SPOOPYWEEN DAY 28 TALK TO ME!!!!!

Day 28

Talk To Me

How many times I’ve cried that while staring at my phone wondering why someone that’s visible THERE won’t respond to not one, mot two. But three text sent over 2 days time. I mean come on! Either say something like ‘busy’ or ‘how did you get in the house’, just something. Anything.

It’s called being an adult and also stalking. Mostly one over the other. By like, a lot.

In fact it’s just stalking. Don’t do it.

Anyway.

I had planned to watch and discuss a film called House of Darkness. But then I spotted this and well. It sounded interesting so. Why not.

Also no I don’t start screaming at people if they don’t answer my messages. But I know we all hate that shit and shake out heads when it happens. Same as when someone gives an emoji to a long thought out text.

None of this has anything to do with the film.

Aside from the use of a cellphone and technology helping us to open doors we really shouldn’t be opening.

Past that, I know nothing other than this takes place in Australia and that makes me happy.

So let’s begin, and we can talk alter about social etiquette in concerns to text.

The Film.

Nothing ends a party faster than a murder suicide. Except for bad karaoke and Pizza Time. When you know? You know.

So yes, the film is sticking us right in the first few minutes with a lively party complete with drinks, good music, and someone even pulled out fresh veggies for snack trays. THAT’S when you know shits off the chain.

But also when a friend, or sibling. Locks themselves in the homeowners mothers room, and won’t answer when you knock? You either ready for the harsh moment of realizing that dudes mom is boning said friend. Or they’re conjuring ghost and opening dimensional gateways. It’s actually hard to know with people now since cellphones let you pretty much do anything.

Thankfully it seems neither of these options are the case. Instead it would appear, as the friend, sibling destroys the door. That the person inside is perfectly fine. They’ve just got deep scratches on their back, and are filled with either unending terror and dread, or regret at banging their friends 50 year old mother.

Well of course everyone is interested to know what the heck happened in there, so they all whip out their cellphones expecting a walk of shame, or son screaming “STOP SLEEPING WITH MY FRIENDS!”, but again. Neither of these things happen. Sadly. But I keep hoping. No. Instead while the one who did the door busting angrily shouts at everyone to stop filming and put their phones away. The guy who was sitting in the locked room decides that’s a nice knife they were using to cut vegetables, so he picks it up and stabs his friend,sibling with it. Apparently it’s a very good stabbing knife too. It’s important to know these things.

Well the moment he stabs this…person. Everyone stops being a reporter with their phones, and suddenly become selfish beings all running for their own lives. But fear not. He isn’t going to stab people. Instead he just figures he should put the stabbing knife away for now. So he stabs it into himself. Forgetting that this will kill him. He ends up dead and the stabbing party is over.

ALL of this, sounds much more interesting than just saying guy got stabbed, and the stabber stabbed himself. Your welcome.

This is an A24 film. Which usually means good things. So I’m not bashing it. I think it’s a fun way to open things.

This is not the kind of movie to sit and linger on things, it knows why we’re all here, and bless them for it. It’s just a wee bit of setup that’ll pay off later. As we are quickly going to be meeting a couple characters, that will soon turn into a whole gaggle of characters. So lets start with our main ones yes? Right.

So we have Mia, Mia is visiting her best friend Jade and attempting to talk her into going to a party with a bunch of friends. Jade REALLY would rather stay home, but it IS her bestie, it also might mean she could sneak out and see her strict Christian boyfriend. But more so it’d help Mia out. This is the second anniversary of Mia’s mothers death, and she really wants to get her mind off of it. So a party, drinks and “Getting some attention for my Gucci” are good reasons to go to a party.

Unfortunately Jade is sneaking out with her little bro Riley as well. Jade forgot to pick him up earlier, so Mia did it for her and well. If Jade doesn’t want mom finding out, she needs to take Riley to the teenagers secret beer party.

Which is honestly kind of funny, because her mom is super chill, and knows her daughter is sneaking out. She is cool with it, so long as she uses protection, doesn’t do any hard drugs, and has reasonable fun. She honestly feels like the mom that would call her son a pussy if she asked if he hooked up with any girls at the party and he said no. I like her.

So the trio head off to this party for beers, laughs, and Gucci attention.

But also for the worst kind of entertainment you could manage for a house party.

A severed, embalmed hand, with odd text inscribed on the flesh. They light a candle, setup the thing, and look for a volunteer. So Mia figured why the hell not. SO.

She gets to sit in the big chair, and get strapped into it.

This.

This should be a warning for anyone. If you need to be strapped into a chair. TIGHTLY strapped into a chair, in a room full of people. People with cellphones recording. And there is a severed forearm and hand staring at you?

