Latest news with #JonahWrenPhillips
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Unbelievable secret behind year's 'most terrifying film' Bring Her Back's vomit-inducing scenes
It's been dubbed 'the most terrifying horror film' of the year. Bring Her Back, from Australian directors Danny and Michael Philippou, follows two siblings who find themselves caught up in an occult ritual by their foster mother. The supernatural chiller rattled moviegovers over the weekend, with many claiming that the film's stomach-churning scenes had left them nauseous. One shocking scene sees troubled Ollie, played by 12-year-old child star Jonah Wren Phillips, being fed a piece of fruit on the end of a large knife by his foster brother Andy. When Andy turns his back, Ollie begins voraciously gnawing on the knife in order to satiate a demonic spirit inside of him. As he chews on the razor-sharp blade, blood begins gushing everywhere and his teeth begin to crack and become dislodged. In another scene, the demon completely takes over Ollie's body and he begins trying to eat everything in sight, including the edge of a wooden table that immediately splinters and starts tearing into the child's face. Explaining the secrets behind both horrific scenes, prosthetic FX designer Larry Van Duynhoven told Variety that they used a set of prosthetic teeth and added some chocolate to the prop table to disguise the taste for Phillips, who plays Ollie. 'He was able to really go to town because we had the dentures that helped protect his teeth and mouth,' Van Duynhoven said. 'The dental technician designed some breakaway teeth in the dentures, so some of those teeth snap off.' Phillips added, 'They said they put chocolate in it a little bit. I didn't taste it because I had blood in my mouth. It was more of a texture because they hollowed it out so it was really crunchy.' Director Danny Philippou told Polygon, 'The entire table was laced with chocolate, so he enjoyed eating it. He was still munching on it between takes.' For the jaw-dropping knife scene, a rubber prop was used whenever Phillips was present, and then a puppet head whenever they needed to use a real blade. Philippou added, 'We had a [prop replacement for Jonah's head], so we could put a real knife in this fake head and rip his lip.' Bring Her Back opened in US theaters over the weekend, pulling in $7 million. Critics have praised the film so far, while viewers have been left sick by some of the violence and realistic practical effects. 'Bring Her Back made me so nauseous, it was so good,' gushed one fan on X, formerly Twitter. 'Bring Her Back WAS SOOOO GOOD I felt sick watching that scene,' added a second, while a third wrote, 'Bring Her Back is sick. Definitely seeing it again.' A fourth wrote, 'If y'all need a movie to watch this week go see Bring Her Back in theaters. My first time ever a movie made me literally set up to vomit. The plot is crazy too.' Bring Her Back is from the directors of Talk To Me, which is currently the highest-grossing horror film in A24 history. According to the filmmakers, the flick is so scary moviegoers passed out during preview screenings. 'We've had three faintings,' Danny admitted during an interview on Australian talk show The Project. Oscar-nominated English actress Sally Hawkins, 48, known for her roles in Paddington, Wonka and Happy-Go-Lucky, stars in Bring Her Back. Hawkins plays grieving mother Laura, who attempts to bring her daughter back from the dead using a paranormal ritual.
Toronto Sun
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
REVIEW: Foster mom fosters nightmares in ‘Bring Her Back'
Published May 29, 2025 • 3 minute read Jonah Wren Phillips in "Bring Her Back." Photo by Ingvar Kenne / A24 Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. What's the opposite of a Venn diagram overlap? Whatever it is, 'Bring Her Back' is the film equivalent, with two potential audiences that might cancel each other out. Fans of horror movies that work your every last nerve may not appreciate the casting of the great British actress Sally Hawkins as a foster parent with a devilish agenda. By contrast, fans of Hawkins's work in art-house crowd-pleasers like 'Maudie' and 'Happy-Go-Lucky' – or even mainstream fare like 'The Shape of Water' and the first two 'Paddington' movies – may run screaming from the theatre. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account All well and good, and forewarned is forearmed. 'Bring Her Back' is the second feature from the Philippou twins, Danny and Michael, who rose from making shock-comedy YouTube videos in their home country of Australia to becoming the next big horror auteurs before they turned 30 by writing and directing the 2022 surprise hit 'Talk to Me.' Like that film, 'Bring Her Back' is close to, but not quite, a triumph of style over substance – foreboding, unnerving and ultimately very gooey in ways that linger like the aftermath of a bad dream yet lack the nightmare cogency of truly great horror. Unease and inexplicability both turn up early, with stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) traumatized by the sudden death of their father (Stephen Phillips) while taking a shower. What killed him? Don't ask. Where's their mother? Doesn't matter. Threatened with separation by social services, the two make their case to remain together and are assigned Laura (Hawkins) as a foster mom. In Hawkins's performance, Laura is chirpy and chatty, the kind of sunny sort who gives positivity a bad name. (If you've seen 'Happy-Go-Lucky,' Mike Leigh's wonderful 2008 movie in which the actress plays a born optimist, 'Bring Her Back' is like the other shoe dropping; the two films would make one hell of a double bill.) Piper is almost completely blind – the filmmakers play the actress's unfocused eyes for additional creepy vibes – and by coincidence (or is it?), Laura had a blind daughter who recently drowned in the swimming pool out back. Glimpses of a VHS tape detailing some kind of horrifying Slavonic ritual keep the tension tight. Is Laura in some kind of cult? If so, what does it, and she, want? Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Like much of the 'elevated horror' in which cutting-edge distributor A24 specializes, 'Bring Her Back' doesn't bother to answer all your questions, even when that might result in a stronger movie. In a sense, it doesn't have to when it can trot out reliable new tropes of the genre: basso profundo rumbles and whispers on the soundtrack, visual games with focal planes to keep the audience off balance, and supporting actors cast for maximum unsettling presence (Milly Shapiro as the little sister in Ari Aster's 'Hereditary' being the textbook example). The Philippous have a lulu of the latter in young Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver, another of Laura's foster children and a figure of pure visual dread. Wide-eyed and seemingly possessed by a demonic wraith, Oliver is a silent, staring somnambulist, and all he has to do is appear in a corner of the frame to give an audience the willies. And that's before he starts going at himself with a kitchen knife. 'Bring Her Back' is not the kind of horror movie that promises grue and doesn't deliver, and when the carnage comes, it is fulsome, fleshy and wet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As the endangered siblings, Wong is artlessly sympathetic and Barratt pulls you to his side as a protective older brother no one believes is up to any good. 'Bring Her Back' keeps piling the traumas onto poor Andy past the point where they make much sense, though, and the Philippous are clearly still young enough to think modulation and moderation are for weenies. Given the likely success of this movie, there's no reason the directors need to think otherwise, and, anyway, they've got Hawkins having a happy horror holiday and little Jonah Phillips burning a hole in the screen. That's enough for now, but God help us when they grow up a bit. – – – Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr's Watch List at – – – Three stars. Rated R. At theatres. Contains strong, disturbing, bloody violent content; some grisly images; graphic nudity; underage drinking; and language. 104 minutes. Rating guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time. Ontario Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA Canada Sunshine Girls
