Bring Her Back
Director: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Writer: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Cast: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins, Mischa Heywood, Jonah Wren Phillips, Stephen Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton
Seen on: 22./23.8.2025

Plot:
Andy (Billy Barratt) has always felt responsible for his sister Piper (Sora Wong) who is blind. Never more so than after their father passed away and left them orphans. Andy is almost of age, but he insists on accompanying Piper to her new foster family, foster mom Laura (Sally Hawkins) and her other foster child Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). Laura seems eager to meet Piper, but less taken with Andy. It feels like Laura has plans for Piper – and Andy is in the way.

After the lauded debut Talk to Me, Bring Her Back is a really strong second film, even though it falls into a couple of sophomore traps. Nevertheless, it is atmospheric, inventive, well-acted and well creepy.

Sophomore movies (or books, or albums, or…) have it difficult, especially when they follow up a hit debut. The pressure is on to not only deliver yet another hit, but show growth and new things, and maybe even do one better. This often leads to either creative paralysis, or a touch of overdoing things. Bring Her Back leans towards the latter, introducing one or two elements too many and making the film feel a little unfocused.

But other than that, it is a more than decent follow-up that shows us again that the Philippous‘ strenght lies in combining emotions with scares. It takes up some oft he same themes (grief, letting go, sibling relationships) as in Talk to Me and does something entirely different with them.

With a keen eye for characters, the heart of the film is in the relationship between Andy and Piper. Their trust in each other, their care for each other, and also the hurt that they cause each other sometimes. Wong and Barratt give great performances, and I have to tip my hat again to Hinzman and the Philippous for just getting teenagers right. The way Andy is both distrustful of Laura and yet still a child she can easily play with rings absolutely true. It also helps that they cast an actual teenager in the role, thanks for that, too. In addition, Hawkins is a great villain who inhabits both the truly maternal warmth and the unhinged, grieving cruelty of her character. Without this, the film would have quickly felt overdone, but she manages to ground everything.

There is some criticism of the foster system here. I am usually rather critical of this criticism, because more often than not, the criticism feels cartoonish and flat. But here, despite the horror movie stakes, the film very effectively shows how little recourse children in the system have, how much they are at the mercy of the adults around them. It is already a creepy situation, made creepier still by some effective gore and scares. I would have liked it, though, if the film had focused a bit more on that than on the supernatural stuff. And I would have loved it if it had a happier ending. Despite that, it is still really good.

Summarizing: excellent.