This is gonna be awesome!

So with a candle lit and a lonely dead hand looking for a shake. They tell her the ritual she must go through.

Step one. You hold the hand of the dead hand.

Step two. You say ‘Talk to me’

Step three. You say ‘I let you in’

Well she gets as far as step two, before pissing herself and the chair screaming in terror as a decrepit old man appears in front of her, holding his hand in hers. She freaks out, everyone is laughing, including the owner of said hand and his friend. Who tell her it’s totally cool, she just has to hold the hand and say step three. Then talk to it.

Is there a catch? Well a small one. You can’t talk to it for more than 90 seconds. If you do, the spirit may not want to leave. So you kinda have to use a timer. Unless you want an undead spirit following you forever, and who wants that.

So does she do it? Well yeah. Everyone is cheering her on so I mean. She has to.

Only when she goes back to hold the hand again and say talk to me, its no longer an old man. It’s a bloated corpse of a woman.

She can’t stand to look at her, as could any other sane person agree with that. But things get really good, or bad. When she reaches step three and says, I let you in.

The moment she does. Her head gets thrown back, her eyes turn black, and she’s now possessed by the dead womans spirit.

Which amuses the hell out of everyone. Even the dead woman is laughing with everyone. Until she spots Jade’s brother Riley. That’s when the party kicks into high gear.

The spirit begins smiling at Riley and telling him ‘they really like you’, and telling him how there’s a man standing behind him now, at the couch. A man who wants to split him in half, and how that man is in fact going to get him. Which universally entertains the group. Until the boy who apparently owns the hand tells them hey we’re at 86 seconds so. Maybe take her hand off the dead hand now.

Which his tall friend attempts. Only to get tossed back by a very angry spirit. Who smiles malevolently at Riley repeatedly screaming at him that the man is going to get him. Eventually the two party host work together and free Mia of the spirits hold. Taking the hand back, and blowing out the candle. Severing the connection.

And only “A few seconds over”

A few seconds being 15 fucking seconds over.

Is Mia fine? Absolutely. She’s laughing and telling everyone how it was the most amazing thing ever. So everyone cheers and the night eventually comes to an end. Everyone is happy. Except for Riley who now believes a spirit is going to cleave him in half. But that’s his deal, not the groups.

I….really like this vibe. But that’s also because this reminds me so much of the Peter Jackson A Nightmare on Elm Street film we never got.

Peter Jackson wrote a treatment for his entry into the franchise, I believe it would’ve been what they did instead of Freddy VS Jason.

In his take, Freddy is a very old man now in the dream world. He’s weak. Because children no longer fear him. He’s become a joke now. A literal party trick that people will go to sleep. Finding ways to find Freddy, and they’ll just terrorize old man Freddy and kick him around. Without fear he’s weak and frail. So kids hold sleeping parties to kick his ass for the fuck of it as fun.

Until one kid unfortunately falls and becomes afraid for once. The moment they do. It empowers Freddy and he makes a glorious comeback. Soon hunting down all these shits who tormented him.

It would’ve been an awesome film. I really feel shitty we never got that film realized. But this films party gave me serious vibes from that.

The idea that these two teens found a severed embalmed arm, that allows them to talk to the dead. So instead of respecting it and using it carefully. They use it at drunk parties with friends like the ultimate party favor.

It’s straight up 80’s goodness, there were so many horror films and real parties where people for funsies would try summing spirits and use quija boards in hopes of something fun. Only to have nothing happen, or repressed memories as parting gifts.

So the idea these kids are treating this like the ultimate experience and fun time thing. I dig it.

But now that Mia has tried it, and survived. She wants to do it again. So her and Jade ask the party host and hand owners Joss and Hayley if they can swing by Jade’s home later tonight and bring the hand. They agree because why not, and round 2 is quickly setup for us.

This is only 30 minutes into the movie, we got a lot of movie to go, so I’m loving that they’re just pushing that train up hill.

Not only do they move that train up hill. They also deliver more backstory for us.

This hand is not a one trick pony. It can do many things. These kids have just been using it so far to fuck with their friends because. Possession is a real kick in the ass for fun times.

When you hold the hand and you say, talk to me. You can interact with the spirit. You can ask it anything you want for 90 seconds. But going to step three, I let you in. Well that’s the show stopper with possession.

So who’s going to go first this time? Daniel. Jades good Christian boyfriend. Seriously the guy wouldn’t know a good time if it sat on his face. If a woman was grinding seductively against a bed post while moaning staring lustfully at him. He’d be the one to ask “What ARE you doing to the furniture?”

