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Daily Record
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Bring Her Back isn't outright scary, it's a painful slow burn
Horror fans in the UK have had a long wait for the Philippou brothers' latest film UK horror enthusiasts have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Philippou brothers' latest cinematic offering. The directorial duo first made their mark with 2023's Talk To Me, a film that successfully translated the high-energy production style of their wildly popular RackaRacka YouTube channel to the big screen. It was a match made in heaven. Talk To Me was snappy, ultra-violent and absolutely terrifying, and widely considered one of the best modern horror films out there. Naturally, expectations were set high for their newest film Bring Her Back, which premiered in UK cinemas today (July 26). Despite being written concurrently with their debut film and set within the same grim universe, this film takes a very different approach. While Talk To Me delivered smart, large-scale scares and eerie moments that had viewers clutching their light switches at night, Bring Her Back left what its predecessor did best at the front door and instead mastered something else: creeping dread. Without revealing too much, the plot centres around partially-sighted young girl Piper (Sora Wong) and her brother Andy (Billy Barratt), who are placed into foster care following their father's death, reports the Daily Star. Their foster mother Laura (Sally Hawkins) is fun, cool and slightly eccentric. She also keeps her other child Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) confined to a room and has drawn a large white circle around her entire property which she regularly maintains. There's no prizes for guessing that something is amiss with Laura, and the situation at home begins to unravel rather dramatically, all unfolding with impeccable pacing. It never lags or feels sluggish; instead, it engulfs you completely until you suddenly realise your bum has gone numb in the cinema seat and the snacks are all gone. For me, it didn't deliver the same impact as Talk To Me, but that was never its intention. Bring Her Back isn't a sequel (we're still eagerly awaiting that), but a film that prioritises adolescent struggles, betrayal and family drama over outright terror. Oh, and some truly disgusting lingering visuals too. Let's be clear, Bring Her Back is a horror film, but primarily it's a film about grief and the monsters it can unleash within us. Holding a mirror up at the audience is an effective tool, even more so when it reflects our darkest parts.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Bring Her Back' Proves the ‘Talk to Me' Guys Aren't One-Hit Wonders
What happens when you go from being gonzo suburban kids to D.I.Y. YouTube sensations to the duo responsible for a hip film company's hugest genre hit? Having already made a name for themselves online under the collective handle RackaRacka, the Australian filmmakers/twin brothers Michael and Danny Philippou didn't exactly come out from of nowhere when they dropped 2023's Talk to Me on an unsuspecting public. But their story of teens who find a cursed, mummified hand and use the supernatural item to contact the dead as a party trick, ended up becoming A24's No. 1 grossing horror movie to date. Suddenly these siblings from Adelaide officially became the Next Big Thing. Talk of sequels, spin-offs and an expanded Talk to Me franchise universe was rampant. Hollywood beckoned. You wondered what the brothers would do next. And you hoped they wouldn't break up or flame out in the process of trying to follow up that kind of runaway success. The good news: The Philippous somehow survived the experience of becoming the flavors of the month. The even-better news: They've delivered a sophomore feature that both proves they're not one-hit wonders and that they're capable of mixing things up. You wouldn't exactly call Bring Her Back a move toward 'maturity' for the 32-year-old filmmakers — there's still a giddy energy behind some of the more outré moments in this tale of two teenagers who find themselves in the middle of some seriously shady shit. A sequence involving a boy, a butcher knife, and teeth suggests these gents still love to push the meter into the red. But there's less of a livewire, look-at-us sense of attention-seeking that's characteristic of new filmmakers desperate to make a mark, and more control, patience, and craftsmanship on display in this unsettling, semi-Gothic tale of grief solutions gone wrong. It's still ready, willing and able to go to extremes. The restraint they show in between the adrenaline spikes and jolting dopamine hits, however, makes this a far scarier affair. More from Rolling Stone 'Karate Kid: Legends' Is a Kick for Hardcore Fans Only Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme' Is One of His Best Mia Threapleton Idolized Wes Anderson. Then She Became the Breakout Star of His New Movie You may think that the somewhat stock, creepazoid cold opening, in which viewers seem to have stumbled upon a mysterious ritual involving circles, murders, camcorders, and naked fat guys stumbling around is a red herring. It's simply a planting a seed; just put a pin in it for later. The two folks you'll need to concern yourself with immediately are Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt). She's