Bring Her Back review

By David Dent

Australian born but US residing brothers Danny and Michael Philippou are quite the thing; an insanely talented duo who, as RackaRacka, have nearly 7 million YouTube subscribers to their hilarious stunt based comedy videos.

But there was nothing to laugh about when the Philippous unleashed their first feature, the game changing frightener Talk to Me back in 2022. A hit with both critics and fans alike, expectations couldn’t have been higher for their follow up.

Bring Her Back, as the title suggests, locates itself in grief. Siblings Piper (Sora Wong), who has only peripheral vision, and 17-year-old brother, Andy (Billy Barratt) find themselves orphaned when their father dies suddenly. Deeply traumatised, they’re placed into care with a foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins), an arrangement which Andy feels is only temporary as he hopes to become Piper’s guardian when he turns 18. Laura is, to put it mildly, eccentric; she’s struggling to cope with the grief of losing her daughter who drowned in the outside pool, and her house rules are on the permissive side. Also living with Laura is the ‘selectively’ mute Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a young boy with large, frightened eyes whose behaviour becomes increasingly erratic; and terrifying.

For a long time Bring Her Back teases with individual narrative cards, before showing its full hand in the last section of the movie. Some grainy VHS footage, obsessively watched by Laura, hints at the dark heart of the piece, and themes of water and circles are repeated and interwoven. To comment further would spoil the plot, suffice to mention that it shares a passing resemblance to the M R James story ‘Lost Hearts’.

Danny and Michael have cast well; for the most part this is a four hander, with three of the actors under 18. Wong, Barratt and Phillips show depths of feeling quite unusual for people of their age, and cope really well with the gore, when it arrives. But it’s Hawkins as the unpredictable obsessive Laura that steals the show. Cornel Wilczec’s score is here as effective as his music in Talk to Me; in fact the whole sound design of the thing would justify a review in itself. 

The Philippou brothers have upped the ante again here; Bring Her Back is a sensational film, equally comfortable tugging the heart strings and having you reaching for the sick bag; here’s hoping that their next project, a sequel to their first feature, will continue their fright flick ascendancy.

Bring Her Back is out now in UK cinemas.