Perhaps the most unsettling movie experience of the year, Bring Her Back is here to deliver all the terror that horror movie lovers have been craving. Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou (the YouTubers behind RackaRacka and the minds behind the 2023 film Talk to Me), this new film follows a brother and sister who are adopted by a foster mother played by Sally Hawkins following the death of their father. But through her erratic behavior, we see pretty quickly that something else is going on with their mother underneath the surface, and she has something quite sinister planned for them.
Bring Her Back is drenched in dread. Horrifyingly bleak at times, this movie manages to be much better than their debut feature. They do a particularly strong job of setting up intrigue and mystery at the beginning of the film. Early on, we establish stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong). Piper is blind, and the movie establishes her disability in interesting ways. There are moments where the shots will follow her as she must place her hands on everything nearby to feel where she’s going. There are other moments where the camera’s focus is on what her hand is touching while everything else is out of focus, which effectively gives us an idea of what she can see and puts us in her perspective.
Laura (Hawkins) appears to be quite kind at first, but something is off. We know that she previously had a daughter who died and is now taking in these new children. Hawkins’ performance is nothing short of phenomenal here. We’ve seen her play a kindhearted mother welcoming an orphan in Paddington. This movie feels like a horrifying twist on that character, where all that kindness is a facade. She does incredible work, making you feel uncomfortable in how she interacts with the children while also having a lot of emotional weight behind her actions.
The two siblings find themselves with a foster brother named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). It very clear from the start that something is also wrong with him, especially as his behavior becomes more and more gruesome. We’ve seen many great child performances in horror, but this may be one of the best. So much is required from him. The actions he performs are nightmarish and twisted in ways that had me wincing. His character has many realistic-looking bloody injuries. One particular scene involving a knife and another involving skin had me watching through my fingers.
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One of the strongest aspects of Bring Her Back is how it confronts our characters, especially Andy. Their father dies at the beginning of the movie, and Andy and Piper are both grieving. But Andy has a particularly complex relationship with his father, and we soon learn that Andy is hiding a tragic secret from Piper. As we learn about how Andy’s upbringing affected his actions growing up, he becomes a character burdened with tragedy that he has yet to make up for. It all works so well because he genuinely cares for Piper and wants to protect her from what Laura may have in store.
As Bring Her Back continues, it becomes more depressing. There are horror movies that are fun and make you smile. This is not that kind of horror movie. This is a movie that gets under your skin. It is bone-chilling in all the right ways. There isn’t any levity in this film. Much like Talk to Me, there are a few moments where songs are introduced in the soundtrack that undercut the tension a little too much. But overall, this is the kind of horror film that you only really want to watch once.
The story goes in a noticeably upsetting direction towards the end. Some may be upset about it because it feels like the narrative is building towards a particular destination, but it never gets there. But it’s a type of angry injustice that works for a movie of this subject matter. Barratt does an excellent job in both the horror and the dramatic subject matter. Wong is also very good. An actor’s most useful tool is their eyes, yet Wong can’t use hers the way other actors do, so she needs to use every other tool in her bag, and she pulls it off perfectly.
Perhaps the highest compliment I can give to Bring Her Back is that I was so wrapped up in the world and characters that I stopped realizing I was watching a fictional narrative. It sucks you into a genuinely demoralizing world that can be very upsetting. While not every single narrative idea or character choice fully works, it effectively makes you sick to your stomach at times. For that, it deserves high praise.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
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