a sight-impaired high schooler desperate to fit in with the cool kids. He's her protective, super-supportive older stepbrother, and they have the type of relationship where a code word — 'Grapefruit' — signals that one has to answer the other with complete honesty. The two are close. Which is good, because their father has just unexpectedly passed away. And while Andy is still too young to be her legal guardian, the woman assigned to their case throws them a break. There's a household, run by an ex-foster counselor, that's willing to take both of them in until Andy comes of age. Their new parental figure is named Laura. As played by the great Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, Paddington, The Shape of Water) she's gregarious, a little daffy, and friendly in an obviously overcompensating, try-hard kind of way. And there's something off about her from the jump. Laura's daughter, who was also sight-impaired, drowned a while back; there's a sense of surrogacy that borders uncomfortably on outright substitution regarding the way she treats Piper. Her likes include children, mysterious chalk circles around her driveway, and her dog — the pup is dead, but not to worry, she's had him stuffed. Dislikes include boundaries, swimming pools (for obvious reasons), and Andy. The cheeriness she shows him is a front. She's much more interested in his sister. Oh, and there's another kid residing in the home with them: Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). He's 10 years old or so, and something feels very off about him, too. It's not just that the boy doesn't speak; he's been mute since the accident, Laura tells them. Or that he seems particularly aggressive around their pet cat. It's more of the way that Oliver sort of constantly hovers around the periphery, staring blankly at everything. He's always there, yet somehow not really 'there' at all. The fact that he needs to be locked away in his room when no one's around doesn't counteract your sense of unease. Nor does his tendency to bang his head bloody against his window or the door to the wooden shed in the backyard, which he's seems rather fixated on. Or the fact that he only really perks up when Laura, while giving him a bath, acknowledges that 'I know you're hungry… you'll just have to wait a little longer… .' If you haven't guessed by now, there's a secondary agenda going on with Laura and some of the more cryptic occurrences happening on the premises. And while the logic behind some of the supernatural aspects of Bring Her Back is on par with the just-go-with-it leaps of faith employed in Talk to Me, it's less about the how regarding the plot's numerous hairpin turns, and way, way more about the when and why of it all. Trust us when we tell you that the movie has this title for a reason. What is obvious is that the Philippou brothers know they've got a decent premise and and a strong cast on their hands. Both Wong and Barratt understand the assignments here. When you are blessed with a performer of Hawkins' talent and abilities, you let her lean full-tilt into the unhinged elements of the character, the emphasis on mourning as a perpetually wounded state of mind, and the story's curdled take on motherhood. We tend to view the whole creepy-youngster trope as overused and lazy in most cases, yet there's something about Phillips' way of playing this zombie of a kid that rises above the cliché. You're compelled to watch him even when he's in the background and allegedly checked out. And when the third act kicks into gear for him… yeah. Things get gnarly. Bring Her Back is still a messy endeavor, even with what feels like a newfound discipline, not to mention a superior grasp of pacing and catch-release tension, happening behind the camera. That's a feature or a bug, depending on how you like your horror served. But if their debut used grief as more of a superficial way to spice up the thrills and chills, this follow-up treats the concept as something bone-deep and gutting. When that enigmatic opening suddenly comes back around, you understand exactly why the means it represents might justify the aims behind it. You also breathe a sigh of relief that these guys aren't simply out to shock for shock's sake. The filmmakers want to jolt folks, for sure. But they also want to bring you to a place where the emotional after effects of that juddering linger long after the jump scares have faded away. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Metro
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Horror movie buffs praise 'shocking' film that's leaving some fainting in cinema
