Bring Her Back (2025)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Bring Her Back (2025) – D. Philippou & M. Philippou

I liked the first feature by Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me, 2022) enough to check out this, their second, although I knew there was a risk that it might have more blood and gore than I would like.  I was right, but I gritted my teeth and occasionally looked away. The plot finds 17-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) and 12-year-old Piper (Sora Wong, who is blind) orphaned when their dad is found dead in the shower. Social Services find them a foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins), who is more than a little intense. Very quickly she has Andy offside, showing a preference for Piper; another foster child Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) acts bizarrely and is often kept locked in his room. Andy becomes our identification figure as he (and we) puzzle out what Laura is up to; we see a bit more than he can, so we know she is up to no good.  A disturbing VHS tape seems to be a sort of blueprint for Laura’s actions, as she may be invoking a ritual of sorts.  Since this is a horror film, the supernatural is at hand. The directors ratchet up the tension and things spiral out of control. I might have preferred more spooky, less gross, but there is no denying Hawkins’ acting chops here. And as with their first film, the Philippou brothers know that horror lies in our vulnerabilities (emotional as well as physical) and they don’t let the audience off the hook.