What I’m saying is, Daniel is a good kid, and good for Jade.

As for backstory? Well. Daniel things to finally ask these guys what the hell this hand really is, and where they got it.

As far as what it is? Well it’s a hand, obviously. Severed mid forearm.

It also just so happens to be the hand of a medium who could contact the dead.

Though Hayley says he heard its actually the hand of a Satanist, not a medium.

As for the purchase? No one purchased it. According to Joss, it was given to them by a friend of a friend to a friends roommate who gave it to their friend who gifted it to their friend. The main take away is don’t ask. This isn’t severed limb tracking.

We also learn that this embalmed hand. Is a very real hand. That once it was severed, and embalmed. It was covered in ceramic. However should you be curious enough to crack it open. You’ll find an actual hand inside. Supposedly.

It’s a nice subtle setup without feeling forced, and we’re given just enough to keep something incredibly dangerous, mildly questionable, and totally safe.

So lets begin round 2 with Daniel the goodboy.

His encounter was. Well. Awkward as all hell. Which is fitting for a Christian good boy. He didn’t feel like asking any questions. He instead wanted a possession. Which ends up being with a very….apparently horny woman. Who informs Jade that. Apparently her boyfriend hates it when she touches him. He cringes inside, and worst for your girlfriend to hear. She makes him ‘soft’. Needless to say this ruins the evening for Jade, but makes one hell of a fun start for everyone else. As the spirit in Daniel begins groping his own chest, and rubbing his crotch. He eventually falls over to the floor and keeps rubbing himself. Unfortunately for him, and for us. But a GLORIOUS moment for youtube, as the horny spirit continues rubbing his crotch, licking his lips and, as the family dog comes over to investigate and begin licking the boys face….the possessed boy makes out with the dog.

We are talking full on dog tongue make out and everyone except Jade is loving it. Fortunately they sever the connection and Daniel begins crying, pleading with everyone to delete the footage. Which. Is understandable. Thankfully they agree, and just like that. We begin a fun time party. Where everyone is taking turns being possessed. It’s a montage of great looming dread and terror. As these kids are just having the time of their lives, laughing and recording each others experiences. Crying and screaming. Laughing and using the hand to hold joints they pass around.

That’s right kids. It’s all fun and games, until someone eventually fucks around and finds out.

Which yes of course it’s going to happen. This is a horror movie damnit. It NEEDS to happen.

And luckily for us. The last person of the night wanting to fuck around with the dead mans hand, is Jades little brother Riley.

Jade does not agree with this. What so ever. Her brother of course hates her for this, and she hates him for it. Well that and the fact he called her out on trying to get her boyfriend loosened up enough to suck his ding dong, and she calls him out on wanting to look cool in front of his friend tomorrow, when instead he’ll be crying in her bed like he did the night Mia’s ghost told him someone was going to kill him.

Well Jade says nuts to this and leaves, while her little brother is happy to be having fun with the older teen kids.

At least until he see’s the ghost that comes to talk to him. Which he immediately looks over to Mia and tells her he’s not sure about this now. But she tells him to go ahead and do it. Having no idea. That Riley is holding her mothers hand, and is now possessed by her.

Immediately her mother is apologizing and crying to Mia, telling her how much she loves her and how proud she is of her. The boys try to sever the connection, as they all agreed, given how young Riley is. He shouldn’t go the full 90 seconds. He should only go 50. Of course that goes right out the window with Mia the moment her mom is the spirit that comes forward.

But as quickly as the heartfelt moment comes, its suddenly interrupted as it appears the moms spirit is violently pulled out of Riley, and soon replaced with something far more sinister. A spirit that begins bashing Riley’s forehead repeatedly into the wooden table the hand sat on. The boys rush to sever the hand from Riley’s, but are unsuccessful. Even Mia attempts, but ends up seeing the young boy begin trying, several times. Trying. To pluck out his own eye. Which is a feat all itself, and mildly making everyone piss themselves. We then see his chair get flung across the room. Breaking a window, But that doesn’t stop the spirit bash!

Riley’s possessed body begins bashing his forehead violently into a nearby dresser. Eventually Jade rushes into the room, sees what’s happening and runs over to try and stop her brother from slamming his bleeding split forehead a final time into the sharp dresser edge. Thankfully her fist stops him from ending his life. However the group is now stuck with a very real situation, and the fact that there party just turned sour the moment a spirit tried killing Riley.

Needless to say this is not going to look good on Mia, or the group.

