Michael and Danny Philippou, known for their YouTube channel RackaRacka, found huge success in 2023 with their breakout film Talk to Me. Undoubtedly, they felt the pressure to get their next gig going to capitalize off the success of their first film.
Unfortunately, Bring Her Back is a step down from Talk to Me. It relies heavily on shock value to distract you from a rather thin story. It’s slightly intriguing but should have focused more on the characters than their injuries. The actors do a lot of good work to carry this film to heights it never would have reached without them.
Step-siblings Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt) are suddenly orphaned and get sent to live with Laura (Sally Hawkins), a counselor and social worker. They meet their new younger brother, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), who exhibits strange behavior and is “selectively mute.”
Laura recently lost her own daughter, and takes an immediate interest in Piper. Andy slowly discovers Laura’s dark side that she keeps hidden from Piper, who is legally blind. The whole film is coated in an ominous tone set in the beginning, which displays the text “This is not a cult,” which goes on to show grisly footage of a spiritual-cannibalistic ritual.
Truly, the acting standout is Hawkins. She expertly navigates the nuanced insanities of Laura, whose personality seems completely overridden by the effects of grief. Hawkins allows Laura to live at the vertex of emotional implosion and aggressive antisocial behavior. This is a woman completely unable to accept reality and will try anything to restore it. Her task is difficult, to say the least, and she absolutely crushes it.
Piper probably looks like a quiet character on paper but Wong brings so much vitality and presence to her. She cracks jokes that don’t feel out of place and offers a pleasant contrast to the film’s grim tone. I can’t help but wonder if she had a hand in creating this character because of how well she inhabits Piper.
The directors seem to understand and respect young people by not making them dab and fling out trendy catchphrases. They make their characters smart who see things that jaded adults might flat out refuse to see. They give the kids a voice and show them to be realistically capable and perceptive. It’s nice to see the filmmakers are in touch with the audience they’re aiming to entertain.
I’m worried the Philippou brothers are leaning towards making a spectacle of horror instead of using the genre to help their story. Many scenes are focused on the strange behavior of Oliver, like when he chomps down on a table so hard that his teeth start chipping. It’s definitely a disturbing scene, but it doesn’t move the story along in ways that we haven’t seen or will see again.
The overuse of gore and graphic imagery is an indication that these filmmakers don’t have confidence in their story. They hope to steal your attention with fascinated disgust instead of earning it with emotional investment. They claim to love modern horror masters like Ari Aster and Jordan Peele but fail to see why these directors are truly successful.
Aster’s Hereditary features plenty of gross-out, jaw-dropping moments but it’s all centered around a deeply troubled family dynamic. Midsommar offers its fair share of disturbing visuals but places them in context that add to the story and characters. While his films go to some insane places, he understands what he’s asking of his audience.
Peele’s freshman effort, Get Out, features a horrifying body-intrusion plot anchored in racial tension. In his film, Nope, he gives a traumatic and fascinating backstory to a character to paint him as a delusional adult man. Both Aster and Peele use horror as a storytelling tool and not as an excuse to show the grotesque.
The Philippous seem so focused on doing the gross-out horror that they forget their film has to have a life of its own. It's not enough to toss out a few lines here and there that describe the themes of the movie. Did they get lucky with Talk to Me, or were they rushed with Bring Her Back?
The film’s first act promises an engaging horror story but never delivers anything more than over-the-top disgust. The best scenes are those in which Laura inhabits that zone between sane and insane. These scenes make you wonder if she’s being a cool mom or something sinister. She makes Andy seem like the bad guy for being the voice of reason in these delicate situations.
Laura employs many tactics to separate the step-siblings which become a form of psychological torture for Andy. More than gaslighting, she starts convincing Andy he’s losing his grip on reality when he wakes up each morning having wet the bed or is blamed for injuring Piper.
These scenes carry a lot of the dread in the film which becomes interrupted by a sudden bout of body-horror. Instead of capitalizing on that dread, it becomes diminished. The gross-out scenes are effective but could be used to greater impact if used sparingly.
Laura is a great and complex character who we should have come to know better. She has a story worth exploring and I would have loved to understand her more. She’s treated like a monster instead of a once-good person who lost herself in her grief. We don’t really get the chance to understand her motivation or how she became this way. We meet her already unhinged and psychopathic. I think the Philippous have a much better story somewhere in Bring Her Back than what made it to theaters.
Overall, the film lacks real substance. The Philippous have taken a cut of meat and seared the skin without cooking the inside. Perhaps if they had more time to simmer, the film wouldn’t feel so disappointing.
Nevertheless, the Philippous have great potential as filmmakers. They seem uniquely gifted in working with actors to get great performances from them—this is Wong’s first acting role. They certainly have heaps of energy and passion for filmmaking, they just need a nudge in the right direction. I’m apprehensive and excited to see what they do next.
Bring Her Back is currently in theaters. It will be available to stream on Max sometime in September or October.