Latest news with #BringHerBack
The Advertiser
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Aussie horror twins return with the mother of all evil
Bring Her Back MA15+, 104 minutes 3 stars The Australian Philippou twins - Michael and Danny - burst onto the horror scene with Talk to Me (2022). It was a well-made and vivid movie, by no means just a gory frightfest, in which dealing with death and grief played a big part. This movie - like the first, written by Danny Philippou with Bill Hinzman - has some similar themes but the story is quite different. The horror is far from being just supernatural and all the more unnerving for it. Bring Her Back is aiming to run emotionally deeper than its predecessor did and, while I had some reservations, it's an impressive achievement. There's a prologue in which some kind of bizarre, possibly occult, ritual is being undertaken. There will be more about that later. Then we move into a seemingly more mundane, if tragic, situation. After the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sight-impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are going to be separated in foster care: Andy's troubled past makes him hard to place. But he pleads with their caseworker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) not to split them up as he turns 18 in three months and will take on Piper's guardianship then. He gets his way, but had he known what was in store he might have reconsidered. British actress Sally Hawkins plays Laura, their foster mother. While casting a foreign performer in an Australian movie often feels like a bid for international appeal, Hawkins is brilliant in the role. Among other roles, she played Mrs Brown in the first two Paddington movies but she's a very different kind of mother here. It doesn't take long to feel there is something a bit off about Laura, who lives in a house out of town. While at first glance she seems cheerful and slightly eccentric, it doesn't take long before cracks appear in the veneer, revealing something more than unpleasant underneath. Laura fusses and fawns over Piper but treats Andy in a far more perfunctory way. She's aggressively nosy, not just politely curious, and some of her behaviour is worse than inappropriate. It's creepily fascinating and more than a little uncomfortable to watch. And who is that strange, bald little boy with the haunting eyes who's standing in the middle of the unfilled pool in the backyard? Oh, that's Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), Laura explains, another of her kids. He's selectively mute. Oh, and he's not allowed out, so he's locked in his room when nobody else is home. Nothing to worry about. The film could just about have forgone the supernatural elements - which aren't explained in exhaustive detail - and worked as a dark thriller about obsession and loss and the extremes to which people will go when devastated. But the spooky elements, not overexplained, add their own frissons and we get more than enough to know that something is very, very wrong. The kids are not there out of the goodness of Laura's heart. Barratt and Wong make you care about the step-siblings and their relationship and you don't want anything bad to happen to them. But given this is a horror movie, the chances are high that something will. Wren Phillips is a haunting and disturbing presence and he and his character undergo a lot. The production design and cinematography are excellent, as are the sometimes gross visual and practical effects (consider yourself warned). Flaws? Well, there's a big information dump towards the end of the movie and a couple of credibility gaps: a mobile phone that's always open so anyone can access the contents (and an owner who takes no security measures) and characters who put up with far more than seems credible before taking any action. Others won't be as fussed as I was about much of this and, regardless, the film is definitely worth seeing. It will be interesting to see what the Philippous come up with next. Bring Her Back MA15+, 104 minutes 3 stars The Australian Philippou twins - Michael and Danny - burst onto the horror scene with Talk to Me (2022). It was a well-made and vivid movie, by no means just a gory frightfest, in which dealing with death and grief played a big part. This movie - like the first, written by Danny Philippou with Bill Hinzman - has some similar themes but the story is quite different. The horror is far from being just supernatural and all the more unnerving for it. Bring Her Back is aiming to run emotionally deeper than its predecessor did and, while I had some reservations, it's an impressive achievement. There's a prologue in which some kind of bizarre, possibly occult, ritual is being undertaken. There will be more about that later. Then we move into a seemingly more mundane, if tragic, situation. After the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sight-impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are going to be separated in foster care: Andy's troubled past makes him hard to place. But he pleads with their caseworker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) not to split them up as he turns 18 in three months and