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A new horror movie has left viewers 'screaming out loud in cinemas'. In 2022 twins Danny and Michael Philippou made their feature film debut with the movie Talk to Me, which starred Sophie Wilde and followed a group of teenagers discovering they can contact spirits using a mysterious severed and embalmed hand. After being released in Australia, it was eventually rolled out in the United States by A24 and became a massive success. Critics called it 'original', 'compelling' and 'brutal', with the film grossing grossed $92million (£67million) worldwide against a production budget of $4.5million (£3.3million), becoming A24's highest-grossing horror film ever. Before releasing this movie, the brothers were best known online as RackaRacka – sharing horror comedy videos on YouTube. They currently have 6.88 million followers. Two years on from their feature filmed hitting screens around the world, they have returned with Bring Her Back, which will likely leave viewers just as unsettled. Ahead of its release, the synopsis of Bring Her Back teased the plot, which is about 'grief and resurrection'. 'A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother,' it reads. Set in the outer suburbs of the sleepy city of Adelaide, the film begins with teenager Andy (Billy Barratt) and his legally blind sister Piper (Sora Wong) facing the sudden death of their father. With Andy just a few months away from being able to legally care for his sister, they are temporarily placed in a foster home with Laura (Sally Hawkins), who is already caring for Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), who is mute after also losing his family in tragic circumstances. It quickly emerges she's completely unhinged and obsessed with the occult, with the siblings then facing a string of shocking events. Running at 1 hour, 39 minutes, Bring Her Back also stars Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, Mischa Heywood, Liam Damons and Olga Miller. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video During an interview this week on The Project about their 'heart-pounding and terrifying' film, the brothers revealed the extreme reactions some people were already having when watching. After co-host Sarah Harris jokingly asked the pair 'what is wrong with them' after creating a movie with so many jump scares, they spilled on how scared some people had been. 'We've had three faintings at the screenings,' Danny admitted. On Reddit one viewer even declared: 'This movie was so shocking I almost threw up in the car park.' In a recent interview with Variety, the Philippou's (who self-identify as 'bogans') reflected on the lack of belief in them just a few years ago. 'RackaRacka was a talking point in meetings, but not a good one,' Danny admitted. 'They just didn't think we could do a movie. To be fair, we weren't making deep stuff on YouTube.' However, after the success of Talk to Me, they managed to convince Sally to sign up to their follow-up, the actress' first time starring in a horror. She had also even watched their YouTube videos too. 'She enjoyed them! People said our energies weren't going to match, but we got along so well,' Danny shared. He also revealed that they took Sally out during filming to prank some neighbours in preparation for a scene. Early reviews have been coming in for the movie, which hits screens later this week. 'Bring Her Back captures the darkness and fear of losing someone, all while making one of the year's best horror films. It's that mixture, like with Talk to Me, that makes Danny and Michael Philippou two of the most exciting filmmakers in the genre,' Collider wrote in its review. 'The Philippous work in a mode that's impressionistic in an accomplished enough way to justify itself. They don't care about tying up every bloody loose end. They're after a feeling, a lavish sensation of malevolent shock,' Variety shared. 'Bring Her Back is as unutterably sad as it is disturbingly frightening… Michael and Danny Philippou may just be the premiere horror auteurs in Australia after only two films,' The Curb added. Since being released a few days ago, fans have rushed to share their thoughts on the movie, which currently holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 'I went into this movie not having a clue what it was going to be about, and it was absolutely shocking and disturbing in all the best ways. Being an avid horror fan, it is extremely hard to make me look away from the screen …but there were several moments I had to in this movie. 'Despite the extremely gory scenes it had, the storyline and acting itself was brilliant. It wove an absolutely heartbreaking trauma-filled narrative into a movie you won't soon be able to forget, if ever. 'Destined to rank in some of the most legendary disturbing horror film top 10 lists,' user NMP posted on the review site. More Trending 'A horror film that breaks your heart. Brilliant,' Maria shared. 'This was a really good horror movie. An unsettling, slow burn, that kept me captivated and on the edge of my seat. I also think it had a great ending,' Billy added. Bring Her Back is now in cinemas. A version of this article was originally published on May 27, 2025. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: There's an LGBTQ+ film festival you can attend without even leaving the house MORE: Remake of cult 80s horror with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes gets extreme rating MORE: Netflix horror sequel soars to number 1 after viewers stay up to watch
West Australian
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Danny and Michael Philippou: Horror-making film twins putting Australian blood and gore movies on the map
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
ABC News
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Bring Her Back review: This is a horror movie you'll only watch once
