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On this page: BRING HER BACK

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See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL | Last update 29.Jul.25

Bring Her Back
Review by Rich Cline | 3/5

dir Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
scr Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
prd Samantha Jennings, Kristina Ceyton
with Sally Hawkins, Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, Mischa Heywood, Kathryn Adams, Brian Godfrey, Brendan Bacon, Olga Miller, Nicola Tiele
release US/Aus 30.May.25,
UK 1.Aug.25
25/Australia 1h44

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Opening with glimpses of some sort of freaky Russian snuff movie, this horror film from the Philippou brothers piles one foreboding scene on top of the next to thoroughly unnerve the audience. While the narrative is simplistic, the story plays with powerful feelings of bereavement in its nightmarish mix of both human and supernatural nastiness. It's disturbingly intense visually, from creeping dread combines to jump scares and shocking grisliness.

When their father dies, Andy (Barratt) and his younger, partially sighted sister Piper (Wong) are sent to live with Laura (Hawkins) for three months before Andy turns 18 and can be Piper's guardian himself. Laura is cheerful, nosey, insistent and clearly up to something. She also has another foster son, the wordlessly eerie Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), and she works a bit too hard to limit Andy and Piper's interaction with him. Soon it becomes clear that Laura is up to something sinister that relates to the tragic death of her own daughter (Heywood).

Red flags pop up all around Laura, from her stuffed pet dog to the drinking game she plays with the kids after the funeral, at which she kisses their dead father and steals a lock of his hair. She also systematically gaslights Andy into thinking that he's crazy, while grooming Piper for something else entirely. This cranks up exponentially because events are mainly seen through Andy's eyes as a mix of hideous brutality and confusing shifts in reality.

Likeable and charismatic, Barratt is a superb protagonist, easy to identify with as everything that happens begins to push him over the edge. He's a tenacious kid, fiercely protective of Wong's equally sympathetic and plucky Piper, who is too easily deceived for too long. Meanwhile, Hawkins is excellent at balancing Laura's lighter and darker shades. Even when she turns into a pitch-black monster, a sense of desperation that almost makes us care about her.

All of this is expertly assembled, even if the story's nuances give way to gross-out thrills. With its outrageous gore and psychological ugliness, this is sometimes a hard film to watch. The filmmakers never flinch from the most graphic imagery. But the way everything revolves around a bonkers ritual undermines the more involving emotions that infuse the story. So in the end the script merely uses the devastation of loss as a gimmick leading to ever more ghastly situations. Still, the relentless horror is impressive.

themes, language, violence 28.Jul.25

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See also: SHADOWS FILM FESTIVAL