Warning: This article contains spoilers for Talk to Me.

Talk To Me breaks a major horror movie rule with its most shocking scenes, but A24’s sleeper hit isn't the first 2023 release to feature this taboo — and it won’t be the last. Talk To Me is a dark Australian horror movie about suburban teens who get more than they bargained for when they play with a ceramic hand. According to its owners, the hand allows the to commune with the dead for 90 seconds, as long as they invite their spirits in. However, if the player doesn't let go of the hand after 90 seconds, chaos can break loose.

The recently bereaved Mia tries to use the hand to speak to her late mother, a foolhardy decision that leads to her tragic fate in Talk To Me’s killer twist ending. However, before Mia falls victim to the hand’s machinations, another character has a much worse time. Mia’s close friend, Jade, forbids her younger brother, Riley, from playing with the hand. Although his age is never stated in Talk To Me, Riley seems to be somewhere between 11 and 14, with Jade stating he is not yet 15 at one point of the film.

Talk To Me’s Kid Characters Aren’t Safe

Despite his young age, Talk To Me’s preteen ing character gets the nastiest injuries in the movie. When Riley plays with the hand, he channels a spirit claiming to be Mia’s mother. In the ensuing chaos, no one re to take the hand away from him before 90 seconds elapse. Riley then repeatedly smashes his face into a wooden table before attempting to gouge his eye out by hand. Earlier in 2023, Evil Dead Rise became the most extreme horror movie in the series when it killed off its child heroes. Riley’s painfully realistic fate makes their deaths look cartoonish by comparison.

Riley does survive his injuries, and Talk To Me’s ending implies that he makes a full recovery. However, since Mia is already dead when she sees Riley, Jade, and their mother leave the hospital, she could be imagining this optimistic outcome. After all, Riley’s initial injuries are horrific. The character’s fate is significantly worsened later in the movie, when Talk To Me’s villainous spirits compel him to slam the back of his head into a tiled wall while possessed. Since Talk To Me only features two other deaths (those of Mia and her father), the movie’s youngest character gets the most gruesome treatment.

2023’s Kid-Unfriendly Horror Trend Will Only Get Worse

Judging by The Exorcist: Believer’s new movie trailer, 2023's horror releases are not done brutalizing child characters. The long-awaited follow-up to The Exorcist looks like it will be a lot scarier and more brutal than earlier sequels, which made the mistake of toning down the original movie’s unsparing horror. Talk To Me's terrifying Riley sequences owe their inspiration to The Exorcist, which was one of the first movies to depict a child character’s violent demonic possession in all its R-rated horror. Much like The Exorcist’s heroine, Talk To Me’s Riley technically makes it out of the movie alive — but he may wish that he hadn't.