Danny and Michael Philippou: Horror-making film twins putting Australian blood and gore movies on the map

West Australian

2 days ago

After finding global fame with viral videos on YouTube, the Philippou twins from Adelaide are now putting Aussie horror films on the map.
Danny and Michael Philippou first caught the eye of movie producers with their homemade mashups of the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises, which amassed tens of millions of views on YouTube.
What separated their RackaRacka channel from other creators on the platform was an innovative use of impressive special effects, revealing the brothers to be filmmakers who only became social media stars out of necessity.
Their debut feature film, 2023's Talk to Me, was an international sensation, with its tale of demonic possession raking in more than $140 million at the worldwide box office against an estimated budget of less $7 million.
That's the kind of return on investment that gets Hollywood studios excited, which is why prestigious production house A24, the US distributors of Talk to Me, were so eager to get onboard for the Philippou's followup, Bring Her Back.
Filmed in the bush around Adelaide, the new film is similarly supernatural, even more gnarly from a horror perspective, and boasts two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins in the cast.
Casting an actor of Hawkins' calibre and shooting the film in South Australia, when big-budget Hollywood projects were beckoning, speaks volumes for the potential the industry sees in the twins.
'We turned everything down to make this film in Australia, because it's where we felt the most comfortable.,' Danny says over a Zoom call with The Sunday Times and his brother.
'This project was the most exciting, because it was our own.'
'It was a really hard decision, a scary decision to make, to say that we're just going to stick with our own thing, but it felt like the natural thing to do,' Michael adds.
The success of Talk to Me raised the profile of Australian horror films abroad, after the genre had been treading water Down Under since the release of 2014 streaming hit, The Babadook.
Before that it was 2005's Wolf Creek, which spawned an array of subsequent outback thrillers.
But the Philippous have opened the door for a new generation of filmmakers at a time when the genre is populated by a wider variety of voices than ever before.
A great example of that is last year's Indigenous horror flick, The Moogai, starring Shari Sebbens and Meyne Wyatt.
Opening doors is a responsibility, and the twins are definitely feeling the pressure.
'With Talk to Me, we didn't know what to expect or how it would be received, and no one was expecting anything,' Michael admits..
'And then, suddenly, there was a bit of an expectation or a weight on (Bring Her Back), and you're so terrified of letting fans down, letting Sally Hawkins down, letting A24, down. There's an anxiety with all of that.'
'Like, severe anxiety,' Danny confirms.
'I was waking up having almost a panic attack, because, when you care about something so much, and you know it's going to be viewed and judged and looked at, it's a strange feeling.
'But all we can do is try our best at the time, and we've got to make something that we like, and that, hopefully, will resonate with audiences.'
Talk to Me was the highest-grossing horror film A24 had released in the US at the time, and repeating that success with Bring Her Back would ensure Hollywood stays on the lookout for the next Aussie horror auteur.
As the Philippous see it, that can only be good for the local screen industry.
'We want to inject money into the Australian economy and then, hopefully, open those doors for other upcoming artists to be able to do their films, tell their stories, and show that it can compete on a world stage,' Michael says.
'That's important to us to kind of help with the next generations of filmmakers, and try to inspire if we can.'
Though it would be hard to pry these boys away from their beloved South Australia, the idea of being the ones to christen the new $233 million Perth film studio project when it comes online next year has its appeal.
'With all of the fake blood we need, it would destroy the studio,' Michael laughs.
Bring Her Back is in cinemas now