Grief is a feeling that hurts all the same, but one that everyone reacts to differently. Some days we seek some form of deeper meaning behind a loss, others may simply feel a quiet longing to speak to that loved one again, and some completely fall apart. In the case of Danny and Michael Phillipou’s new film, Bring Her Back, that third reaction can lead to something significantly more sinister. Although the duo may be exploring similar themes as their previous film — last year’s fantastic Talk To Me — Bring Her Back is no mere retread. In fact, it may be the bleakest horror film I’ve seen in years.
Bring Her Back centers on step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), whose entire world comes crashing down when their father suddenly dies. Because Andy is only three months shy of turning 18 and doesn’t want to be separated from the visually-impaired Piper, the siblings are placed in the care of their new temporary foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins). It doesn’t take long for Andy to realize that something’s off, whether that be Laura’s immediate fixation on Piper or the odd behaviour of her other foster child, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). Sure enough, Laura herself is grieving the loss of her own daughter and is conducting a disturbing ritual to bring her daughter back, no matter the cost.
Unlike their insane YouTube videos from which the directors (also known as RackaRacka) originally made their name, Bring Her Back moves at a very reserved pace. The opening scene teases the ugliness of what’s to come in the form of bizarre VHS tapes, but for a significant amount of time, the film spends it exploring the kids’ grief and, in Andy’s case, reckoning with his father’s potentially abusive past. It’s very heavy material, but both Billy Barrett and Sora Wong navigate it incredibly well in their performances.
I also loved how Sally Hawkins — typically a loveable figure like she is in The Shape of Water and the Paddington films — weaponized that kindness to sinister levels, shifting from sympathetic one minute to cruelly manipulative the next. She’s compelling every time she appears on screen, and as you try to figure out her plan, you’re just waiting for the moment the other shoe drops and she goes completely off the rails.
However, I have to give special credit to young Jonah Wren Phillips. Oliver is your trademark creepy kid, spending most of the film in a seemingly catatonic state. However, like Talk To Me, the film does not shy away from inflicting extreme violence even on the most vulnerable. As the film progresses, Oliver is subject to some deeply disturbing body horror.
Those sudden bursts of violence are when the Philippous show themselves to be students from the school of Raimi with their own use of unique camera angles, and goopy practical makeup effects. For the very young Phillips (who couldn’t be any older than 10 or 11 at the time of filming) to handle such extreme violence, I was as impressed as I was completely terrified for him.
The film’s only real stumbles are that even with its slower pace, the story is still pretty predictable, so there are points where the movie could have gotten to its reveals much faster. Also, for a film that is as unrelentingly mean as this, it’s odd that it pulled its punches at the very last second. Perhaps it was to give the audience a little bit of a reprieve from the constant darkness that preceded it. I also liked the final shot and what it represented to the film’s previous discussions on grief, but I feel like there was a way to get to the same point without lessening the impact of what happened right before.
The Phillippous had originally been slated to direct a Street Fighter adaptation, dropping out to make Bring Her Back instead. As much as I would love to see their big-budget take on the fighting franchise, it was the right call to make. The film firmly cements them as filmmakers with a fresh take on the genre, bringing new life to well-worn topics. I think the lack of any real levity may turn off some people, but for those who can deal with the darkness on display, Bring Her Back will go down as one of the standout horror flicks of the year.
