Bring Her Back

Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt) find a new home after the death of their father in Bring Her Back (Distributed by A24 and Sony Pictures Releasing)

In 2023, Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Phillippou made their directorial debut with Talk to Me, a clever horror story about a grief/guilt-stricken teenager who is shown a way to communicate with the dead. For their follow up, they dive into an even sadder story about grief, trauma and cycles of abuse. Bring Her Back is uncomfortable, creepy and gruesome in equal measure. It plunges its audience deep into a nightmare that is all the more effective because of how relatable the emotions driving the terror are. Horrifying things happen here, but the only true evil is the devastating finality of loss, coupled with the inability to say goodbye. It can make desperate people do the unthinkable.

Bring Her Back (99 minutes, without the end credits) doesn’t rely on jump scares or shocking twists. The brothers create a mood of unrelenting dread from the first frame, maintaining it all the way through. They set up their story without any exposition and just watch as the characters move closer toward their fates. The writing (Danny is credited on their screenplays) is excellent, unflinching and compelling. The storytelling is airtight. It is scary precisely due to how easy it is to understand what motivates everyone involved, even when the outcome is an awful decision. Nothing about this is pleasant, yet you can’t look away. These guys are damn good at what they do.

17-year-old Andy watches over his blind younger step-sister, Piper. When their father dies in an accident, the two are sent to live with Laura, at least until Andy is old enough to seek custody himself. What they don’t know is Laura has ideas for Piper that don’t include Andy, and she will do whatever it takes to achieve her goal.

Laura (Sally Hawkins)

Though this plot is straightforward, it unspools slowly, so I do not think it would be fair to reveal the whys and whats. Those things are part of the experience. What I will say is that Sally Hawkins gives an incredible, and very disturbing, performance as Laura. Her beloved daughter died some years ago, an unbelievably painful loss she could never fully recover from. At first, it seems like maybe she sees Piper as her second chance to raise a daughter, with Piper and Andy’s relationship threatening that. It soon becomes clear that Laura has far more sinister plans. Hawkins is so unsettling in the role because of how matter-of-fact her manipulations are. What she wants is bigger than either of them and she is so sure of how right this is. Her commitment to these actions is terrifying. Hawkins shows us a woman who knows she is hurting others, but feels that she has to.

It is the steady control of mood that truly makes Bring Her Back impactful. It is consistently unnerving, even in seemingly innocuous dialogue scenes. The characters are constantly dealing with their guilt/grief, which convinces them to make unwise or harmful choices. Laura is being outright manipulative, but even Andy is driven by a desire to fix his mistakes. Only Piper is a total innocent between the three of them; however, she is stuck in the dark, figuratively and literally.

The Philippous never allow their audience (or characters) to feel safe. This world is dangerous. You can’t depend on others to protect you. There are some really upsetting images on display, though the gore is not what will stay with me from this. It is the sense of inescapable darkness hiding just beneath the light. Most of this story takes place during the day, yet none of it is bright. The line between life and death is razor-thin in the Philippou universe. Bring Her Back forces viewers to face it. The result is haunting.

4 out of 5

Cast:

Billy Barratt as Andy

Sora Wong as Piper

Sally Hawkins as Laura

Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman