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Vogue
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Bring Her Back Is the Perfect Kick-Off to Horror-Movie Summer
A scene from Bring Her Back Photo: Ingvar Kenne And it has Sally Hawkins. I suppose after seeing unimpeachable talents like Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and Florence Pugh topline horror movies, it should come as no surprise that Hawkins has done the same. But still there's something novel here: reimagining the brightly beaming star of the Paddington movies as a suburban psychopath is a world-class act of counterintuitive casting. Hawkins's Laura is a diminutive, hippy-dippy monster who takes the two siblings, Piper and Andy, in and promptly starts fucking with them. The younger sibling, Piper, who is mostly blind (she's played by the vision-impaired actress Sora Wong) and stridently independent (she refuses to use her mobility stick), is seduced by Laura's ministrations. Her brother, Andy (Billy Barratt, who is a tousle-haired revelation), is a different story. He's suspicious from the start, but also vulnerable and traumatized and not able to do more than keep a wary eye on Laura, a watchfulness that amplifies the movie's unease. There's also another boy in the house: Laura's young son, Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips), who says not a word and stalks around, mostly shirtless, like an adolescent zombie. What is going on in Bring Her Back? I personally loved how coy and restrained the Philippous can be in their storytelling—mood is more important than careful explanations to these writer-directors—but the leaps in logic may annoy some people. Nevertheless, you viscerally understand that the occult rituals Laura furtively watches on hoarded videotapes are a prelude to something awful she herself is planning. And you figure out early that Ollie isn't actually Laura's son, or entirely human. His eyes aren't right, his belly is distending grotesquely, and he eats anything in sight, including, in one indelible scene, the blade of a kitchen knife.
Geek Vibes Nation
3 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.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Bring Her Back' Directors Went To Extremes For The Nightmarish Horror
Bring Her Back's directors, Danny and Michael Philippou, are keeping it real, or at least as real as possible. The supernatural horror film, their sophomore effort after bursting onto the big screen with Talk to Me in 2022, took them and their cast down a series of rabbit holes, many of which they didn't see coming. From movie nights and practical effects to two-time Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins buying trinkets from thrift stores to decorate the set, Bring Her Back is as terrifyingly authentic as it can be. "Sally wanted to disappear into this character and be her as much as possible," Michael explains. 'Every character has moments in their life, and in rehearsals, we'd like to play those moments out, even though they're never going to be seen. We were like, 'Let's act them out so there's some history.' Sally's like that, even with the house. To her, this is Laura's house. She said, 'Let me make it familiar to myself, dress it and be in it.' She wanted to familiarize herself with every corner of the set, so she would buy things and bring them in. It helped give it a lived-in experience, rather than feeling like a set, but more like her home. She was in the rabbit hole, which I loved. She is deep in every single aspect, which is incredible because we were in there too." Bring Her Back is about Andy, played by Billy Barratt, and visually impaired Piper, played by Sora Wong, a brother and sister whom Laura, played by Hawkins, fosters after their father dies. However, it's not long before they realize their new guardian and her home are hiding a darkness they could never imagine born out of tragedy and a terrifying ritual. A24's Bring Her Back is R-rated and in theaters now. "There's a scene in the movie that is the aftermath of an argument," Danny explains. "These two people are looking at each other with this rage. As a director, you can sit the characters down and go, 'Okay, you guys are angry at each other… and action,' or you can go, 'Alright, have a fight, scream until your voice is gone, and then sit down and the camera's already rolling.' That way, you've actually captured something that is much more real than just saying 'action' at a certain point. Sally would take that all the way back. She'd start at the beginning of waking up that day if she could. She didn't do that, but she would do that. The best thing about Sally is that we would continue rolling after the scene was done. I'm not calling cut. She would stay in it and be in there, and it's the best thing." Sometimes, the Philippou brothers didn't even know that Hawkins, whose work includes The Shape of Water, Paddington 2, Happy-Go-Lucky, and Wonka, was continuing to delve deeper into her character when they weren't around. "We went and did a thing with her in London recently," Michael recalls. "We had lunch, and we went for five hours. She's such an incredible person. When you're working with Sally, you want to hang out. We get along so well. Anyway, she had all these script notes. It was this big, fat Bible of the film's story where she had all these annotations. I was like, 'Can I take this home?' and she said, 'You want that?' I was