Bring Her Back is the New Benchmark for Elevated Horror

Bring Her Back is my first 5/5 of 2025, and it’s in contention for perhaps my favourite horror film of the decade thus far.

I’m going to try to write this piece while divulging as little information about the plot as possible, because I believe this is something worth going into as blind as possible. All you need to know is that two step-siblings — older-brother Andy (Billy Barratt) and partially-blind younger-sister Piper (Sora Wong) — are placed into the care of foster mum Laura (Sally Hawkins), who is also caring for a young mute boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). For all intents and purposes of this article, that’s all you need to know.

The paranormal motifs are presented with the same je ne sais quoi as Talk To Me. Both films are completely unique from each other and anything else I’ve seen, but were definitely coached from the same playbook. There’s a clear auteurist link between these films, and they could easily exist within a shared universe of elevated paranormal horror. It’ll be interesting to see if Danny and Michael Philippou continue making this type of paranormal horror post-Talk 2 Me. These aussie twins have got some serious chops. If this trajectory continues, they’re going to be big names in Horror some day.

Bring Her Back is a masterfully executed mystery — revealing information slowly, one small chunk at a time. It keeps you guessing, and routinely subverts your expectations. Through the camera, the audience is an omniscient observer. We don’t see the story through the lens of any one character. Everyone is either an unreliable narrator, or blind to the truth. We always know more about the situation as a whole better than any one person. As the characters uncover secrets about each other, we are forced to piece together the greater mystery of the film ourselves.

Recurring uses of circles and water serve as powerful visual symbols, and make for a number of satisfying match-cuts and crossfades. They contribute to a long list of subtle hints and careful foreshadowing — delicate visual seeds which sprout into big reveals. This film is poised to be a superbly rewarding re-watch, and I’m already planning my second cinema visit to do just that. There are so many tiny little breadcrumbs scattered throughout. Going back to the beginning — knowing where the film is headed — is sure to illuminate even more of the subtext from within the brilliantly layered script.

While immensely bleak overall, the film is not without its moments of levity. Brief, but potent, and well-executed bursts of humour temper the dread, providing a much needed respite before plunging back beneath the waves of despair. I was shocked by how smoothly they were able to execute these drastic tonal shifts. There are several fun montages — one of which was supposedly shot in a single 30-minute improvised take, which is chopped up into a 60 second party sequence. Audience discomfort is amplified even further through deliberate tonal dissonance by executing humour and horror simultaneously, including a highlight sequence featuring an utterly nefarious needle-drop of “Untouched” by The Veronicas.

However, those moments of levity are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of the film is designed to make you feel very, very, bad. The horror elements are scattered evenly across the runtime, and with great restraint — contributing to a much more well-paced film than Talk To Me, which I found to peak early during the face-smashing scene.

The twins know what to show you and for how long, and when to let your imagination do the work. There are quite a number of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, but they’re not afraid to let a moment linger when they really want to show you something. It makes you want to look away, peel your skin off, and spill your guts through gritted teeth. I haven’t looked away from the screen this much during a movie in a long time — perhaps ever. And that’s coming from someone with Antichrist, Cannibal Holocaust, and the majority of Gaspar Noé’s filmography under their belt, so take that as you may.

The Philippou twins learned all the right lessons from Talk To Me. They knew what worked and what needed to improve, and they upped the ante in a big way with Bring Her Back. While Talk To Me used the genre as a platform to discuss addiction, Bring Her Back moves the focus to disabilities. Still both films tackle similar themes of grief, loss, and trauma — albeit through very different lenses.

Characters are at the forefront, with the paranormal horror elements serving as metaphors for their very human and grounded internal conflicts rooted in lies, jealousy, obsession, and familial abuse. This creates space for the emotional beats to hit HARD. Bring Her Back is as much a psychologically-engaging, tear-jerking character-study as it is a nauseating slice of paranormal body-horror.

Sally Hawkins gives a performance destined to be mentioned in the same breath as Toni Collette in Hereditary. Similarly, her performance in this film will comfortably sit atop the snub-lists come awards season. She’s able to both play against type and with it at the same time. As Laura, Sally delivers a profoundly heart-wrenching single-take monologue in the first act that had my tear ducts pouring like storm clouds. Gaslight, grief-stricken, girlboss. Great wardrobe too, with subtle uses of colour theory to reinforce her characterization.

Billy Barratt carries the weight of the world, and his family, on his shoulders. He’s easy to empathize with, and is the perfect conduit to bridge the dynamics between the other three people within the household. He’s relatable, respectable, and feels like a real person as he struggles between confronting reality and protecting Piper. The Philippous really know how to get good performances out of young actors. It also helps that the script is heavily nuanced, and the character of Andy a lot to work with. I’m sensing a breakout from Billy after this one.

Sora Wong was brilliant in her debut performance as Piper, and is the heart and soul of the film. She does such a good job of making her character as likeable as the narrative makes her out to be, and I love how organically her blindness is weaved into the narrative, and even serves as a core metaphor for the film’s central themes of deception and dependency. What could have easily come across gimmicky is instead an essential component of the film — much like what Mike Flanagan did with deafness in Hush.

And of course, Jonah Wren Phillips steals the show in many regards with his tragic embodiment of exploitation and manipulation — though his deliberately stilted and mute performance may not earn him as much overt recognition as the other leads in the film. However, I guarantee the scenes that will stick with you longest after the credits roll will be the ones featuring him. I know that was the case for myself.

Bring Her Back is the kind of film that feels perfectly tailor made for me, but it’s absolutely not for everyone. It’s polarizing by design. It’s made to evoke a strong emotional response, and many viewers may actively resent the film for making them feel the way it will. So take the ratings with a grain of salt, and proceed with caution. Reception has been very positive so far, but I can definitely see the ratings take a dive as the masses catch wind of the hype and unsuspecting audiences wander into this killing floor — as was the case with Skinamarink and In A Violent Nature (the latter of which you can read more about in my 2024 article here).

Personally, I’m all about films that can yank an emotional response out of me — good or bad. Maybe it’s because I’m dead inside — or just because my exposure to so much cinema has simply raised the bar too high for most films to clear — but that accomplishment is no easy feat. As such, emotional resonance is the #1 quality I look for in a film. To me there’s nothing worse than watching something and feeling nothing. Thankfully, there’s no need to worry about that with Bring Her Back. I don’t think there’s a human being on this earth who could ever watch this film without being affected in some way, unless they’re a fucking psychopath.

Like Come and See, Irréversible, or Salò; Bring Her Back is one of those films that will likely mark a checkpoint in the lives of those who watch it. This film may fundamentally change you as a person. There will be a clear before and after. I woke up in a cold sweat after I saw it opening night because I couldn’t get the visceral imagery and bone-chilling sounds out of my head, and I still haven’t had a good night’s sleep since — I mean, just look at some of these stills!

Bring Her Back has already inspired me to dive back into my own horror screenplays. There is just so much to love about this film, and so much to learn from it — the artistry, the craft, the emotional resonance. It’s both exactly what I needed it to be, and more than I could have ever asked for. This is elevated horror done right. This is the gold standard. Danny and Michael Philippou have caught the dragon horror filmmakers have been chasing since Hereditary redefined the modern ghost story. This is what cinema is all about.