The police are soon involved, Mia hides the severed hand, and everyone is giving the most questionable testimony I think anyone has ever heard. They rush Riley to the hospital. Jade calls her mom and informs her of the hospital visit. I would love to had heard her try and explain the entire party to her mom but we are spared that.

Instead we get a bit of unfortunate business. Riley looks seven different shades of fucked up. His forehead is heavily stitched. Both eyes are swollen into plums, and the boy is not going to be winning any hearts any time soon.

Mia is shaken and horrified. But her pain is just beginning. Jade steps out and tells her to fuck off. She blames her for what happened to her brother. She can’t believe that she’s there after that and wants her gone, otherwise she’s getting a knee in the Gucci. Several knees.

Well Mia can’t believe this from her bestie naturally, so she tries to look in on Riley. She genuinely cares about the kid and feels bad for what happened to him. Only now she has to deal with Riley and Jade’s mom. Who is no longer cool. She flat out blames Mia for all of this. Believing Mia slipped some kind of drugs to her son and caused him to freak out. She promises if Mia ever shows up at their house again, or at the hospital she’ll call the cops. The only person being semi sympathetic to her. Is Daniel the dog kisser.

Who offers to drive Mia home. Not just because everyone hates her now, and her best friend wants to cunt punt her, and her best friends mom wants to tare her face off. But also because Mia can’t even go pee in the restroom without now being haunted by spirits, and seeing her moms dead corpse floating around.

Which I mean. You’d think that would help you go to the bathroom more easily. But instead it cuts off the plumbing and she needs a kitkat bar super bad.

So Daniel the dog kisser drives off with her, and she politely begs him to stay with her. She promises not to honk his junk. She just wants to not be alone. So being a good Christian dog tongue sucker, he agrees and the two spend the night opposite one another in bed.

And things go alright for the pair. Aside Mia having a dream about heavily making out with Daniel the dog kisser, while her father is calling out for help in the background and pulls out her moms body from the bathroom having O.D. on drugs.

But you know, aside that she’s doing okay.

Well okay maybe not fully okay. As she now finds a deceased womans ghostly spirit in her room, scampering across the floor over to her bed. Where it proceeds to suck on the toes of Daniel. Daniel the dog kisser.

So that experience. Reasonably upsets and horrifies Mia. She screams for Daniel the dog kisser to wake up, which thankfully he does. However he doesn’t see a bloated womans corpse sucking on his feet.

He instead finds a possessed Mia sucking on his foot. Like this girl is going to flavor town on vacation. She’s got his whole ass damn toes in her mouth. Nasty girl.

Well Daniel feels funny in his pants and immediately pulls away from the woman who’s not his girlfriend sucking on his toes. Grabs his shoes and pants then heads out. Leaving Mia to curse herself for sucking on toes. While possessed.

Which I mean. I get. I used to, and still sometimes do have a problem where I can end up sleep walking with my eyes open, and apparently have conversations with people. That I personally will never remember.

I woke up one day and found the phone off the hook beside me, when I checked it I saw the last number to call was an army recruiting office.

Three days later I got another call from the recruiter, wanting to know why I didn’t show up for my schedule appointment to talk to them, given how eager I sounded to sign up and serve.

Which admittedly is hilarious hearing about. But not so much when you also hear from an ex of yours that her doctor called and apparently whatever I told them while in that state, very, very much offended and upset them. I still have no idea what I said. But at least I never sucked anyones toes!

But I have had sex while in this state and that weirded me the fuck out. Seriously, imagine waking up, having that feeling and ‘signs’ you had sex, but not remembering having sex, and having to ASK your partner if you and them had sex.

Anyway.

So girls mad she sucked on his toes, and is now minus the only friend who had sympathy for her. So what is Mia to do? Well she whips out the severed hand and decides to try contacting her mom. Of course. Naturally.

Which she does! Only its very hard to believe that, this is her mother. It’s a very distorted face, and not the most trusting one I’d say. Worst of all however, It doesn’t appear Mia severed her connection. Instead falling asleep with her moms spirit, as the mom told her kindly ‘We need to help Riley’

Speaking of Riley, how is the lil squirt?

Well its bath time for Riley, and even if he’s good and clean and looking a bit better. His face still looks like an enlarged prostate and not in the good way.

His sister comes to visit him and try to comfort her lil bro. Which he responds in kind to this, by biting his sisters hand like a feral animal.

They both fall to the floor and Riley, is back to his old fun and games. Of bashing his head. Only they already fucked up the hood. Now it’s time to work on the rear end. Not his ass. Though that’d be hilarious if he just started smashing his ass full force against the wall.

No, he’s bashing the back of his head into the tiled wall. Severely concussing himself, laughing maniacally, and lapping his own blood off the floor. As one does.

