It’s now safe to say “Talk to Me” (2023) wasn’t merely a happy accident. Under the increased pressure of “What are they gonna do next!?” the Australian Philippou twins (co-director/co-writer Danny and co-director Michael) and co-writer Bill Hinzman reteam for “Bring Her Back,” a carefully crafted, award-level acted, deeply tragic piece of horror.
Last year gave us the pleasure of “The Substance,” a rare horror film with a core performance the Oscars couldn’t fail to nominate. We have another one here from Sally Hawkins – who, like Demi Moore, happens to be due for a Best Actress win – as Laura, a foster mother who could devolve into the hoariest levels of insanity but instead is a full human being.
Credit must also go to the Philippous and Hinzman, who could’ve made a passable horror film if they played every beat as expected. For a while I thought “Bring Her Back” would be a tough-to-watch exercise in inevitability. Step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) – these young actors also giving top-shelf performances – lose their father to an under-explained death in the shower. They are thrown into Laura’s country house by the mildly engaged Australian social services.
“Bring Her Back” (2025)
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Stars: Sally Hawkins, Billy Barratt, Sora Wong
Granted, the experience is horrific, featuring Laura’s mix of modern gaslighting techniques on her three fosters (the third is mute Oliver, played by Jonah Wren Phillips in another great turn, helped by incredible effects) and black magic that’s hinted at in the cold open and thoroughly spelled (no pun intended) out at the midway point.
Back … back in the Aussie horror groove
“Bring Her Back” might have agendas, but the Philippous and Hinzman never telegraph their pretentions; we don’t have to try to ignore the heavy handedness as in some other hot filmmakers’ stylish genre works, such as Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”
An unforced achievement in diversity is Wong, a partially sighted actress with a lazy eye. Piper’s classmates immediately make fun of her for it, Andy is there to walk her home (even as she makes fun of him, as is their banter), and we immediately love them for their us-against-the-world bond in which “grapefruit” is their code word for “Trust me.”
As smooth and slick as “Bring Her Back” is, I must acknowledge it’s less scary than “Talk to Me.” It spells out the complex aims of the plot-mover (which it has to, lest it risk us being lost). And also, Laura isn’t hiding her nature in the way of, say, James McAvoy’s character in last year’s “Speak No Evil” (which is neck-and-neck with this film for two acts).
The film makes up for a shortage of mystery regarding “Is she crazy or not?” (I mean, we immediately learn Laura stuffs her dead pets for posterity) by refreshingly dodging the easy way out in other could-be-cliched situations. This could be a purely fatalistic slog about Andy being trapped by a system where his voice can be robbed on a wrongly respected adult’s say-so, but he actually is able to get the ear of the state overseer, Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) – despite Wendy’s friendship with Laura.
Body horror – another way “Bring Her Back” draws “The Substance” comparisons – also fills in the gaps where mystery might’ve reigned. At first this seems like a case of trying too hard, but once we get the big picture of what’s going on, plus the exact way the steps play out, the wrongness of the gore is only enhanced.
(SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
A closer look (Spoilers)
One minor quibble. Laura’s daughter Cathy (Mischa Heywood) died via accidental drowning, and Wendy and the foster system are well aware of this, yet Laura keeps Cathy’s body in a freezer. So this raises the question of how she acquired the corpse. Grave robbery? Possibly, but if Cathy was embalmed, how does that play into the resurrection spell?
Laura, as per what she learns from the snuff video of a successful resurrection — which requires a middleman (Oliver) to eat the corpse then regurgitate into the mouth of the new vessel (Piper), having been killed in the same way as the deceased — notes that the soul stays in the body for a few weeks after death. But if the body is needed as part of the resurrection, it seems like embalming it might kill the spirit just the same as cremation.
I wonder if “Bring Her Back” could’ve thread a needle wherein Cathy had recently died but Laura had hid this. It also could’ve added another layer of tension and weirdness if Cathy had dressed up the mute, magically controlled Oliver – who has a cherubic gender-neutral look – as “Cathy” for the sake of the fosters, especially considering she has already kidnapped Oliver without her bosses knowing.
On a positive note, while “Bring Her Back” might not feature a ton of scary moments, it finds creepiness in the margins, like when Laura reveals in throwaway fashion to Andy that she killed his father. Because he’s been gaslit, he wonders if he heard her wrong, as does the viewer.
The film is filled with meticulous details like this; it’s the opposite of how “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” skims over plot holes. And for a big shock, we get that moment when Laura suddenly delivers a vicious blow to the sleeping Piper. Pair it with the game-changing stunner in “Talk to Me” — also involving a smashed face — and a quiet moment exploded by a shock might become the Philippous’ trademark.
(END OF SPOILERS.)
Can horror infiltrate the Oscars again?
Although I rank “Bring Her Back” a tad behind the scarier “Talk to Me,” this sophomore effort is a grand work of tragedy with slicker, more professional production (which the Philippous don’t let smother the grounded originality).
Though firmly in the horror genre (still a redheaded stepchild of genres when it comes to awardage), it’s an honest study of how grief can make people lose their minds if they are left unsupported. If the Oscars ignore Hawkins in particular, that’s a flaw of the voters, not the film.