(2025)
Directed by Danny & Michael Philippou
Starring Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Stephen Phillips, Mischa Heywood

The Philippou brothers made a big impact with horror fans with their 2022 film Talk to Me, about what looks to be a ceramic hand that is used for a twisted sort of party game. Except when you hold it in your hand, you become possessed by… something. There’s a time limit otherwise really bad things happen, which you see in the film. Their newest film, Bring Her Back, seems to live in that same world, where entities of some sort exist. The tagline used in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, “Demons to some. Angels to others”, fits perfectly here.

The story is about two half-siblings, that one day find their father dead in the bathroom, looking like he slipped getting out of the shower. Because the oldest, Andy, is just a few months away from turning 18, he’s not old enough to be the guardian of his younger sister, Piper, so they both have to go into the child services system. They end up with Laura, a single woman who seems a bit free-living type as well as a bit odd, especially not what one would expect from a foster care person. There is another young boy living there already, called Ollie, played by Jonah Wren Phillips, that looks a bit strange right from the beginning. Laura says he’s mute, which just enforces the mystery around him. You can tell right away that something is off about him.

With every day they stay there, you can tell that Laura is starting to manipulate them, like she’s trying to break the bond that Andy and Piper have. Because Andy had some issues when he was younger, we’re led to believe that he could be doing it again, but we know better. We know that something else is going on with Laura, something darker, which includes Ollie, but we’re not sure what exactly. That is until we see part of a video tape that Laura watches, which shows some sort of ritual with possible demonic possession or something. Whatever it is, it is messy and scary looking.

It has been quite some time for a film to make feel really uncomfortable, and this one does it several times, almost making you look away. As an old horror fan, to come across a film that can make me still wince and cringe after all these years, I have to give it credit.

The film’s overlying theme here deals with grief and how that can affect people in different ways. It can make them do things they never would have done in their normal life. It also can give you triggers that are over-the-top reminders of something that you wish you could forget. When you throw that into the mix, it’s easier to see why characters might do certain things. Something that on the outside that might make them look like the “bad” one, but when you see the big picture, not that it justifies it, but gives you more of an understanding. A lot of actors have stated before that a villain doesn’t think they are a villain. There are reasons for what they are doing. Sure, some of those reasons might be pretty misguided, but there is still some sort of reasoning behind their actions. Same goes here.

One of the real highlights of this film is the actors. The film has a very small cast for the most part, basically just the 3 youths and Laura, and most of the film takes place in her house. Wong does an incredible job here, both being her first film, as well as actually being vision impaired in real life. Billy Barratt, playing the older Andy is the character the protagonist that the audience follows. We are with him as he sees, or thinks, what is happening and as he tries to stop it. We get this feeling of hopelessness as we watch things go wrong for him, when we know the reasoning.

I completely twice-Oscar nominated Sally Hawkins does an exceptional job here playing a character that has a lot of inner demons, but by the end of it, we feel her pain and, while not agreeing with her methods, can completely understand her motives. Hawkins gives a very physical performance here, even doing a lot of her own stunts.

But I have to give strong kudos to young Jonah, who is on the poster for the film, because he gives an incredible performance throughout the film, with hardly any dialogue. Most of the time, it is just with a stare from someone that might not necessarily be “in there”. What his character goes through, and what Jonah goes through, is what makes parts of this film hard to watch without squirming a bit.

The other thing that I really enjoyed about this film is how different it was in the story. They have come up with their own mythology, which is pretty much hinted at in the same world as their previous film, Talk to Me. While there isn’t a ton of details or explanation, there is enough to understand what is happening and sort of why. It makes me think that we haven’t seen the last of this strange and terrifying world that the Philippou brothers have created.