Recovery is going to be a long road for this boy.

I know its scary, but I started laughing because I immediately started thinking of Riley as the kid from Freddy Got Fingered, who kept getting in horrible accidents through out the film.

But yes, any time the kid is awake now. He is trying to kill himself. Repeatedly.

Which of course means. The group needs to get together and discuss just what the hell to do. While also keeping Jade from killing Mia.

So our group therapy session begins where it all started, at the party house of Joss and Hayley.

It’s time for more backstory people.

So Mia is curious if anyone else may have been seeing things like she has. She opens up about spotting her mom several times , failing to mention using the hand to call her out, but she does however, discretely bring up the awkwardness of what happened with Daniel. She doesn’t go out of her way to mention the toe sucking, just. Leave it at she saw a ghost when he and her were together.

Daniel the dog kisser, and good Christian boy he is. Decides to tell the group that he went home with Mia, they slept in bed together, and he woke up finding her sucking on his toes.  As you can imagine, Jade is handling that news super well. Because he could’ve given context with it. But nope. They slept together, he sucked on her toes. Good job Daniel.

Dog kisser.

Well Mia can read a room, where Daniel can’t so she shifts focus to Joss and Hayley. They admit none of them saw anything, but Joss does however recall the person they got the hand from telling them he no longer needed the hand to see the spirits.

As it turns out, They were indeed gifted the hand by a troubled friend at a party. He showed them all what the hand did, and when they asked to borrow it for a party to show friends. He told them they could have it, since he no longer needed it to see the dead anymore. He saw them perfectly fine without it. And the person they got it from, of course was the odd acting sibling we began the movie with, who used his face as a holster for a kitchen knife.

However. We also learn that his brother, the one who bashed the door down to pull him out of there. Survived the stabbing.

SO, the group now has a goal. Find this dude and find out just what the hell happened with his brother, and how to stop this.

Is he much help? Not especially. The guy can’t be bothered to give any sort of shape of shit to them and their plight. In fact he’s more than anything pissed off at Joss and Hayley over the fact those two kept using that hand as a party favor, only to fuck up more peoples lives with it. Which, I mean. He has a fair point in being pissed at them.

But when he’s told that Riley tried killing himself, he simply tells them to give it time. That when a spirit lingers in a person. It grows weaker the longer it stays, so it eventually vanishes entirely. Just y’know. Give it time.

Jade tells him every moment Riley is up and moving. The dude is trying desperately to kill himself so. You know. What do about that? He just shrugs and says rats off to ya. The guy isn’t a ghost specialist, so he can’t be too much of help to them or anyone. It’s like asking some random person how many coats of paint is a good standard to hold, and how many base coats should you use. Only to have them tell you “This is a McDonalds”.

Well he wasn’t much help for them, and is on the bus getting out of town. But Mia isn’t giving up. She has a plan. Albeit a horrible plan that no one should support what so ever. But they don’t have many choices.

She’s been playing detective in her head about that night, and no one can remember if they blew out the candle or not when Riley made his connection. They’d established that lighting a candle was opening a doorway, and blowing it out was closing that doorway. So Mia wonders if they never closed out that doorway for Riley. If so. Then perhaps if they get Riley to use the hand again. Making a connection. Then can use that moment to blow out the candle and properly close the doorway. Possibly saving him from headbanging into the afterlife.

Well Jade says fuck that. But she’s mostly saying that because she’s jealous over the fact for three months Daniel hasn’t even tried to touch her let alone felt his junk. And here Mia is sucking his whole ass foot in her mouth and sleeping in bed with him. Hate game, not the player Jade.

But hell what choice do they really have you know?

So even if Jade REALLY wants to cunt punt her friend, and slap Daniel right in the dick. She’ll go along with it. Joss and Hayley however tell the trio smell ya later and go back to playing some League of Legends.

So to the hospital they go. Ceramic hand in tow. A candle at his feet. But it won’t work. At all.

Because the damn kid is in a coma. Dude can’t talk to the dead, guy can’t even talk. He’s got a tube in his throat pushing air into his lungs. Sedated into la la land.

So Mia. Comes up with an even better plan. A super great plan.

She decides maybe it’ll work. If SHE uses it, to contact Riley.

What if, Riley’s soul is in limbo? Maybe she can hear him and they can find out through him what they need to do. Absolutely Jade and Daniel think this is the worst idea since her last idea. But Mia says nuts to that and she holds the hand herself immediately contacting the dead. Trying for a Riley, and ending up with a little girl instead.

Now. You would imagine. Just. For a moment here.