Australians watched on in awe in 2022 as grubby YouTubers the RackaRacka brothers transformed, Cinderella-style, into horror auteurs with their debut screamer, Talk To Me. What: Two orphaned children are sent to live with a mysterious guardian who is a bit too interested in the occult. Starring: Sally Hawkins, Billy Barrett, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips Directed by: Michael and Danny Philippou When: In cinemas now Likely to make you feel: Disturbed yet invigorated Three years later, Michael and Danny Philippou have returned with Bring Her Back, a step up for the twin brothers in terms of style, character and disturbing content. Bring Her Back begins with the most tragic of circumstances and it only gets worse from there. Parentified big brother Andy (Billy Barrett) and his visually impaired tween sister Piper (Sora Wong) find their father and only guardian dead on the shower floor. Social services try to split the siblings up but, after Andy's determined protest, they both get shipped off to Laura's (Sally Hawkins) house. Laura is your mum's hippyish friend that gave you bad vibes as a kid. She's sweet, if not a little bit ditzy, but will stomp all over any reasonable boundary while gaslighting anyone that will listen to make out she's the victim. She's obviously not happy about having to take Andy in for three months before he turns 18, but Piper is the apple of her eye. It turns out she had a biological child, Cathy, who was also visually impaired, but drowned not long ago, and it's clear she sees Piper as her replacement — it's only later we find out how literally she means that. But there's one more child living in Laura's lush South Australian home. Ten-year-old Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips) is introduced shirtless and standing in an ominously drained pool. "Selectively mute" and sporting a mysterious shiner, Ollie is relegated to his locked room — that is, when he's not being led by Laura in the middle of the night to a deadbolted shed. Much will be made of the skilfully executed gore in Bring Her Back. It is plentiful, extreme, sickeningly realistic and will make you rethink every time you absent-mindedly nibble a snack off the end of a knife. But it never slips into being gratuitous and is a wonderful showcase for the practical effect work coming from AACTA winners Make-up Effects Group and prosthetics wiz Larry Van Duynhoven (whose work you'll also be able to catch in upcoming Aus body horror Together.) And behind the blood and viscera in Bring her Back, there is an affecting, character-forward rumination on grief and the lengths people will go to in order to avoid it. Grief horror has become a well-worn trope with Australian films like Lake Mungo and The Babadook championing the subgenre. It's become so popular that it runs the risk of being over-utilised. But the intricacies and performances of Bring Her Back's core four characters keep the film feeling fresh. Barrett, a young British actor with an international Emmy already under his belt, sells both the vulnerability and anger that comes with being an adolescent male. He acts as Piper's protector, which manifests in delicate gestures like flipping a sun visor up so his sister can enjoy the afternoon beams on her face. But he also shelters his sister with lies to keep her from life's harsher visuals, and expresses his pent-up frustrations by pumping iron and slamming creatine. Wong, who the Philippous plucked out of a school drama class for her first theatrical role, is treated like a wounded dove in a sea of hungry vultures. Young and easily influenced, you'll want to reach through the screen to protect Piper, until she proves that she's more than capable of protecting herself. If there is any justice in the world, Bring Her Back would herald a third Oscar nomination for Sally Hawkins. The British actor not only absolutely embodies the 90s kooky, crunchy Australian mum accent but her journey as Laura is nothing short of phenomenal. The undeniable Big Bad of the film, she dares to touch on the uncomfortable reality that some parents only care about the wellbeing of their own biological child. Laura is conniving, manipulative and, eventually, outright abusive — but she's also pitiful as a mother enslaved to the idea she could see her daughter again. However, the MVP trophy belongs to Phillips (How To Make Gravy) as Ollie. Barely into double digits, the film labours him with extreme content that he pulls off with aplomb. Perpetually covered with sickly blue veins and open gashes, he only has about five lines of dialogue. But his physical performance — accentuated by his impossibly wide, round, glassy eyes — is where most of the visual terror of the film is derived. There are multiple stomach-sinking moments during run time and it's always when Ollie is on screen. With the performances on lock, the Philippous relish in filling the gaps with their trademark humour and Australiana flare. (Exposing an international audience to Shannon Noll's 'What About Me' AND 'Untouched' by The Veronicas is surely grounds for an Order of Australia.) Writers Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman leave just enough of a curiosity gap in how the mechanics of Laura's cult activities actually work, ensuring many exciting post-watch debates. Everything in their writing is cyclical, with visual and aural motifs bending back around on themselves in ways you would never predict. They're also smart enough to include a reassuring coda to keep the film slipping into complete misery porn. If this is what the future of Australian horror looks like, then it is very bright (and absolutely terrifying). Bring Her Back is in Australian cinemas now.
