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'Bring Her Back' Review - A Deeply Unsettling Glimpse At Unchecked Grief
'Bring Her Back' Review - A Deeply Unsettling Glimpse At Unchecked Grief

Geek Vibes Nation

time4 days 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.

‘Bring Her Back' Review: A Foster Mother Like No Other
‘Bring Her Back' Review: A Foster Mother Like No Other

New York Times

time5 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • New York Times

‘Bring Her Back' Review: A Foster Mother Like No Other

We ask a lot from our horror movies, which is perhaps the main reason they can be so divisive, and so difficult to get right. We want them to shock, but not traumatize; to disgust, but not sicken; to creep us out, but not bequeath a month's worth of nightmares. On top of all that, can we please have some jokes? Instead of stressing over these pressures, some genre filmmakers, a number of them women, are determinedly carving their own idiosyncratic paths. Among these are the Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who have followed their wonderfully disquieting debut feature, 'Talk to Me' (2023), with another three-word imperative, 'Bring Her Back.' The two movies have more in common than their titular grammar: Both draw sustenance and momentum from familial grief, and both exhibit an extraordinary sensitivity toward their emotionally flayed central characters. When we meet Andy (Billy Barratt) and his younger stepsister, Piper (Sora Wong), Andy's father has just died and the siblings must be fostered for three months until Andy can assume guardianship of Piper, who is legally blind. At first, their temporary foster mother, Laura (a delicious Sally Hawkins), seems welcoming, if a little dippy, her somewhat rundown property boasting a taxidermied pup, a mysterious chalk circle and a strange little boy who is mute and near-feral. His name is Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips, incredible) and I could write several paragraphs just on what he puts in his mouth. Suffice to say that, during one horrifying episode, I didn't exhale until it was over. Even so, the movie's forceful visual shocks (executed mostly with practical effects) are easier to bear than its restlessly mounting anguish. Though more logically muddled than its predecessor, 'Bring Her Back' operates from a core of tragedy whose weight offsets the nebulousness of the plot. Why is Laura, who recently lost her own daughter, so determined to drive a wedge between Piper and her fondly protective stepbrother? Why is she mesmerized by grainy camcorder footage of what appears to be a bloody satanic ritual? Why must Ollie be kept locked in his room and apparently starved? Answers will arrive, after a fashion, but they don't matter as much as they should in a movie with such sublime lead performances. Hawkins knows exactly how to play Laura's cheery psychopathy and cunning cruelties, and Wong, in her first film role, gives Piper a spirited independence. But it's Barratt, with his angelic features and soulful authenticity, who makes Andy the film's gently gaping wound. Barratt was barely a teenager when he appeared in the smashing Apple TV+ show 'Invasion' (2021-25), but his talent was undeniable, and the Philippous, working once again with the brilliant cinematographer Aaron McLisky, understand perfectly how to film him for maximum hurt. Supernatural fidgeting aside, 'Bring Her Back' doubles down on its predecessor's willingness to punish the innocent. I'm beginning to think that the Philippous don't just want to shatter our nerves: They want to break our hearts.

Bring Her Back review – Talk to Me directors return with a film you'll watch from between your fingers
Bring Her Back review – Talk to Me directors return with a film you'll watch from between your fingers

The Guardian

time6 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • The Guardian

Bring Her Back review – Talk to Me directors return with a film you'll watch from between your fingers