We know, and it has been established. That if you let go of the hand. And use it again. You summon a different spirit. So basically you could just keep randomly rolling until you roll a success and get the Riley you want.

But no. She’s going to talk to the girl. She ask if the girl knows where Riley is, and the girl nods, telling her she can show Mia. With that. We learn something truly scary. Mia tells the girl to show her, take her to him. So the ghost girl nods and says “I let you in” and Boom. Mias soul is transferred to the dead girl.

Which gives us a truly unique, and visually well done depiction. Of an actual hell.

Riley is screaming, tortured and begging for help. As multiple dead souls surround him. Taring at him. An old man is choking him and grinning, while other people appear to be eating parts of his flesh.

As you can imagine, when Mia returns to the land of the living, after having glimpsed hell. Is freaking the fuck out. As well she should. I mean holy hell man this girl did the dumbest thing ever, and got a glimpse into a possible, actual hell that this kid is in, and has been in for several days.

So she takes a time out and heads home to browse reddit for help.

Or eat a poptart I don’t know. Whatever teens do after glimpsing hell first hand.

When she gets home, she’s confronted by her dad Max. He’s been having a hell of a time himself dealing with the loss of his wife, Mia’s mom. And the fact Mia has grown distant from him. Which doesn’t help with Mia now has the ghost of her mom suggesting to her that the dad is lying about her death, suggesting possibly that she didn’t kill herself.

Well dad has been noticing all the stuff going on with his daughter. Her constant terrified screams. Having a boy over in the middle of the night and upping her freak game by immediately sucking his toes instead of working up toward that. I mean really, you gotta ease into that. You can’t just tell someone the first night you get off on having someone fart in your face. You gotta walk them down the freak road a bit before you lay that bag on them.

So he decides to open up with his daughter about her moms passing. He decides to share with her something he’d been keeping from her. Because he didn’t want her to know about this. But he figured with all the problems she’s been having lately, and the disconnect between them. Why not lay this on her now. Especially after glimpsing hell. Sure why not.

Daddy Max reads for her a suicide not that her mother wrote the day she overdosed. Asking for their forgiveness, and love. Not to hate her, and to know she loved them both. But she chose to do this, It’s a heart felt letter, and the dad breaks down reading it to Mia. Who actually shows signs of opening up to her dad for once.

At least until she hears her moms spirit tell her he’s full of shit and that letter is a lie. So of course Mia takes off to her room so she can talk more with the totally helpful spirit of her mom. Who begins telling Mia they have very little time left. That bad spirits are getting closer to her, at that moment she hears a fist beating at her door. Ghost mom tells her its bad spirits imitating her fathers voice. That its not him, they’ll hurt her. So Mia ask what the hell to do.

Mom, being of the best advice so far, like saying they need to help Riley asap earlier. Tells Mia AGAIN they need to help Riley. And the best way to do that? Kill him.

Yes. Mama told Mia she needs to kill Riley to free him.

Which….I mean…..it’d free him from his mortal coil. Sure. But I don’t know about this plan.

But before Mia can consider the fact her loving mother who told her that her father lied to her and likely killed her, and now wants her to kill the little brother of her best friend to help save him. Her door burst open and we see demon dad.  Who begins immediately tossing Mia around the room until he is on top of her and choking her out.

MEANWHILE, downstairs we see the real dad. Sitting on the couch, and now wondering why he hears his daughter screaming upstairs. So he actually DOES rush upstairs, break open her door, and finds her on the floor out of it. He walks over, picking her head up asking her what’s wrong, what happened.

And Mia stabs him with a pair of scissors right in the throat.

Did she do so while possessed? Did she think she killed the evil ghost dad? Not really sure on that one.

All we do know, is that Mia is committed to her plan of saving Riley, by killing him. This kid seriously has become the kid from Freddy Got Fingered. I love it, but it’s a little sad. But I’m still laughing.

Well obviously Jade will not be pleased with this. So Mia has to distract her. Telling Jade to meet up at her house in 10 minutes, that she found a way to fix things. Jade trusting her boyfriend stealing toe sucking best friend, heads off. Leaving Riley unprotected, and folks. We are in the final 10 minutes of the film. That’s wild right? This has just flown by, but man has it been moving steadily and building up.

I honestly hope they have enough time for the ending because holy crap we are on a tight schedule now.

Well Mia is in the hospital room with Riley. Who’s looking like hell might be the least worst outcome for him at the moment.

But before Mia can attempt anything. Riley’s mom pops into the room. But she’s not cussing out Mia. Instead she’s acting…well kind to her. Even apologizing to her. They found no drugs in his system. She knew Mia didn’t do anything to him, and she’s actually thankful. Glad that Mia is there seeing her son. Because she knows Mia legitimately cares about him.

