes to "party" is becoming an alcoholic. There's a ton of Mia's out there we don't know about suffering in silence or who may not even know they're suffering themselves.

[unhallowed]

The demonic spirits in this film were quite impressive. The glimpses of them in their realm all fully nude and acting like wild dogs was quite unsettling.

[torodeluz]

My favorite part was Joe Bird. His scenes were hard to watch and heartbreaking. Hope the kid has a big career ahead of him.

[knightwing]

The spirit wasn't Mia's mom, it was that drowned spirit that attached itself to her. Which is why as the movie went along she got more and more wet. Also Mia deffiently was pushed into traffic by her friend to save her brother no way Mia was in the right mindspace to realize how she was messing stuff up.

[beebalmbadil]

there are a lot of clues that the spirit was NEVER Mia's mother but was the drowned woman all along (the wet sound effects and the appearance of Mia's mom that isn't related to the way she died, but more related to drowning, and the drowned woman seems to struggle with her ability to sustain the illusion). and it works with the canon of the rules of length of time of possession-- the drowned lady has had access to her this whole time. You totally nailed the thing about Mia craving attention and its connections to the events here. And you say it really well. Fwiw, the filmmakers have, in spite of their commitment to keep it a secret, revealed that the hand, primarily, is about connection.
I think the connection thing makes sense. a huge driving force of addiction (or, at least, its beginning stages) is numbing the pain of isolation

[juliadco]

I thought the ending was pretty straightforward, and Mia trying to kill Riley at the end definitely didn’t come out of nowhere.
Already at Mia’s first possession the spirit was saying that “they wanted Riley, they would get him”. When Riley gave in and allowed himself to be possessed, the spirit took advantage of Mia’s presence and pretended to be her mother, knowing she would want to keep the spirit longer and possibly go over 90 seconds (thus allowing the spirit to linger on Riley).
That’s exactly what happened and then the spirit begins to immediately try to kill Riley to take his soul forever (if he died in that state the spirits would have him).
Mia was constantly taken advantage of because she was in a broken mental state and had also gone a little over 90 seconds on her first possession, allowing the spirits to now torment her.
But their final goal was always to kill Riley, so they try to use Mia for that. By pretending to be her mother telling her to put Riley out of his misery, because he was being tortured by the spirits while alive in that state.
The kangaroo “foreshadowing” was precise. She even had that little seed planted in her of the time she couldn’t put a being out of its misery and that had disturbed her deeply. It was inevitable that she would be used to get to Riley, and it’s tragic to watch all that unfold in such a terrifying and compelling way. I was clenching my boyfriend’s arm throughout the whole second half, I felt so much for Mia and those around her (except her father, you’re right, we didn’t get much from him).
Also the lack of jump scares just improves the whole experience so freaking much, I’ll always praise any filmmaker for that.

[graveyardgxblin]

I was really taken-aback by the scene when Riley uses the hand. It was all so sudden, even though you could see it coming. Like a car crash.

[deanscordilis]

I see the “incomplete” ending as an extrapolation on the lack of closure death seems to come with. Or it could just be that the brothers wanted a punchy, bleak ending akin to something like The Descent.

[dianasofia]

I actually dont think Mia jumped, but rather her friend pushed her! I think we can see that scene for a split second. And as for the spirit, it was not her mother, it was the drowning lady trying to manipulate her.
Such a good movie, and such a good video Ryan!

[TicTacPilgrim]

The passing of time in the space between where the ghosts inhabit must be what drives them insane. Each ghost could have likely just died from their perspective and suddently these kids are using them as party favors, where they then wait for eons to pass until the next kid wants a hit. It's close to The Jaunt in that respect.

[Logitah]

What really hit me was the exploitation of the grieving and the lost. The ghosts found someone who's vulnerable enough to just..pull in. 😢

[burgbgm]

I definitely don't think the spirit was her mother because the implication was that the danger came from the spirits that were in the hand, so to speak. I'd assume her mother was not one of those. I'm in the camp that it was the drowned lady the whole time (Mia also went over on time her first trip), which is why it slowly got more bloated and wet. Riley stopped using the hand after he was possessed but Mia didn't. Also, they apparently read your mind when you let them in, hence it taking the appearance of her mother. I'm also in the same camp that says she didn't jump into traffic, she was pushed.

[KomoliRihyoh]

Two points I disagree upon:
1) It was implied that the spirit Mia talks to was never her mother. The spirit Mia let in at the beginning was a wet, bloated, drowned woman, and it was said that the spirits could change their appearance and could possibly read the possessee's mind, figuring out her Mom called her "Mi." As the movie goes on, Mia's "Mom" becomes covered in more water and starts to bloat, looking more like the drowned woman. The spirits knew Riley's body would soon detox them out, so the drowned spirit manipulated Mia to kill him to trap him in Limbo forever.
2) I don't think Mia threw herself into traffic. If you go frame by frame at the end when the camera switches to the car's perspective, you can see Jade running very fast down to Mia and Riley. Jade saw Mia about to push Riley into traffic, and already knew she (tried to) kill her dad, so she likely simply reacted and pushed Mia away. The tragedy here is that at that moment, Mia realized she was being manipulated by the spirits and decided *not* to kill Riley, but Jade didn't know that, and killed Mia even though she no longer a threat, trapping her in Limbo since the spirits were still possessing her. Mia finally wised up, but it didn't matter in the end.

[dontgivetwothwips]

Mia figured out, just before pushing the chair into traffic, that it was the drowned spirit that was masquerading as her dead mother. Unfortunately it was too late and Jade pushed her in front of the car saving Riley. I think it’s to show just how much damaged Mia had done to her relationships. When she finally realized how bad things were it was too late to fix things and her friend cut her loose permanently.

[Spicie]

I think the spirits always intended to take Mia, after she held the hand for those extra seconds. They found someone grief-stricken, whom they could easily manipulate and then waited for an opportunity to claim her. When Riley took the hand, they used him to get to her, giving her hope she could talk to her mother and tricking her into thinking that Riley was stuck in a purgatory (like the Further from Insidious), so they could remove her completely from Jade, Sue, and Max. In the end, she sees everyone moving on without her, proving to her spirit that she really was unimportant to the world, as her own personal hell.
Also, Jade probably pushed her to save Riley...

[Backwards_Buddha]

If I remember correctly, there was a throw away line during the first or second possession that alluded to the spirits gaining total control of the body if they get the host to commit suicide or die. It seems to me that in the end the spirit inside Mia managed to win when she got hit. The ending seemed like Mia was now trapped in the hand and the spirit took over her body, possibly still out there undead

[gracie_bex]

I saw the film in theatres and haven’t rewatched it since, but if I remember correctly, right before Mia decides to jump instead of pushing Riley onto the road, the demon in the form of Mias mother says “I’ll take care of Riley.” My interpretation of the reason Mia changed her mind at the last minute was because that’s what Mia wanted for herself, for her mother to take care of her again.