Bring Her Back (2025)

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Bring Her Back is about a grief stricken mother who turns to malevolent supernatural forces in a desperate bid to resurrect her daughter. It is codirected by Danny and Michael Philippou. This is their second feature film after Talk to Me.

Both movies are about teenagers who are profoundly affected by the loss of a parent. Talk to Me was a dark film, but it also had a sense of humor to counterbalance its grim themes. Bring Her Back is bleaker and its graphic content is more extreme.

After their father dies, orphaned stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are assigned to a foster mom, Laura (Sally Hawkins). Andy is protective of Piper, who is mostly blind. The foster center wants to separate them, but Piper insists that they stay together.

The siblings meet their new foster brother, the mute Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). He scares them with his bizarre and grotesque behavior, including slaughtering small animals and finding creative uses for kitchen knives. He writes a mysterious message for Andy that sends him on an investigation that leads to a horrifying revelation.

Laura had a daughter, Cathy, who was also blind. She perished in a drowning accident years ago. It’s obvious early on that Laura has a few screws loose. She uses gaslighting and psychological warfare to drive a wedge between Andy and Piper, hoping to turn the girl against her brother.

Laura watches creepy snuff VHS tapes that depict a demonic resurrection ritual. She needs Piper and Oliver to help bring her daughter back. Andy is a superfluous complication who must be dealt with.

The Performances Make the Movie

Sally Hawkins creates an unforgettable villain. Laura’s quirky eccentricities might be charming if she wasn’t a violent sociopathic manipulator. She often acts surprisingly gentle and apologetic to her victims.

Like many psychopaths, Laura is skilled at hiding behind a mask of kindness and benevolence. The people at the local clinic, where she used to work, find it difficult to believe that she is capable of anything nefarious.

Laura sees killing as an unfortunate but necessary means to an end. Even the worst acts are justified if they lead to having her daughter back.

She reminded me of Pamela Voorhees from Friday the 13th, another grieving mother driven to murder. Bring Her Back is a totally different type of movie than Friday, of course, but the “unhinged bereaved mother” character is a horror classic.

We don’t see many blind protagonists in horror films. Oddity (2024), which I reviewed last year, is the only other recent example that comes to mind. Sora Wong portrays Piper as spunky and tough. She wants to believe that her foster mom has good intentions, but is confused and troubled by Laura’s attempts to demonize her brother.

Piper’s blindness isn’t just a cheap plot device. We see some sequences from her point of view, underlying the sense of vulnerability and terror she feels during the film’s third act. Sora Wong is so likeable in this role. I was rooting for her the whole way.

Grief is an obvious theme in Bring Her Back, as it is in virtually all A24 horror movies. But guilt is also a major theme in the story. Andy is racked with guilt about his past. He has dark secrets that he’s kept from Piper. Laura feels guilt over not saving her daughter, and sometimes seems to feel remorse over her actions toward the foster kids, although I’m not sure how genuine that is.

Ultimately, I liked Talk to Me better than Bring Her Back, but not by a wide margin. Talk to Me is more imaginative and entertaining. Its plot is more straightforward.

Bring Her Back‘s storyline is sometimes more jumbled and complicated than necessary. I could have done without the VHS snuff film stuff, a found footage element thrown in for no good reason.

Still, this is a strong effort by the Philippou brothers, who are among the most promising up and coming horror filmmakers in the industry today. I’m excited to see what the future holds for them!

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