BRING HER BACK Spoiler Review

Geek Girl Authority

2 days ago

Major spoilers ahead for Bring Her Back. You've been warned.
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Back in 2013, Danny and Michael Philippou launched their YouTube channel to share their love of filmmaking with the world. And if you've seen any of the shorts, like Don't Touch Cookie Monster's Cookies , you get their dark sense of humor and love of big action and horror. And Hollywood came calling, after their independently made feature debut, Talk to Me (2022), caused a bidding war at Sundance and was a huge box office success. Now the brothers have a new story with Bring Her Back. Does it live up to the high standard they've set? Read on to find out.
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Bring Her Back begins with some old, almost indecipherable video footage of what looks to be a cult ritual – even though there's some quick text that says, 'This is not a cult.' There's a girl and a man inside a white circle. The girl is hanged by the neck, then there's a shot of another girl reviving, with a purplish birthmark under one eye.
Then, we cut to the present day at a bus stop, where a young girl named Piper (Sora Wong) waits, while some other girls her age stand nearby chatting. Piper's legally blind, only able to see vague shapes and color. She tries talking to the girls, hoping to make friends. The mean girls make awkward conversation but clearly aren't interested. Sora Wong, Billy Baratt in Bring Her Back
Piper's stepbrother, Andy (Billy Baratt), arrives to rescue her, though Piper tries to act like they're not related. Of course, what Piper doesn't see is the mean girls making fun of her as soon as her back is turned. Piper and Andy are actually really close, and he's basically her eyes. They even have a code word, 'grapefruit,' which is their way of being honest with each other.
Andy and Piper live with his dad, Phil (Stephen Phillips) – Piper's mom having died sometime earlier. They come home to find Phil dead on the floor in the bathroom, having collapsed in the shower from what looks like a drug overdose.
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Having no other relatives, Piper and Andy go to Family Services and meet their social worker, Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton). She's arranged for Piper and Andy to go to separate foster homes. Andy doesn't want to be separated from Piper. But Wendy says that the foster mom, Laura (Sally Hawkins), won't want Andy, who's been in legal trouble before (which Piper doesn't know about). Andy begs Wendy not to separate them, promising that he'll be on his best behavior.
So, Andy and Piper both go to Laura's, where they meet her and her mute nephew, Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips). He's a strange kid, with bloodshot eyes and the same birthmark under his eye as the girl in the beginning. Andy accidentally lets Laura's cat out, and it ends up in the empty swimming pool with Ollie. He watches with suspicion as Laura has to wrestle the cat out of his hands.
Laura gives Piper the bedroom that belonged to her daughter, Cathy (Mischa Heywood), who died some time ago. Meanwhile, Andy gets a spare room that looks more like a closet. That night, Laura watches the cult footage, which apparently shows someone being possessed by an angel. The angel then eats the body of one whose soul is then transferred to a new body (killing that person). Jonah Wren Phillips in Bring Her Back
Laura's a pretty kooky chick herself, dressing like a hippie bag lady and loving to blast obnoxious music. She lavishes Piper with affection but doesn't much like Andy. She catches him texting a friend on his cell, making fun of Ollie, calling him 'a f***ing weirdo,' which doesn't make him look too good.
Andy wakes up and sees he's apparently pissed himself. Then, the three of them go to Phil's funeral, and Andy tells Piper that Phil looks good, even though he's not even looking at him. Laura makes Andy go back in and look at Phil and tries to make him kiss Phil on the lips because it's 'customary.' Andy will only kiss Phil on the forehead, and he doesn't even want to do that. After he leaves, Laura kisses Phil's mouth and takes a lock of his hair.
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Driving home, Laura insists that they do something fun because funerals should be celebrations of the person who died. They end up going home and getting drunk, blasting music and dancing. After Piper passes out, Laura and Andy talk some more. She reveals that Cathy drowned in the pool, and her loss has been devastating.
Andy reveals that Phil abused him – something he never told Piper because he didn't want to ruin her affection for him. He also says that he was only happy when Piper's mother was alive and they had a real family. After he goes to sleep, Laura goes in the bathroom and pees in a cup. Then, she goes into Andy's room and dumps the piss on him, so he'll think he's pissing himself.
Laura also goes through Andy's phone, deleting any photos of Ollie or the house. She then gives Ollie a bath, his eyes now even redder and his hands bloodied from breaking a window. Laura also feeds Ollie the lock of Phil's hair. Sally Hawkins, Sora Wong in Bring Her Back
The next day, Andy tries to get all his clothes and sheets in the wash, but Laura's already in the laundry room with Piper. She makes sure to note the smell of piss to embarrass Andy. Laura leaves the house with Piper, leaving Andy to watch Ollie. Andy tries his best to communicate, finally making a deal that he'll give Ollie some fruit if he'll use a paper and pencil to write. Andy cuts him some cantaloupe, and Ollie just writes the word, 'Bird.'
Then, Ollie takes the knife and starts chewing on the blade (yikes), which severely cuts his gums and lips. Andy tries to take Ollie to the car to drive him to the hospital. But as soon as they cross a painted white line, Ollie collapses in agony, his skin appearing to burn. Laura and Piper come back, and Laura grabs up Ollie, screaming that he can't go to the hospital.
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Laura locks herself and Ollie in her bedroom, where she watches the cult ritual tape. She mimics the gestures they make with Ollie, tracing a circle on his forehead over and over, which seems to calm him.
