Latest news with #TalktoMe
USA Today
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Talk to Me' directors tackle grief and gore with 'Bring Her Back'
'Talk to Me' directors tackle grief and gore with 'Bring Her Back' Show Caption Hide Caption 'Bring Her Back' trailer: Sally Hawkins is a secretive foster mom A foster mother (Sally Hawkins) takes in two siblings after the death of their father but also harbors a dark secret in horror movie "Bring Her Back." Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of "Bring Her Back" (in theaters now), so beware if you haven't seen it yet. Making a visceral, gory, emotional roller coaster of a horror film is a good way to navigate some personal tragedy. Three years after scaring the summer box office with the hit 'Talk to Me,' Australian filmmakers (and twin brothers) Danny and Michael Philippou return with another, very different possession film. 'Bring Her Back' was already on tap to tackle grief, love and cycles of abuse when a family friend of the Philippous died before filming started. Their "sadness" affected the movie, though they turned into a positive, Danny Philippou says. 'It is so therapeutic. It did feel like saying goodbye.' Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox 'Bring Her Back' stars Sally Hawkins as Laura, a social worker and foster mom who takes in Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired younger sister Piper (Sora Wong) after their father dies. But Andy discovers something stranger than the weird white painted circle around the house: Laura is using her foster son Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) as a conduit for a supernatural being to resurrect her recently drowned daughter Cathy. (Her exhumed corpse is lying in a shed out back. We'll get to why in a bit.) The Philippous dig into how they pulled off the gnarliest scenes, why the ending changed and how 'Bring Her Back' connects to 'Talk to Me': Jonah Wren Phillips gets the most squirm-inducing moments in 'Bring Her Back' 'Talk to Me' showcased the brothers' gift for gore, and 'Bring Her Back' takes it to a whole other hide-your-eyes level as the possessed Oliver begins to act out in terrifying fashion. First, he grabs a butcher's knife and tries to eat it, leaving his mouth a bloody, scraggly toothed disaster. In that sequence, a rubber knife was used with a fake head, though 'it's the sound design that really sells it, which was me actually chewing on a knife,' Danny Philippou explains. And then the hungry child begins to chow down on the countertop, taking out huge pieces with what's left of his teeth. The filmmakers let Phillips go to town on super-soft custom-made balsa wood laced with chocolate. He's 'the toughest kid ever,' Philippou says. "Every day he came to a set with a smile on his face.' Sally Hawkins' occult-leaning mom has a ritualistic reveal Laura has somehow obtained mysterious VHS tapes with grainy footage of people creepily coming back to life, and subtitles explain to the secret to her plan. The possessed person consumes the soul of a deceased person (Oliver eating Cathy), and a third body (Piper) can become the host for the dead by repeating the manner of death and having the possessed regurgitate the soul into it. Laura also has a healthier way to grieve – watching home movies of Cathy – and Danny Philippou says these found tapes are 'an inversion" of that. (He and his brother built out a lore and backstory by reaching out to real occultists.) Like the teens using an embalmed hand to conjure dark spirits in 'Talk to Me,' 'Laura's completely out of her depth,' Philippou adds. 'She's struggling with what she's doing, and doesn't even 100% know how to execute it.' The death of a friend changed the 'Bring Her Back' ending In the film's climax, Andy tries to show another social worker that Laura's out of her mind, but Laura murders them both, desperate to complete the ritual. She attempts to drown Piper in the backyard pool but when the frightened young girl yells "Mom," Laura can't do it and stops the ritual. Piper escapes and when she's confronted by Oliver, she kicks him in his bloated belly, and she runs off as Oliver pukes brown muck that's assumably Cathy's soul. Piper is picked up by some good samaritans, the cops find Laura embracing her daughter's corpse, and Oliver escapes the white circle surrounding the property, freeing him from possession. 'The sad part is he's going to be scarred for life,' Danny Philippou says. Michael Philippou reveals that they considered 'a few different endings,' including one where Cathy actually did end up in Piper's body. But a bigger, scarier planned finale was scrapped when their friend died and it switched to a more emotional one. (The end of the movie includes a dedication to Harley Wallace.) 'Death is really unfair and it's really sudden. People don't get a resolution,' Danny Philippou says. 'Harley died at 22, 23. His story wasn't finished." The film's ending "goes against the conventions a little bit but it feels more true to life.' Is 'Bring Her Back' a sequel to 'Talk to Me'? No, but they're connected! 'Talk to Me' puts social-media spin on the possession film Sophie Wilde stars as a youngster haunted by dark visions after she allows a spirit to possess her body in the Australian horror movie "Talk to Me." USA TODAY The Philippous want to do a third horror movie and are currently 60% done with a documentary about death match wrestling. They're also writing a sequel to 'Talk to Me,' and Danny Philippou says he's found a 'small way' to tie their breakthrough hit with "Bring Her Back" where they exist in the same world. (He hints that something is coming soon that will tease that connection.) 'It all happens on this one street,' Michael quips. 'Don't buy a house in that neighborhood!' Danny warns, laughing. The demons that possess people in 'Talk to Me' are predatory spirits and lost souls. But in 'Bring Her Back,' Laura says it's an angel that's in Oliver, and the Philippous tend to agree. 'Oliver is not good or bad,' Michael says. 'He's committing this miracle. He's bringing back a lost loved one.' Also, 'he's not there with evil intentions,' Danny adds. 'He's like a genie in a bottle. You rub the lamp, he's going to come out.'
Metro
20 hours ago
- 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
a day ago
- 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
The Advertiser
2 days 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
2 days 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."
