Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou — Screenplay by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman.
In Bring Her Back, we follow Australian step-siblings Andy (played by Billy Barratt), a 17-year-old young man still struggling with previously undisclosed trauma, and Piper (played by Sora Wong), his visually-impaired younger sister, after they find their father dead in the shower. Now, with Andy not being quite old enough yet to be Piper’s legal guardian, they risk being split up by the system, but the siblings put their foot down and eventually get a foster parent to agree to house them. But while this foster parent, Laura (played by Sally Hawkins) hopes to adopt Piper, the siblings still have hope that they can eventually go out on their own. However, Laura, a grief-stricken former counselor who has recently lost her own visually-impaired daughter, has ulterior motives and, it appears, she may have already experimented with occult rituals on another child in her care.
Only a select few debut horror films have impressed me as much as Danny and Michael Philippou’s supernatural horror flick about communicating with the other side, Talk to Me, did just a few years ago. It had something on its mind, and it featured both great horror concepts and extremely distressing violence. So, their follow-up sophomore feature was something that I was highly anticipating. Having now seen Bring Her Back, I can say that I think this is another great original horror feature that solidifies the directing duo as ones to watch with anticipation, and who may have the potential to become genuine masters of horror down the line.
In spite of a creepy brief opening section where we get our first glimpse at the demonic possession that one of the film’s characters is studying, the Philippou brothers take a slower approach to the horror of it all than in the previous film, which I found to be a refreshing, gradual build-up. This act of not being upfront about the horror worked so well that I thought it was an outright shame to open with the possession videotape, and I can’t help but think that it may have been the result of studio concerns.
This is a foster system horror story that often sees the filmmakers focus on close-ups of hands feeling around, which, when paired with a visually impaired character, makes for really smart character-focused horror filmmaking. The duo does a good job of setting up these situations. But, like their previous film, the most avert-your-eyes-from-the-screen acutely distressing scene is one where a young person is violently causing great injury to themselves. Again, it is an impressively horrific sequence that makes you squirm in your seat, and it is both due to the horror and nightmarish absurdity of it and the horrifying sound work used to reach its full potential.
Performance-wise, the Philippous again get a lot out of newcomers like Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, and Jonah Wren Phillips, who are all very good, with Billy and Sora really doing a good job of creating what feels like a relatively genuine sibling relationship. Then, of course, you have Sally Hawkins playing against type in a complex role that sees her be both vulnerable, deceptively cheerful, and outright mean and evil. She is outstanding here and deserving of more than just a tip of the hat come awards season, though I’m not sure she’ll get it.
There is something to be said about the fact that this latest film doesn’t have as much to say as Talk to Me did. Indeed, Bring Her Back, for all the good it contains, does repeat a lot of themes and scenes, like responsibility/guilt, sibling relationships, parental trauma, violent facial injuries, grief, and supernatural possessions. So, while I was a big fan of Bring Her Back, I do think it would be interesting to see them work on something that challenges them a little bit more in the future.
8 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 