I decided to check this movie out after hearing all of the hype. While this film did have some great scares, I do feel people have overhyped it.
Let's start with the pros. The film did have quite a few chilling moments. Personally, possession has always been something that has made me disturbed and uncomfortable. I feel that the movie did this perfectly. The different voices and unsettling comments genuinely gave me the creeps. I can also appreciate the fact that they didn't rely on cheap jump scares. While there are a couple of jump scares, they don't overdo it, like a lot of horror films do.
Another thing I liked was how intriguing the demons were and how ambiguous the ending was. I won't spoil anything here, but I was left questioning what exactly happened and if we can even rely on our protagonist. I actually wanted to learn more about the mysterious hand as well. While I am leaving an okay review, I would very much enjoy an origin story of how the hand came to be.
Now, onto the cons!
The biggest thing I disliked about this film was how dumb and annoying 90% of the characters were. I can defend characters like this sometimes in horror movies, if it's portrayed right. After all, we can't have a horror movie without some stupidity. However, in Talk to Me, this fails for me. It seems like there is only one character, Riley's sister, who has some common sense and is totally against it. In my opinion, this girl would have made for a better protagonist. Furthermore, not only are the characters stupid, but they have the WORST personalities. Think of every character you hate from horror films and place them all into one movie. That's how this film is. Even our protagonist is an awful person and uses her trauma as a way to justify her behavior. Now, if this was a horror film calling out a common flaw in human behavior, I could understand it. If that was their intention, it failed for me, personally. I was simply left irritated and wanting almost every character to be killed off.
Overall, I would say give this film a shot if you come across it. While I hated most of the characters, I did still enjoy the plot and the scares along the way.