After making a head-pulverising occasion of arcane ritual in Talk to Me, filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou are back for another distressing communion with the dead. This time, it’s two recently orphaned siblings (Piper, played by Sora Wong, and Billy Barratt’s Andy), taken in by foster mother Laura (Sally Hawkins) following their dad’s traumatic death. It doesn’t take Andy long to realise that something is amiss, and alarm bells soon ring at Laura’s peculiar fascination with his sister.
Where the brothers’ previous film was brightened with moments of levity from its group of friends, Bring Her Back offers no such respite. It’s a soul-torturing work of sustained misery; a pure and punishing bad time which only gets worse as the film’s sure-to-be-miserable endgame approaches. Talk to Me, for all its shocking moments of gore and self-violence, was something of a traditional spook-a-blast. By contrast, Bring Her Back is an exercise in discomforting unhappiness. A spook-a-buzzkill, if you will.
At its core, it’s yet another horror film about grief and trauma, although its commitment to bad vibes out-Babadooks even The Babadook. There’s no romanticising the process here. It’s ugly and confrontational and raw – a film specifically about the toxicity of grief and how that impacts those who survive. To utilise jump scares would be to cheapen the mood and atmosphere the brothers have built, and Bring Her Back is all the more powerful for its restraint and maturity. Those expecting the sort of gore and terrible imagery that Talk to Me showcased won’t be disappointed, though – somehow, it manages to top even that film’s head-smashing scene.
A lot rests on the shoulders of its young stars, and Barratt and Wong do some devastating work as Andy and Piper. The former, particularly, is put through the wringer as the film explores his traumatic past, present grief and uncertain future. It’s hard, often infuriating viewing, and Hawkins is perfectly pitched as the deeply creepy foster mum. That’s not to mention little Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), carrying the spooky child baton and then using it to commit some truly appalling acts of self-mutilation upon himself.
Bring Her Back is the worst time you’ll have with a movie this year; an unflinching, uncompromising supernatural thriller that’s ultimately far sadder than it is scary. We’d recommend a shower after watching but, honestly, a shower is the last place you’ll want to be.
BRING HER BACK is out in UK cinemas now.