Or at least she did until her ghost mom told her to kill him.

But Mom is trusting Mia, and when Mia ask to be left alone with Riley. Mom steps out. Leaving Mia to either go through with her plan, or be stopped.

Meanwhile, Jade is headed for Mia’s, as she planned. Of course the only thing she finds. Is hope!

Yes. Well okay maybe not hope in the literal term. But she has found Mia’s Dad Max. Who is still alive! Yes. He’s not dead yet. He’s feeling better! Just lost a lot of blood is all. Thankfully Mia seeing this. Realizes, her boyfriend stealing toe sucking, gonna get punched in the Gucci best friend, is a danger to herself, and others.

She thankfully is quick to call her mom, and alerts her of Mias danger toward Riley, and mom is off to stop her from taking her sons life.

Mia is having a crisis of faith at the moment. She wants to free Riley. And to make it easier. The old man she saw in hell holding him. The same old man the bloated woman told them all would come for him. Is now laying in the hospital bed. Taunting Riley. So yeah of course she wants to kill his ass FAR more than Riley’s.

But she can’t do it. Thankfully.

Of course I say thankfully, and Riley still isn’t going to make the best choices.

Does she stab the old man and accidentally stab and kill Riley? Thankfully no. She’s not that delusional.

Instead when the old man tells her to touch him, and take him out. She apparently does so. She loads up Riley into a wheelchair, pushes him UP a hill, which is no small feat, by any measure. And then helps lead him DOWN hill toward of all things nearby. A freeway.

This girl couldn’t make a right choice if it was wiggling its toes in her mouth.

So now we have giggling evil old man in the chair, and We have not so very good ghost mom comforting her daughter telling her to make her proud and save Riley.

Jade is breaking every speeding law out there in Australia and flies to the hospital. Able to spot Mia as she holds her brothers wheelchair aimed directly at oncoming traffic.

And with that. We get the end of our film.

NO it doesn’t fade to black like The Sopranos. Instead we have a small collision. Only to discover. Mia was nicked by a car, and Riley fell to safety. Comforted by his sister.

As Mia comes through and stumbled around the hospital. She finds Riley is okay. He’s no longer in a coma. He doesn’t want to kill himself anymore, and the visions of hell and old people hugging him are gone forever. The family is super happy. More shocking however, is when Mia sees her dad walking down the hallway ahead of her.

I mean she’s glad the dude is alive, yeah. But she needs to make sure its for real him and not evil dad. Since everything appears to be going super well.

But she has a harsh pill to swallow now. As dad doesn’t stop after hearing her pleading for him to stop. All the lights go out in the hospital and she is alone.

As the screen turns dark, we hear a match being lit, and see a silhouetted figure at a table, with their hand out. Mia races over and takes the hand, and immediately she is greeted, not to her friends faces. But a Spanish grown man, and a room of his friends. All watching him react as he holds her hand, and then says “I let you in”

And with that. Ghost Mia is now part of a parlor game of souls. Having died. Tricked by Malevolent spirits. The moral of the film kids? Stick to pot, and wait to summon spirits until your in college.

The End

That was a trip. And a good one.

It’s refreshing seeing the cautionary tale done the way they did, and I sincerely enjoyed the hell out of it. It wasn’t revolutionary by any means. But it told the story in a truly engaging way and honestly I was upset the film was over so fast. I could’ve kept watching it easily for another 20-30 minutes.

It hit all the right notes. It gave you just enough story to be interesting, while not over explaining it. They could’ve gone into a huge backstory about the old man being some super evil child murderer or demon but no. They kept it simple and minimal.

The best part, and I think it’ll play well for those that are into the same circles. Is the way the story was told, how things happened and progressed? It’s note for note exactly what they always caution in these books I’ve read about using spirit boards, contacting the dead. How something so seemingly harmless, or in the case of spirit boards, ‘just a boardgame’, can in the reality people choose to believe in. Be an incredibly dangerous door to malevolent forces.

All the stories are the same. Innocent kids playing around. They contact a spirit which at first seems find and okay. But the more they talk to it, suddenly the more brash and violent it shows itself to be. Until something bad happens or the board they used has to be ‘properly’ disposed of. It’s always the same, and seeing it play out like that here, but carried out to an even more tragic end. It’s just so good.

