FOLLOWING up on their critically-acclaimed Talk to Me from 2022, brothers Danny and Michael Philippou shift gears ever so slightly for Bring Her Back, the latest film to crawl out of the A24 horror crypt.
Following the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are taken in as foster children by Laura (Sally Hawkins). Opposed to being separated from each other, Andy expects their time with their new foster parent to last only three months, as once he becomes 18 years old, he will be able to take custody of his sister and live by themselves.
However, once they arrive at her house, Laura proves to be increasingly eccentric, given how she has another foster child – a mute boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) whom neither siblings were informed about. Things only get worse from then on.
Unlike Talk to Me, the Philippou brothers’ latest is a hard tilt into slow-burn horror. Much of what and where the film is heading towards is revealed in fragments, even if it is blatantly obvious for certain fans of horror films.
The same extends to the form of horror in Bring Her Back. Similar to other films under the A24 banner, the film takes a very psychological approach to horror. More impressive than the acting prowess of the film’s leads is how there is no jump scare in the film, which might sound insane to more mainstream horror fans.
That is not to say there is nothing horrifying by the time the second and third acts roll in. This film is a product from the minds that brought the scenes of blood and terror in Talk to Me after all.
For these, the younger Phillips does some heavy lifting as he churns out a powerful performance as Oliver, warping simple acts such as eating a slice of fruit into sequences that will cause the viewer to cringe and wince.
Barratt and newcomer Wong are also equally impressive. The two young actors play their roles as siblings very naturally, with how long the film spends on them and their relationship further helping viewers to connect with them before the devastation kicks off.
The Philippou brothers must love the themes of not being able to move on from trauma and familial loss that they showed in Talk to Me, as it once again forms the crux of this film through Hawkins’ tightrope performance as Laura, balancing between absolute sorrow and diabolical insanity.
Certainly different from the made-for-mainstream horror film that Talk to Me was, Bring Her Back might not be for everyone. However, for genre purists that do not mind having their nerves slowly burned with an excellently paced and acted story, or just people that want to watch Hawkins turn in one of the year’s strongest performances, the film hits the spot like a well-munched corpse.