I think it should be fairly obvious not to mess with evil spirits. Definitely don’t get all hand-holdy with a cursed hand. Since common sense went out the damn door a long time ago, it needs to be stated, like a warning label on a pack of cigarettes: DON’T MESS WITH EVIL SPIRITS, PEOPLE!

Mia and her friend Jade are just a couple of Australian teens who take part in a spirit possession session at a house party involving an embalmed hand. When they grasp the hand and say “talk to me”, the person holding the hand sees a (usually frightening) dead person’s spirit. That would be the point where you should nope the eff out, but they can go a step further by saying “I let you in”. That invocation will let the spirit take over that person’s body, but they must sever the connection before 90 seconds or worse stuff will happen. The rules seem a little loosey goosey, because they are made up by teenagers.

It started out with nice building of tension as the teens kept pushing the limits of this newfound party trick. Things start to go off the rails when Jade’s younger brother, Riley, wants to commune with the spirits, but goes too long and starts bashing his head against the table. Mia must find a way to save Riley from permanent possession.

There were a few good jump scares, but overall it was still pretty tame. There was some interesting back story with the Mia character having lost her mother to suicide a year earlier and the mystery surrounding that event. That subplot managed to factor into the whole summoning dead spirits main plot quite well. As the movie progressed, it fizzled out in the second half when it devolved into Mia’s downward spiral and looked more like mental health problems than evil spirit torment.

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