Bring Her Back: An Establishing Sophomore Effort (Early Review)

The Australian YouTube vets, turned film directors Danny and Michael Philippou (also known as RackaRacka), are back with Bring Her Back, their follow up to their breakthrough hit, 2022’s Talk to Me. In their debut, the brothers showed a great understanding of the horror genre, combining fun genre fare with a sad and downtrodden depiction of grief and its possessive control. Their sophomore feature features many of the same attributes from their first effort, delivering yet another treatise on grief and its possessive control, while examining the disruption to the family unit and the kind of traumas that can follow.

In this sense, Bring Her Back suffers from at times for feeling a bit too similar to Talk to Me in terms of content. However, with the former, the Philippou brothers differentiate both films through their distinct approach to each. As detailed by the brothers themselves, Talk to Me was a party film. Bring Her Back, on the other hand, is a much slower film, shadowed by dread from the film’s opening moments to when its credits roll. Bleak, unforgiving, and sad, the Philippou brothers’ once frenetic and propulsive direction is replaced with a slower approach, one which plays with focus more so than movement.

While these changes are distinct and welcome, the film’s similarity to Talk to Me in terms of content becomes unavoidable once it reaches the finish line, making it, at times, feel like an elevated version of films such as The Stepfather (1987). In many ways, it serves as an elevated version of countless films audiences have inevitably seen before, and for some will find it momentarily underwhelming. However, Danny and Michael Philippou’s collective understanding of form is undeniable, as the film is nonetheless well crafted and effective, featuring yet another incredible central performance, this time by Sally Hawkins.

Bring Her Back examines grief through Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), a pair of step-siblings displaced following the sudden and tragic passing of their father. From there, the two are handed off to a woman named Laura (Hawkins), a foster parent and an eccentric counsellor who jumped at the opportunity to take the blind Piper into her home. Once they arrived, the two are not only welcomed by Laura, but also by her mute son Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). As the siblings settle in, secrets are revealed as something leads Andy to wonder what is truly going on with his new foster mother and what she may be hiding behind locked doors.

The film’s strengths ultimately lie within its lead performances. Barrett and Wong, as Andy and Piper, portray a believable and dependent bond as step-siblings navigating grief together while Hawkins, as Laura, delivers one of the finest performances of her career. A layered and tragic character crumbling at the seams while presenting forth an image of unseemly stability, Phillips incredible performance as Oliver holds up against Hawkins, offering a haunting and physical performance wherein his very presence becomes a beacon for wrongdoing. A character holding a cat has never been more terrifying.

Hawkins and Phillips, in particular, stand out with through their undeniable performances and screen presence. As Laura, Hawkins weaponizes her glowing kindness, displaying a deceptive lovability hiding a profound sadness. Never has Hawkins been more vulnerable and arguably better? A truly revelatory performance by an actress that is already top of her class. Above all else, Bring Her Back is a profoundly sad film unafraid of traversing the ugliest elements of grief and the grieving process. That being said, this is undercut at times by its conventional narrative, featuring a structure that can undermine attempts at the kind of empathy the film is clearly aiming for.

In the end, Bring Her Back is an exciting sophomore feature where the Philippou brothers prove that they are here to stay, further exhibiting a varied directorial style and devout understanding of film and filmmaking. One can’t help but hope that in the future, the brothers move away from trauma based horror, a market that has become oversaturated. In spite of this, their work remains among some of the best the subgenre has to offer, but the trappings of convention are beginning to rear their head.

Score: 77/100

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Brad Simon

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