will take on Piper's guardianship then. He gets his way, but had he known what was in store he might have reconsidered. British actress Sally Hawkins plays Laura, their foster mother. While casting a foreign performer in an Australian movie often feels like a bid for international appeal, Hawkins is brilliant in the role. Among other roles, she played Mrs Brown in the first two Paddington movies but she's a very different kind of mother here. It doesn't take long to feel there is something a bit off about Laura, who lives in a house out of town. While at first glance she seems cheerful and slightly eccentric, it doesn't take long before cracks appear in the veneer, revealing something more than unpleasant underneath. Laura fusses and fawns over Piper but treats Andy in a far more perfunctory way. She's aggressively nosy, not just politely curious, and some of her behaviour is worse than inappropriate. It's creepily fascinating and more than a little uncomfortable to watch. And who is that strange, bald little boy with the haunting eyes who's standing in the middle of the unfilled pool in the backyard? Oh, that's Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), Laura explains, another of her kids. He's selectively mute. Oh, and he's not allowed out, so he's locked in his room when nobody else is home. Nothing to worry about. The film could just about have forgone the supernatural elements - which aren't explained in exhaustive detail - and worked as a dark thriller about obsession and loss and the extremes to which people will go when devastated. But the spooky elements, not overexplained, add their own frissons and we get more than enough to know that something is very, very wrong. The kids are not there out of the goodness of Laura's heart. Barratt and Wong make you care about the step-siblings and their relationship and you don't want anything bad to happen to them. But given this is a horror movie, the chances are high that something will. Wren Phillips is a haunting and disturbing presence and he and his character undergo a lot. The production design and cinematography are excellent, as are the sometimes gross visual and practical effects (consider yourself warned). Flaws? Well, there's a big information dump towards the end of the movie and a couple of credibility gaps: a mobile phone that's always open so anyone can access the contents (and an owner who takes no security measures) and characters who put up with far more than seems credible before taking any action. Others won't be as fussed as I was about much of this and, regardless, the film is definitely worth seeing. It will be interesting to see what the Philippous come up with next. Bring Her Back MA15+, 104 minutes 3 stars The Australian Philippou twins - Michael and Danny - burst onto the horror scene with Talk to Me (2022). It was a well-made and vivid movie, by no means just a gory frightfest, in which dealing with death and grief played a big part. This movie - like the first, written by Danny Philippou with Bill Hinzman - has some similar themes but the story is quite different. The horror is far from being just supernatural and all the more unnerving for it. Bring Her Back is aiming to run emotionally deeper than its predecessor did and, while I had some reservations, it's an impressive achievement. There's a prologue in which some kind of bizarre, possibly occult, ritual is being undertaken. There will be more about that later. Then we move into a seemingly more mundane, if tragic, situation. After the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sight-impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are going to be separated in foster care: Andy's troubled past makes him hard to place. But he pleads with their caseworker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) not to split them up as he turns 18 in three months and will take on Piper's guardianship then. He gets his way, but had he known what was in store he might have reconsidered. British actress Sally Hawkins plays Laura, their foster mother. While casting a foreign performer in an Australian movie often feels like a bid for international appeal, Hawkins is brilliant in the role. Among other roles, she played Mrs Brown in the first two Paddington movies but she's a very different kind of mother here. It doesn't take long to feel there is something a bit off about Laura, who lives in a house out of town. While at first glance she seems cheerful and slightly eccentric, it doesn't take long before cracks appear in the veneer, revealing something more than unpleasant underneath. Laura fusses and fawns over Piper but treats Andy in a far more perfunctory way. She's aggressively nosy, not just politely curious, and some of her behaviour is worse than inappropriate. It's creepily fascinating and more than a little uncomfortable to watch. And who is that strange, bald little boy with the haunting eyes who's standing in the middle of the unfilled pool in the backyard? Oh, that's Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), Laura explains, another of her kids. He's selectively mute. Oh, and he's not allowed out, so he's locked in his room when nobody else is home. Nothing to worry about. The