Once again the kids in this film, all the actors were top notch. The family was believable as a unit. Right up to the mom embarrassing the unholy hell out of her daughter. I kinda lost it when she was so sure they were planning a secret party, and she invited her boyfriend over the night he kissed their dog. She was so convinced of it, and that this guy was going to bang her daughter, that she flat out told him in front of her friends “My daughters vagina, is off limits to you”

That’s the joy of parenting. Knowing they can say that shit, and knowing it will kill you inside and that this embarrassment should keep anything from happening that night. Honestly parenting is kinda fucked up, but I also love that they get these moments, including the ones calling you out on your bullshit lying, because they’ve all told the same lies to their parents to get out of going to school, or sneaking out.

It’s just such a good believably dynamic, and Mia was played perfectly fine. You believed the friendship she had with Jade and especially Riley. She really treated him like her own little brother, and Jade as a sister. You can’t always fake that in movies, but they managed to get a good mix with these actors and they really nailed it.

The big thing for me though of all this, and the kids being believable as actual teens just having fun until shit gets real. Is the effects.

The practical effects in this were top notch. The dead bodies, which were sparingly used. All looked great. Gruesomely detailed and appropriately scary. The glimpse of the hell Riley was suffering was honestly one of the better I’d seen in a long time. I’d hold it right next to the scenes from Event Horizon as the crew watches the recording of the ships crew mutilating and devouring each other while having sex. The stuff is just primal and terrifyingly beautiful at the same time. It’s beautifully composed and well shot. Where again, like a lot in this film they wisely don’t linger too long. They don’t try and do a ‘look at the detail of what we did!” until closer to the end, with the old man reveal. But even then. It’s still used just enough as not to wear itself out or take away from the impact of the scene you are trying to form.

This was well shot, directed, acted and written. I really can’t pin point anything I didn’t care for.

Honestly I was ready to be annoyed with some of the kids, seeing as they tend to border on being annoying in most films. But yeah, no. These actors nailed it. They were the right amount of misfits without a care in the world, and even more believable once things went south.

Which is praise to the script as well for that.

Like when Mia begins to try and figure out what to do and approaches the group about it. There’s no big speeches from anyone about “Well this is how the spirit world works and” or “Guys I got this book, and this is what it says to do”, basically you don’t have young actors suddenly spilling out collected research on the undead and how to resolve things. What you have is an unsure teen who believes this thing she sees as her mother is trying to help her, when it’s actually doing harm. But she trust it as she sees only her mom, it can’t be something bad. And the kids reactions are always unsure. No one wants to take responsibility or say yeah lets do it. They just go with it because they don’t know what to do, So they simply go along with Mia. Even when they hear Riley is still trying to kill himself and Mia is talking about more ghost. They instinctively kick in with teen attitude. ‘You did this, not us. This is your fault.”

Right before Jade blows up at Mia at the bus stop, she ask them about the candle. And immediately Joss and Hayley, then Danial and Jade jump in about how SHE should know since she was the one that told him to do it, they didn’t say anything. No one wants any blame or any part of this. They just wanted to have fun. Things got hot really fast, and now no one wants anything to do with it. Joss and Hayley dipping out was appropriate. They were done and out. They didn’t want to see another ghost fight or worse. Be there and have Riley die. Just Jade and Daniel had no choice. They wanted to save Riley and Mia, bad judgment and ideas handed to her by a bad ghost, were there only hope.

It's really a tragedy seeing it play out in the film how it does, and even when you kinda know where things are likely headed. When you realize early on that this is not her mom, and that she is being influenced. It’s never over the top or handled like a typical trope. Again. Balance. They found a way to get it across, without being too obvious, as to give itself away. But giving you enough to know, you can see this is bad, but you wait to see if she’ll figure that out, or if someone will stop and save Mia.

Maybe her real mom would’ve contacted her. Maybe that’s who she saw in the background. Maybe her mom really tried reaching to her, but that dark spirit that latched on to her at the party was the only one doing so. Doing exactly what it warned her other spirits were doing outside her door, impersonating her dad. Evil lying to protect itself.

It’s good stuff and it made for a solid film.

Highly, super highly recommend it. It’s streaming and you can rent it. I bought it off Amazon, and I’m glad I did. It was one of the few films on this months list to actually have an overwhelmingly positive review status on it. Proving I can actually watch good movies that people agree IS good.

It’s just rare they actually ARE that good.

But yes, absolutely check this one out. I don’t know if the rest of our final 4 will be of this caliber. But I know they’ll be, well. Something. But I’m glad again for another positive find in this month.

So until tomorrow as we get down and dirty with the finals. If someone pulls out a ceramic coated hand and a candle at a party? Tell them to put their girlfriend away, high five the hand, and leave the party. Purchase a monkey paw instead. You’ll be a lot safer. Trust me…GOODNIGHT!!