Australian horror film-makers have spectacularly overdelivered in the last few years, conjuring various nerve-shredding bangers including Late Night with the Devil, You Won't Be Alone, You'll Never Find Me, Sissy, Leigh Whannell's underrated Wolf Man reboot and Talk to Me. The latter – which revolves around thrill-seeking teenagers who converse with spirits instead of taking recreational drugs (kids these days!) – marked the fiendishly good debut of Adelaide-born directors Danny and Michael Philippou. They're back – or baaa-ack! – with another serving of macabre bravado pulled from the black cauldron. Bring Her Back is lighter on thrills and spills for the midnight movie and heavy with thick, abject horror and despair, featuring an intensely disturbing performance from Sally Hawkins as a foster mother from hell. She plays Laura, a former social worker who welcomes into her house two teens around whom the story orbits: Piper (Sora Wong), who is vision impaired, and her older brother, Andy (Billy Barratt). Early in the run time, the pair discover their father dead in the bathroom, and, with Andy three months too young to be Piper's guardian, they move in with Laura and her other foster child, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). The latter is a creepy kid from central casting: mute, with a shaved head, a thousand-yard stare and a tendency to do things that literally left me watching the film through the gaps between my fingers. It's clear that something's a little off about Laura, whose daughter died some time ago. But the script (written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman) obscures her intentions for a long time, fuelling an aura of dreadful anticipation. Hawkins' performance is coy, evasively dancing between light and heavy emotions; trying to nail down exactly what's wrong with Laura is like trying to pin down water with a knife. She creates a character who's needy, desperate and, as we increasingly realise, choked up with intense longing, before moving into a more volcanic space. Strange sounds rumble and buzz on the soundtrack, with Cornel Wilczek's shapeshifting score unfolding as if it were partly composed by demons; perhaps he got a hold of the embalmed hand from Talk to Me and consulted the spirit world. Circles become a visual motif, implying dark magic and rituals, and there are blurry sporadic visions of demonic undertakings recorded on videotapes. The humble old VHS format has been retooled into an eerie relic of yesteryear, ghouls from the past roaming around in the shadows of a passé technology, insulated from the modern digital world. Keep an eye on Oliver: when this kid starts doing crazy stuff, Bring Her Back goes next-level, conjuring images that will challenge even horror enthusiasts with cast-iron stomachs. There's no doubting this film's art, craft and impact, although I did leave the cinema wondering whether I was a richer person for having experienced it, or in some way irrevocably tarnished. I might ordinarily have felt inclined to go home and take a cold shower – but not after this film. Water is often used to signify cleansing, renewal and rebirth but, in their most audacious visual accomplishment, the Philippous turn H20 into something hideous, a metaphorical devil's rain signifying unrelenting emotional pressure. They achieve this partly through contrast: there's either too much water or not enough. An example of the former belongs to that terrible early scene when Piper and Andy encounter the corpse of their fathe, water still gushing from the shower, steam thickening the air into a horrible deathly fog. An example of the latter can be found in Laura's empty swimming pool, which is an oddly evocative image: to observe a pool without water is to see something that just isn't right – a literal emptiness; a space that should be filled. I dare say that the pool might not be front of mind when the closing credits roll. You'll be plagued by much more distressing visuals – and, like me, wondering how to get rid of them. Bring Her Back is in cinemas in Australia from Thursday, in the US from Friday, and in the UK from 1 August

BRING HER BACK First Reactions Call Film 'Horrifying Gut Punch, Disturbing, Gut-Wrenching, and Bonkers' — GeekTyrant
BRING HER BACK First Reactions Call Film 'Horrifying Gut Punch, Disturbing, Gut-Wrenching, and Bonkers' — GeekTyrant

Geek Tyrant

time09-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Geek Tyrant

BRING HER BACK First Reactions Call Film 'Horrifying Gut Punch, Disturbing, Gut-Wrenching, and Bonkers' — GeekTyrant

If Talk To Me didn't already convince you that the Philippou brothers are horror's new chaos agents, Bring Her Back should seal the deal. The first wave of social media reactions to Danny and Michael Philippou's second feature just dropped, and the verdict is in, and it sounds like it goes completely off the rails. After Talk To Me raked in $92 million globally and became A24's third-highest-grossing film, expectations were understandably sky-high for what the Aussie duo would cook up next. Bring Her Back is diving headfirst into even darker, more demented territory. The film centers on a brother and sister who uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother. It tells the story of a corpse being brought back to life by some evil witchcraft. The movie stars Sally Hawkins, and critics are saying it's going to wreck you. Bring Her Back is set to be released on May 30th. Check out the reaction below!

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