film could just about have forgone the supernatural elements - which aren't explained in exhaustive detail - and worked as a dark thriller about obsession and loss and the extremes to which people will go when devastated. But the spooky elements, not overexplained, add their own frissons and we get more than enough to know that something is very, very wrong. The kids are not there out of the goodness of Laura's heart. Barratt and Wong make you care about the step-siblings and their relationship and you don't want anything bad to happen to them. But given this is a horror movie, the chances are high that something will. Wren Phillips is a haunting and disturbing presence and he and his character undergo a lot. The production design and cinematography are excellent, as are the sometimes gross visual and practical effects (consider yourself warned). Flaws? Well, there's a big information dump towards the end of the movie and a couple of credibility gaps: a mobile phone that's always open so anyone can access the contents (and an owner who takes no security measures) and characters who put up with far more than seems credible before taking any action. Others won't be as fussed as I was about much of this and, regardless, the film is definitely worth seeing. It will be interesting to see what the Philippous come up with next. Bring Her Back MA15+, 104 minutes 3 stars The Australian Philippou twins - Michael and Danny - burst onto the horror scene with Talk to Me (2022). It was a well-made and vivid movie, by no means just a gory frightfest, in which dealing with death and grief played a big part. This movie - like the first, written by Danny Philippou with Bill Hinzman - has some similar themes but the story is quite different. The horror is far from being just supernatural and all the more unnerving for it. Bring Her Back is aiming to run emotionally deeper than its predecessor did and, while I had some reservations, it's an impressive achievement. There's a prologue in which some kind of bizarre, possibly occult, ritual is being undertaken. There will be more about that later. Then we move into a seemingly more mundane, if tragic, situation. After the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sight-impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are going to be separated in foster care: Andy's troubled past makes him hard to place. But he pleads with their caseworker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) not to split them up as he turns 18 in three months and will take on Piper's guardianship then. He gets his way, but had he known what was in store he might have reconsidered. British actress Sally Hawkins plays Laura, their foster mother. While casting a foreign performer in an Australian movie often feels like a bid for international appeal, Hawkins is brilliant in the role. Among other roles, she played Mrs Brown in the first two Paddington movies but she's a very different kind of mother here. It doesn't take long to feel there is something a bit off about Laura, who lives in a house out of town. While at first glance she seems cheerful and slightly eccentric, it doesn't take long before cracks appear in the veneer, revealing something more than unpleasant underneath. Laura fusses and fawns over Piper but treats Andy in a far more perfunctory way. She's aggressively nosy, not just politely curious, and some of her behaviour is worse than inappropriate. It's creepily fascinating and more than a little uncomfortable to watch. And who is that strange, bald little boy with the haunting eyes who's standing in the middle of the unfilled pool in the backyard? Oh, that's Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), Laura explains, another of her kids. He's selectively mute. Oh, and he's not allowed out, so he's locked in his room when nobody else is home. Nothing to worry about. The film could just about have forgone the supernatural elements - which aren't explained in exhaustive detail - and worked as a dark thriller about obsession and loss and the extremes to which people will go when devastated. But the spooky elements, not overexplained, add their own frissons and we get more than enough to know that something is very, very wrong. The kids are not there out of the goodness of Laura's heart. Barratt and Wong make you care about the step-siblings and their relationship and you don't want anything bad to happen to them. But given this is a horror movie, the chances are high that something will. Wren Phillips is a haunting and disturbing presence and he and his character undergo a lot. The production design and cinematography are excellent, as are the sometimes gross visual and practical effects (consider yourself warned). Flaws? Well, there's a big information dump towards the end of the movie and a couple of credibility gaps: a mobile phone that's always open so anyone can access the contents (and an owner who takes no security measures) and characters who put up with far more than seems credible before taking any action. Others won't be as fussed as I was about much of this and, regardless, the film is definitely worth seeing. It will be interesting to see what the Philippous come up with next.