Andy hasn't been showering, afraid to use the shower ever since Phil's death. He uses the spigot outside to wash up. He thinks he sees Phil, who mutters something about 'She'll die in the rain.' Andy thinks he's talking about Piper, and that day it starts raining. When Andy tries using the shower inside, he slips and hits his head and ends up in the hospital.
When Laura returns from the hospital, she brings Piper outside and they dance in the rain. Then, Laura takes Piper to a shed where she's keeping the frozen corpse of her daughter, and makes Piper touch it. Sally Hawkins, Jonah Wren Phillips in Bring Her Back
Then, Laura ramps up her efforts to distance Piper from Andy. She sprays herself with Andy's deodorant and goes to Piper's room. Then, she hauls off and punches Piper in the eye. Wow. Meanwhile, Andy tries to get some video of Ollie standing out in the rain. Laura catches him and they struggle, Andy getting momentarily aggressive with her, shoving her back, which makes Piper think Andy really did hit her.
Later, while Laura takes a reluctant Piper to a rec center to play Goalball , Andy goes to the police to make a report on Laura. While there, he sees a flyer for a missing boy named Connor Bird. Andy's shocked to see that Connor is Ollie. He takes the flyer to social worker Wendy and tries to explain that Laura has kidnapped Connor.
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Meanwhile, back at the house, Ollie/Connor's wrecking the place. When Laura returns, Ollie/Connor attacks, taking a huge bite out of her arm. Then, he starts chewing on a wood counter (yow) before tearing a huge strip of flesh off his own arm and eating it (holy crap). Laura manages to calm him by tracing her bloody arm in a circle on the window. Then, she takes him to the shed so he can start eating Cathy's corpse (yuck).
Laura hears Andy's message to Piper, letting her know how much he loves her and warning her about Laura, making sure to say 'grapefruit.' Laura hurries to clean up the mess Ollie/Connor made before he and Wendy get there. She dresses like she was in the shower when they arrive, and while Wendy has a look around the house, Andy goes out to the shed.
Wendy finally notices Laura's bloody arm, and Laura drops the act, ranting to Wendy about how she can bring Cathy back. Andy calls Wendy out to the shed, where she sees Ollie/Connor chewing on Cathy's eye. Wendy and Andy make a run for her car – but then Laura drives her car right into them, killing Wendy and incapacitating Andy. Then, she finishes Andy off by turning his face into a puddle and drowning him. Billy Barratt, Sora Wong in Bring Her Back
Laura goes to the rec center and picks up Piper, practically dragging her away from the friends she was talking to. When they get home, Piper feels around and finds Ollie/Connor and Andy. She tries running away but ends up hitting her head and getting knocked out.
Laura drags Piper into the pool, which is nearly full from the constant rain. She starts drowning Piper the same way Cathy died, but Piper struggles. In an effort to catch her off guard, Piper shouts out, 'Mom!' Which is something Laura had hoped for. Laura realizes she can't kill Piper and lets her go.
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Piper finds her way out of the yard and to the street, where a car picks her up. Meanwhile, Ollie/Connor also makes his way out of the house and crosses that white line, which turns out to be a circle painted around the whole property. He collapses and pukes up whatever was 'possessing' him.
Later, the police arrive and find Ollie, who tells them his name is Connor. They also find Laura in the shed, dead from having bled out from the wound on her arm. She holds Cathy's corpse in her arms. And sitting in the car, Piper looks up, hearing a plane flying overhead. She smiles because Andy had told her earlier that when Phil died, he just took a plane and flew off to Heaven. And she hears Andy's message to her, telling her he loves her. Grapefruit.
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I'm a huge fan of Talk to Me, a flick that managed to put a new, Gen Z spin on the often-told tale of seances, possession and ghosts without being annoying. But it's also a meditation on the lasting effects of loneliness, wanting to belong and losing a loved one. Interestingly enough, Bring Her Back continues that study on grief, even dedicating the movie to a close friend who died during pre-production. Sally Hawkins in Bring Her Back
In a recent interview, Danny Philippou said, ' The best way to make art is to be as personal as possible.' And Bring Her Back certainly feels personal, maybe even more so than Talk to Me . And while Andy and Piper are important to the story, it's really Laura who carries the majority of the narrative weight. It's her loss that makes everything in the story happen, and it's her sorrow that the Philippous want us to understand.
Sally Hawkins' performance is by far the standout. Her Laura is friggin' weird, creepy, devious – and yet also incredibly sweet, sad and just sympathetic enough. And the body horror aspects of the story are definitely going to make you squirm. I just wish the rest of the flick was fleshed out better.
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We never find out what the deal was with the cult (and the reason for saying, 'This is not a cult'). Was it something Laura was involved in? Or did she just find this tape and start a do-it-yourself kinda thing? Maybe the Philippous didn't think those details were important, but I couldn't help thinking about it as I was watching it. I also wish the mechanics of the possession/body swapping with Ollie/Connor were a bit better explained.
Bring Her Back feels more like two competing stories – the story of Piper and Andy and their grief, and Laura and hers. The two storylines don't mesh, and ultimately, Laura's side of things takes over, which makes for muddied waters, story-wise. It feels like Laura's story should've been the whole story. Had that been the case, the Philippous could've delved deeper into the ritual and the possession.
But overall, Bring Her Back is a strange, dark and ballsy look at the lengths some people will go to to keep their loved ones' spirits alive after death. And even though the flick doesn't quite manage the same level of cohesion as Talk to Me, the Philippous have a unique style that makes anything they do worth watching.
Directed by: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Written by: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Release date: May 30, 2025
Rating: R
Run time: 1hr, 44min
Distributor: A24
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