like, 'I would cherish this always,' so I've got that at home. It's all of our script notes for Laura, and it's wicked, all of her scribbles and everything. It's so cool." Sally Hawkins in 'Bring Her Back.' A24/Ingvar Kenne Keen collaborators, the Australian filmmakers also have some set ideas and principles that they won't shift on. One of them is using practical effects as much as possible. Whether it's makeup and prosthetics or realistic sound design, it has to create a visceral reaction – even if audiences have to look away. "We love practical effects because they always seem to stand the test of time," Danny, who also co-wrote Bring Her Back, muses. "When actors are interacting with something tangible and present, even for a character that has got prosthetics on, it changes them and the way they move and act. It brings a level of realism that visual effects (VFX) can't achieve. However, VFX are so good at tying that stuff together and helping to smooth out all the rough edges. It's always a beautiful dance between the two of them, where it's 90 percent practical, you got five to ten percent VFX helping blend those elements." Instead of having one FX team on the movie, the Philippous brought in two companies so they could compete and complement each other in a creative and bloody ballet to raise the bar and achieve the best results possible. "It's always the funniest part of the most exciting thing when it's like, 'How can we execute this practically?' There were things in the script where I was like, 'I don't know how this is going to be possible. How do we do this practically?' We had two epic special effects teams on the ground the whole time, each specializing in different aspects. They were incredible and helped bring everything to life," Danny explains. "Bring Her Back's sound design is amazing, too, and she's so incredible. Emma Bortignon was our sound designer, and we love her to death. She's so down and game for anything. We were asking her, 'What is the sound of this?' and she also knew when a sound wasn't right. I wanted a sound for Oliver, the mysterious other child in the knife scene. She was sending me things, but they didn't sound right." He continues, "I cringe when I think about metal on teeth, but I was like, 'Let's just record the metal on teeth.' Get me a knife.' So, we had a knife, she had the microphone, and I just put it in there, started to turn and move it around. I wanted it to be so that audiences can look away and still feel it; they don't have to look at it. It's just as painful and effective." When it comes to influences, the filmmakers drew on several inspirations across multiple genres, from Bong Joon Ho's Memories of Murder to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and even the 1997 slapstick comedy Mouse Hunt. "There were a couple of weekends that were intense periods focusing on the extreme side of Sally's character, so as not to live there, I said to her, 'Do you want to come over?'" Danny laughs. "I love Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and it did inspire this film. We'd watch it, and Sally would like to do the voices of the characters and act it out, and she's so funny. It's one of my favorite experiences from the whole film." "There were certain movie nights that were just watching films that feel like they were in the same genre, and not even exact inspiration points. Those conversations with Sally were never fully about films. It was always about lived experiences." Michael adds, "I don't know quite how this Mouse Hunt influence became a thing, but one day Danny was talking about the inspirations. I think it was in an interview, and they said, 'What about you, Michael?' Danny had said all the main ones, and I was like, 'Mouse Hunt.' It's an amazing movie. It has amazing practical effects, and it's also about manipulation. There's a scene where they are trying to manipulate the mouse so they can kill it., It's a nostalgic movie, and it's also really great." Both of the brothers would work with Hawkins again in a heartbeat. They still can't quite believe she said yes to Bring Her Back. With their shared love of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? would they reunite for a remake? "The idea of working with powerful character actors and the idea of Sally Hawkins taking on that role and then trying to find someone to match her against is insane," Danny says. 'I love Bette Davis and her career, so the idea of working with actors like that and putting them in a room together is so exciting to me. My fear with a remake is that I won't be able to live up to the original. I know that I will falter, it'll be worse, and I'll let everyone down. That is one of my biggest fears. I'd hate for people to be like, 'Hey, it's the guy that fucking ruined that movie.' There were so many franchises that we got offered after Talk to Me, and I was like, 'Trust me, I feel like I'm going to screw this franchise up if you let me do it.'" Michael concludes, "The thing is that these classic movies came out of someone's vision and an authentic way of expressing themselves. Bring Her Back is our vision. To go, 'Alright, we're going do our version of it,' feels like it's a disservice to the original. Some people pull it off, but I would like to take that idea and have a different take on it. Maybe it's not those exact characters, so it's not a direct remake, but something like that could be cool. Who knows."