Time Magazine
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Breaking Down the Brutal Ending of Bring Her Back
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Bring Her Back. The message of Bring Her Back may be that grief is the real monster. But desperate mother Laura (played with a harrowing intensity by Sally Hawkins) makes a pretty good one all on her own. As a follow-up to their acclaimed 2023 feature debut Talk to Me, Australian filmmaking brothers and RackaRacka YouTube creators Danny and Michael Philippou have delivered a brutal exploration of trauma and loss in the form of a boundary-pushing supernatural horror. The movie is vicious and visceral, and is currently sitting at a certified fresh rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. Following a found footage-style opening sequence depicting a disturbing occult ritual, Bring Her Back introduces us to tight-knit step-siblings Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt). We quickly learn that 17-year-old Andy feels responsible for protecting his younger sister, who is mostly blind. So after they find their father bloodied, vomit-spattered, and dead in the shower, it makes sense that Andy—who is three months away from turning 18 and being allowed to become Piper's legal guardian—fights to stay by her side as they're turned over to child protective services. Unfortunately, their eccentric new foster mother, Laura, is really only interested in Piper, as she bears some striking similarities to Laura's late daughter Cathy (Mischa Heywood), who drowned in their pool. In fact, it's obvious Laura would prefer Andy not be there at all. When Piper and Andy arrive at Laura's secluded home, they find out she's also housing a mute and seemingly disturbed young boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), whom she introduces as her nephew and often keeps locked away in his room. But as Oliver's behavior turns increasingly violent and Laura's attempts to create a divide between Piper and Andy grow ever more blatant, it becomes clear that whatever Laura's really up to is far more dark and nefarious than simply not wanting troubled teen Andy moping around. How Bring Her Back ends Bring Her Back is a tough and squirm-inducing watch that never grants viewers any real reprieve as it hurtles toward its cruelly bleak conclusion. But for horror fans seeking nearly 100 minutes of relentless dread, this one is likely to get the job done. In the end, it's revealed that Laura, driven to all-consuming anguish by her daughter's death, is attempting to use that same ritual we caught a glimpse of in the movie's opening minutes to try to resurrect Cathy, whose frozen corpse she's been keeping hidden away in a locked shed. We never find out how exactly Laura came into possession of the VHS tape containing the footage, but we do learn that the rite involves transferring the spirit of the dead into the body of another person via a possessed host. More specifically, the possessed host has to consume the dead before purging their remains into the mouth of a person who is sacrificed in the same manner in which the deceased originally died. Even more specifically, a possessed Oliver—who is actually not Laura's nephew but rather a boy she kidnapped named Connor—is going to have to eat Cathy's body and then vomit her into Piper's mouth after Laura finishes drowning Piper in the pool, thus completing the soul transfer. Following weeks of psychological torment at Laura's hands, Andy returns to the CPS office and manages to convince their caseworker, Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton), that she needs to come check out what's going on at the house. Laura's latest ploy has been brutally hitting Piper in the face in the middle of the night and trying to convince her it was Andy, leaving Piper with a black eye and Andy desperate to get his sister away from Laura. But once Wendy realizes Andy is more than right about the danger at hand, Laura springs into action by trying to run both Wendy and Andy over with her car. Wendy is instantly killed and Laura then proceeds to drown a still-breathing Andy in a puddle. When Piper returns home and discovers Andy's body, she tries to get away but Laura overpowers her and drags her out to the pool. As Oliver stands at the ready, swollen with Cathy's remains, Laura begins drowning a fighting and thrashing Piper. However, at the last minute, Piper screams out "Mom" and it jars Laura enough for her to realize that, after all that, she can't bring herself to go through with killing Piper. Piper escapes and is picked up by her goalball coach, who was apparently coming to check on her after seeing her black eye earlier that day. Later, the police discover Laura lying in the pool clutching the mutilated remains of Cathy's body. They also find Connor, who managed to make his way outside of Laura's circle of possession, crying for help on the ground as he comes back into his right mind. Piper's final scene shows her hearing a plane soaring overhead as she recalls Andy trying to comfort her in the wake of their dad's death by describing how planes carry the souls of the departed to the afterlife: "We're not burned or buried, we just catch a flight."
