Rating: 3/5
Oh My Horror 2025 | 17/52 | Ghosts
It’s nighttime in Adelaide. Cole calls his brother Duckett while walking into a house party. Once again, he gets Duckett’s voicemail. Cole asks a fellow party-goer if they’ve seen Duckett. He searches the house, finally finding his brother in Jayden’s room. Cole breaks the door down, finding his brother shirtless, muttering about their dead father. Duckett grabs a knife and stabs Cole in the chest, then stabs himself in the head, killing himself.
Cut to Mia, dressed in black and having a difficult day. Riley, Jade’s younger brother, calls her for a ride. While driving back, they find a dying kangaroo on the road. Mia attempts to drive over it to put it out of its misery, but she can’t bring herself to kill it, even though it’s suffering. When they get to Riley’s, Mia drops in to say hey to Jade, whom she hasn’t talked to in some time. Mia shows Jade a video from Haley’s Snapchat in which a girl’s eyes are all black. They’re having another event that night, and Mia wants to go. Jade isn’t interested until Mia reminds Jade that it’s been two years since Mia’s mom, Rhea, died. So, Jade, Riley, and Mia sneak out to the event.
After some awkward sitting around, Joss brings out a backpack. Mia volunteers for whatever is about to happen. Joss ties Mia to the chair. Haley goes over the rules: no more than 90 seconds, or they will want to stay. To initiate conversation with the dead, she must say, “Talk to me.” To be possessed by it, she must say, “I let you in.” Haley lights a candle while Joss brings out a severed embalmed hand. Mia grabs the hand and says, “Talk to me.” A man appears across from her. She pulls away immediately, and the man disappears. Jade thinks Mia is just fucking with her. So, Mia will prove it.
The next time doesn’t go exactly right, but Mia is hooked.
The film is another meditation on grief, focusing on the self-destructive ways we try to escape it. The hand and channeling spirits are functionally similar to drugs in that they give the characters an escape from themselves and an ecstatic experience to boot. For those who know, you must allow grief to move through you to leave the body. Whatever we don’t let pass stays. Of course, the film isn’t content to explore its metaphor as presented, and things get… messy.
Jade has the Crazy Frog ringtone. She instantly became the coolest person in the movie.
I love Miranda Otto as Jade and Riley’s mother. She instantly catches on to everything.
Sophie Wilde is outstanding as Mia. She handles some complicated character beats gracefully. Similarly, Joe Bird, as Riley, is a surprisingly nuanced character.
The movie makes some excellent horror choices, then some unnecessary ones. By the end, it had sort of lost me, but there were enough moments throughout that I enjoyed it.