Bring Her Back

There’s no dignity in death. When Andy (Barratt) walks into the bathroom to find his dad, naked, seeping blood, with frothy sputum around his mouth, the sight is both grotesque and pathetic. He sees it as a mercy that his stepsister Piper (Wong) will never see it because she can never see it. His sister is visually impaired, and he describes the world to her, just with some of the rough edges smoothed down. After all, what harm can a few white lies do?

Well, seemingly unlock the gates of Hell. In Bring Her Back, the new occult horror from filmmaking siblings Danny and Michael Philippou, Andy’s minor deceptions are used by their foster mum, Laura (Hawkins, The Shape of Water, Paddington), to create division between siblings. It’s clear that she’s absolutely enamored of Piper, and the house is already conveniently fitted for a blind person to navigate with ease. But that makes Andy an inconvenience to whatever plan Laura has.

A gruesome found footage opening makes it clear that her machinations go beyond being a loving proxy mum to Piper. So does the disturbing presence of a third foster kid, Oliver (Phillips), who Laura forcefully keeps away from her new charges. Her interest in Piper seems possessive and extreme, a tragic and terrifying counterbalance to the girl’s complicated connection to Andy. Yet among all the surprisingly extreme moments of horror – and yes, there is some truly grisly imagery here – those relationships are never relegated to the background or used to merely inform funhouse shocks. Instead, Bring Her Back uses the sinister aspects of the story to illuminate questions of connection in a mature and heartfelt fashion.

It's a gigantic and successful leap into the abyss for the Philippous from their 2023 debut, Talk to Me. Their growth is made all the more apparent because Bring Her Back deals with similar themes of grief, death, and a fascination with the occult ability to transcend the veil of mortality. Yet at no point does it feel like a pale imitation or re-run as the script by Danny and longtime collaborator Bill Hinzman (cowriter of both Talk to Me and the upcoming sequel, Talk 2 Me) has an unexpected maturity to it. Loss has defined these characters: Both Andy and Piper’s mothers have gone long before their father, while Laura seems caught in limbo ever since her own daughter, Cathy (Heywood in flashbacks), died.

Hawkins is no stranger to tragic parts, but Bring Her Back is still an extraordinary addition to her filmography. An actor whose career has been marked by her ability to meld seemingly disparate aspects of her character’s personalities, like the irksome/enchanting Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky, Laura provides an intriguing new challenge. She’s not an evil genius, or arguably evil at all, but desperate and manipulative and smart enough to know how to use the system against her wards. After all, who would believe an orphaned teenager with a troubled history when even his own sister can’t back him up?

The film further establishes the Philippous as some of the best directors of young actors working today. Talk to Me’s strongest aspects were in its near-vérité depiction of modern teens, and here the brothers balance that sense of realism with more Gothic tendencies. Barratt and first-time actor Wong have an undeniable connection brimming with the complexities of blended family, while Phillips is genuinely chilling in what could become regarded as an all-time horror-kid performance. When the knives come out, you’ll be shrieking for your loved ones.