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Muddled Message of Bring Her Back
The horror genre has come to feel oversaturated with message films: artistically rendered stories that use scares less to frighten and more to manifest psychological or philosophical themes. So when the Philippou brothers—a pair of Australian directors (and twins) who got their start on YouTube—premiered their feature debut, Talk to Me, it felt like a burst of youthful energy. The gnarly cautionary tale followed a group of teens whose attempt at a séance goes disgustingly wrong; it became a film-festival and art-house phenomenon. Impressively, the movie resonated with highbrow audiences without sacrificing the unbridled ambition the directors had used to gain a foothold online, with short films inspired by professional wrestling and pop culture. Yet their follow-up film, Bring Her Back, feels like a conscious swerve away from those roots. Gone is the sense of teen anarchy; instead, like so many other prestige horror movies, this is a story about relatable trauma and loss with a dark supernatural element. The Philippous have a real gift for composing viscerally disgusting moments that will be tough for even a hardened horror fan to shake. That's what makes their trudge toward the other side of the genre somewhat of a surprise—it's a grasp at seriousness from a duo who have previously thrived most when they're having fun. Still, the film provides an excellent vehicle for its lead actor, Sally Hawkins. The English Oscar nominee, a favorite of the director Mike Leigh and the on-screen mom to Paddington Bear, has never before been in a straightforward horror movie, but she's an incredible asset here. She plays a dotty foster mom, Laura, who takes in two teen siblings, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), after their father dies. Their new caretaker's scatterbrained affect just barely hides dangerous ulterior motives; she vacillates between being an overly affectionate friend to her charges and a hypersensitive disciplinarian. [Read: Time for scary movies to make us laugh again] The filmmakers know exactly how to leverage Hawkins's warm, naturalistic screen presence, using her offbeat sweetness to keep the audience guessing as to her character's exact level of malevolence. Laura's home is supposedly a good fit for the brother-sister pair because she had a blind daughter, who died; Piper is visually impaired. Yet the siblings' new environment curdles pretty quickly as Laura becomes unduly fascinated with Piper's similarities to her deceased child, and is outwardly hostile toward the fiercely protective Andy. Other goings-on contribute to the film's eeriness: A shirtless and mute child named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) is wandering around, sporting a suspicious birthmark. Oh, and there are multiple locked doors that absolutely should not be opened. Credit to the Philippous—Bring Her Back never tries to pretend that anything remotely normal is happening. Laura's house is a messy, colorful disaster, reflecting a personality that was clearly once charmingly ditzy and has disintegrated into instability. Her approach with Andy in particular swings wildly; one night she's doing shots with him into the wee hours, reflecting lovingly on the life she used to live, while at other moments she's waging a psychological campaign—rifling through his things, convincing him he's wet himself—to drive him from the home. In another actor's hands, Laura's erratic malevolence would feel obvious, something even the most incompetent social worker could see through. Hawkins, however, knows how to use her twee energy to her advantage, largely tittering and mumbling away. This makes the flashes of steeliness, when they come, all the more frightening. [Read: The master of highbrow horror] Those revelations are also evidence of the directors' struggle to interpret these hijinks as psychologically revealing, not just wickedly gruesome. Teasing out the mysteries of Laura's character drew me in; the broad strokes of her preoccupation with Piper make sense, while exactly what she's planning to do with the girl is hard to pinpoint—especially with the unsettling wild-card presence of Oliver shuffling around in the background. Laura dismisses his odd behavior as that of another traumatized foster child, but its origins are far more disturbing. Exploring the nature of his pain—as well as Andy's and Piper's—is where the film's message becomes most muddled; the abuse that children can face from the adults watching over them is largely treated as the stuff of plot twists. Bring Her Back is far more confident in its portrayal of Laura's own story, building to a devastating and intense conclusion about the extent of her loss and her inability to deal with it. Hawkins is up to the challenge, and the rest of the ensemble is strong enough to keep pace. But many of those story beats feel perfunctory; the film comes to life in the nastier, grislier set pieces. A scene in which Oliver intentionally misuses a kitchen utensil is nightmarish and unforgettable; another depicting a brutal, cultish ritual is more visually and narratively unnerving than Laura's subsequent attempts to replicate it. Some horror directors can blend highbrow storytelling with intense viscera gracefully—a seemingly appealing impulse for those who want to stay on trend without neglecting the roots of the genre. The Philippous do it adequately, but hopefully in whatever comes next for them, they embrace their greater strength once more: setting up audiences for a rollicking good time. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Horror Movies Don't Need to Be Highbrow
