Bring Her Back Review

Empty Calories

The Philippou brothers are back with a brand new horror film, following up on the success of their debut feature film, Talk to Me, to deliver something so weightless and lacking any feeling and mystery that I am genuinely concerned if this is what the future of horror looks like. Bring Her Back is taking major inspiration from the films Hereditary and Speak No Evil (2022) while missing the point of what makes those movies special. It's trying its best to be "elevated" horror or whatever. Still, its supernatural and family drama threads are written so thin that the film becomes a forgettable mess outside of some shocking, gory scenes. You will endure and feel the bleak atmosphere that the Philippou brothers are trying to convey at times, but at the end of the day if I am being choked out by someone I don't have a connection with, am I truly feeling anything?

Bring Her Back is a story about a brother and sister, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), who have been moved into a foster home after the tragic death of their father. Their new foster care mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins), takes them in, but the siblings begin to realize that there is something much darker and nefarious at hand involving cults and rituals to bring back the dead.

The two significant things that fans of this genre will leave feeling positive about are Philippou's ability to make you gasp and push you to your limits with some of the gore displayed. Do these gasping moments hold any weight, or are they shocking without substance? Sure, but I can't deny that these two brothers have a way of making me pull my shirt over my face when it involves knives and mouths. Skin being ripped off is cool, but the heights of horror these two are trying to reach with their storytelling aren't there. I can't deny they can make some gross scenes. The sound design is on point and makes your skin crawl, but it does not make up for the poor direction, which felt boring. The other major positive is Sally Hawkins's performance, who is doing some heavy lifting with their performance. Doing fantastic physical acting and giving an intense look at the levels someone would go to has been grief-stricken. She pushes herself in her performance to the level that someone would go to bring back the person you love most. I was way more locked in on her conniving and background into how she got involved with these dark rituals, and wished the film picked that instead of spreading itself thin with too many themes, most being rather generic or done better in the movie that inspired it.

What is being added to the genre here is my big question. I lauded and adored Talk to Me because even though it was taking significant influence from the work of modern horror artists like Ari Aster or Jordan Peele, it at least tried to do something new and interesting. Focusing on teenage addiction when it comes to social media and drugs, through being possessed at parties, is so fun and innovative, even if it can feel a bit half-baked. At least they went for it and were so bleak about it. Bring Her Back feels like a significant step back where the family trauma isn't fully fleshed out enough for either the siblings or the foster mom, and the cult supernatural stuff is also way more interesting and not explored thoroughly enough. I think a response to that would be, "That's the point that the supernatural isn't explained to leave more mystery," that some filmmakers would use, but I think that's such a cop-out for either bad writing or weak stories. You have to give the audience something here; there aren't enough threads to grab onto here.

I credit the Philippou brothers for trying to balance this "elevated" horror genre with the terrifying displays of mutilation and having a dysfunctional family drama. Still, when both are not synchronized, you are left with a forgettable dud. I'm still so excited to see where these two brothers go and see them with a better script, but even with direction, it felt like they were pulling back things from Talk to Me already. That felt lazy. Audiences may gravitate towards this because it feels familiar to what they've seen before, but it's just empty calories for me.

Final Score: 6/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit