Bring Her Back (2025)

Directors Danny and Michael Phillipou impressed greatly with their 2022 debut Talk To Me. It had an interesting idea, followed it through, and most impressively- tied all this together with a coherent and fitting ending.

Their follow up, Bring Her Back, is the kind of grief drama that refuses easy catharsis. Its emotional register flits between muted and outright explosive, but that’s exactly what makes it effective- and it’s far from an easy watch. In fact, it’s one of the nastiest horrors I've seen for quite some time.

The story centers on a mother who takes two teenagers, a brother and sister, into foster care after the death of her own daughter. As for the two teenagers, terrifically played by Sora Wong and Billy Barratt- they've just lost their father and are struggling to come to terms with their own grief and confused feelings about their own relationships with him.

What unfolds is -unsurprisingly- not a tale of a loving new family unit. It’s a slow unraveling of a woman’s identity and the world around her, as she struggles to deal with grief; and attempts to do so in the most unholy ways imaginable.

Sally Hawkins would surely be up for awards if this were released at the turn of the year. She is brilliantly chilling as Laura, who is already foster mother to a very creepy looking young boy Oliver, who supposedly hasn't spoken since his sister died. We know things are all going to go horribly wrong; but what makes Bring Her Back so striking is how badly it all goes wrong. There isn't necessarily sheer terror by any means, just a desperation at wanting it all to end- but that's far from a criticism of the film. I can't remember being this disturbed at what was going on in front of me on screen for some time, but again that's to the film's great credit, because you're also fully invested in how it all ends.

Directors Danny and Michael Phillipou build on the enormous promise they hinted at in Talk To Me, offering no real explanation of who or what might be behind what’s put in front of us making Bring Her Back an even more horrifying experience. The opening VHS footage hints at the horrors to come, but they turn out to be a bit of a red herring in terms of what we ourselves our exposed to- which ends up being something of a blessing.

All the performances are excellent; Wong is particularly good as the visually impaired Piper, and this plot strand brings to mind previous impressive horror flicks like Hush (2016) or Goodnight Mommy (2014), the latter especially one that I don't compare to lightly. Bring Her Back might not be on the same level, but it has you hiding behind the sofa- if one is available.

It’s not an easy watch, and it's not perfect- some things don't quite work, there are one or two moments that are rather telegraphed but for the most part this is a hugely impressive second feature from the Phillipou brothers, and Bring Her Back is undoubtedly one of the year’s best horror films. 7.6/10