The horror genre has come to feel oversaturated with message films: artistically rendered stories that use scares less to frighten and more to manifest psychological or philosophical themes. So when the Philippou brothers—a pair of Australian directors (and twins) who got their start on YouTube—premiered their feature debut, Talk to Me, it felt like a burst of youthful energy. The gnarly cautionary tale followed a group of teens whose attempt at a séance goes disgustingly wrong; it became a film-festival and art-house phenomenon. Impressively, the movie resonated with highbrow audiences without sacrificing the unbridled ambition the directors had used to gain a foothold online, with short films inspired by professional wrestling and pop culture. Yet their follow-up film, Bring Her Back, feels like a conscious swerve away from those roots. Gone is the sense of teen anarchy; instead, like so many other prestige horror movies, this is a story about relatable trauma and loss with a dark supernatural element. The Philippous have a real gift for composing viscerally disgusting moments that will be tough for even a hardened horror fan to shake. That's what makes their trudge toward the other side of the genre somewhat of a surprise—it's a grasp at seriousness from a duo who have previously thrived most when they're having fun. Still, the film provides an excellent vehicle for its lead actor, Sally Hawkins. The English Oscar nominee, a favorite of the director Mike Leigh and the on-screen mom to Paddington Bear, has never before been in a straightforward horror movie, but she's an incredible asset here. She plays a dotty foster mom, Laura, who takes in two teen siblings, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), after their father dies. Their new caretaker's scatterbrained affect just barely hides dangerous ulterior motives; she vacillates between being an overly affectionate friend to her charges and a hypersensitive disciplinarian. The filmmakers know exactly how to leverage Hawkins's warm, naturalistic screen presence, using her offbeat sweetness to keep the audience guessing as to her character's exact level of malevolence. Laura's home is supposedly a good fit for the brother-sister pair because she had a blind daughter, who died; Piper is visually impaired. Yet the siblings' new environment curdles pretty quickly as Laura becomes unduly fascinated with Piper's similarities to her deceased child, and is outwardly hostile toward the fiercely protective Andy. Other goings-on contribute to the film's eeriness: A shirtless and mute child named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) is wandering around, sporting a suspicious birthmark. Oh, and there are multiple locked doors that absolutely should not be opened. Credit to the Philippous— Bring Her Back never tries to pretend that anything remotely normal is happening. Laura's house is a messy, colorful disaster, reflecting a personality that was clearly once charmingly ditzy and has disintegrated into instability. Her approach with Andy in particular swings wildly; one night she's doing shots with him into the wee hours, reflecting lovingly on the life she used to live, while at other moments she's waging a psychological campaign—rifling through his things, convincing him he's wet himself—to drive him from the home. In another actor's hands, Laura's erratic malevolence would feel obvious, something even the most incompetent social worker could see through. Hawkins, however, knows how to use her twee energy to her advantage, largely tittering and mumbling away. This makes the flashes of steeliness, when they come, all the more frightening. Those revelations are also evidence of the directors' struggle to interpret these hijinks as psychologically revealing, not just wickedly gruesome. Teasing out the mysteries of Laura's character drew me in; the broad strokes of her preoccupation with Piper make sense, while exactly what she's planning to do with the girl is hard to pinpoint—especially with the unsettling wild-card presence of Oliver shuffling around in the background. Laura dismisses his odd behavior as that of another traumatized foster child, but its origins are far more disturbing. Exploring the nature of his pain—as well as Andy's and Piper's—is where the film's message becomes most muddled; the abuse that children can face from the adults watching over them is largely treated as the stuff of plot twists. Bring Her Back is far more confident in its portrayal of Laura's own story, building to a devastating and intense conclusion about the extent of her loss and her inability to deal with it. Hawkins is up to the challenge, and the rest of the ensemble is strong enough to keep pace. But many of those story beats feel perfunctory; the film comes to life in the nastier, grislier set pieces. A scene in which Oliver intentionally misuses a kitchen utensil is nightmarish and unforgettable; another depicting a brutal, cultish ritual is more visually and narratively unnerving than Laura's subsequent attempts to replicate it. Some horror directors can blend highbrow storytelling with intense viscera gracefully—a seemingly appealing impulse for those who want to stay on trend without neglecting the roots of the genre. The Philippous do it adequately, but hopefully in whatever comes next for them, they embrace their greater strength once more: setting up audiences for a rollicking good time.
Geek Vibes Nation
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Bring Her Back' Review - A Deeply Unsettling Glimpse At Unchecked Grief
Danny and Michael Philippou, the Australian brother duo who captivated horror fans with their directorial debut Talk to Me, prove they aren't one-trick ponies with their latest release, Bring Her Back. Both films showcase a visual style and aesthetic that are a bit similar, but the latter is more of a psychological slow burn that pays off gradually with each scene of escalating horror. While some horror tropes are present and accounted for, the true horror of the film is human nature itself. What can happen to a person when they are so warped by grief that they lose all concept of right and wrong? This is a story of trauma gone awry, and with this story, the Philippou brothers have crafted something truly haunting and a piece of cinema that audiences won't be able to easily shake. The film focuses on Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), a step brother-step sister duo who share a particularly strong bond, but with that bond comes its own share of issues. Andy is wounded by years of physical abuse inflicted by his father, and Piper is a victim of a childhood accident that has rendered her almost completely blind. During a harrowing opening scene, their father dies, which requires a social worker to step in to find them a new foster situation. Initially, the plan is to split them up, but Andy insists that they should stay together until he can legally apply to be her guardian in three months, when he turns 18. Although there is some hesitation due to a violent incident from Andy's past, they find someone delighted to take them both in when Laura (Sally Hawkins) enters the picture. Laura is more fond of Piper because she lost her daughter, Cathy, in a drowning accident, while she merely tolerates Andy's presence when they enter her home. Also living with Laura is her nephew Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a mute boy who stares off into the distance and finds himself drawn to the property's drained pool. It's not long before it's obvious that something is wrong with Oliver, and something is also very wrong with Laura. Bring Her Back features deeply disturbing scenes, and they'll be enough to make even the most hardcore horror fiends squeamish. The Philippou brothers aren't afraid to let the camera linger on these moments as they know the audience will be fascinated and disgusted by their presence. One scene involves chomping on the blade of a butcher knife with obvious results, while a table and flesh also become a deeply unnerving snack. The best thing to be said about these scenes is that, despite their grotesque nature, they aren't gratuitous and are absolutely necessary to sell the depravity of the character in question. These moments serve the story, and that's something that many horror films can't say about their display of gore and violence. What is more frightening than any gore the audience sees is the film's depiction of grief and how it can be transformed into something very dark and unsettling. Bring Her Back is a downer of a film with very little levity (the early moments with Laura offer up some eccentric laughs), and this makes it a horror film that won't be for everyone. I left the theater drained by my experience watching it as if I had been punched in the gut, and I mean that as the highest compliment. It achieves its goal of sucking you into its world of despair and it doesn't let you go. I sat with the film for days, almost if I experienced my own loss, and that's the power of what these filmmaker brothers have created. The film is essentially a four-person show, and Sally Hawkins leads the charge with a wonderfully unhinged performance that has many layers. In the beginning, she is offbeat but likable, which is necessary as Laura's true intentions need to be hidden. Once her true nature begins to emerge, Hawkins is more than dedicated to presenting Laura's devilish manipulations. However, the true strength of her performance is that she's able to elicit sympathy from the audience, despite her evil ways. Laura has experienced a profound loss that has lingered with her, and anyone who has lost a loved one will feel her pain. One scene where she shares with Andy how she hasn't coped with losing her daughter proves to be one of her best due to its quiet but powerful resonance. The fact that she can hit all of these emotional levels without missing a beat is a testament to her talent. Providing more than capable support are Billy Barratt and Sora Wong, who form a bond that is the heart of the film, which leads to some heartbreaking scenes that shook me to my core. While Hawkins will get a bulk of the praise (and it's deserved), the film truly wouldn't work without the relationship developed between Barratt and Wong. Their affection for each other is genuine, and even though it's shrouded in pain, it's evident that they will do anything for each other, particularly Andy, as her big brother. A scene in which Andy confesses to a mistake he made as a child that hurt Piper is particularly strong because of the bond forged on screen before this pivotal moment. Lastly, Jonah Wren Philips has to go to some dark places as Oliver and has to do so mostly without saying a word. To say this performance is committed would be an understatement. It will be interesting to see if mainstream audiences respond to Bring Her Back in the same way they did to Talk To Me. Many horror elements in the film will please genre fans (it's drenched in atmosphere and its sound design aids in elevating some of the film's more horrific scenes), but at its heart, this is a deeply disturbing domestic drama about loss, trauma, and grief. To say it's a downer would be an understatement and there are moments that hit you so hard it's difficult to not be emersed in its sadness but it's because of its willingness to go to some dark and honest places that Bring Her Back works, making it one of the best horror films to come along in years. Bring Her Back is now playing in theaters nationwide courtesy of A24.
