Bring Her Back

Within its boundaries are a drained pool, a taxidermied dog, and what must be Australia’s most dysfunctional foster family. Teenage step-siblings Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt) have just been placed there following the death of his father, a traumatic event that made orphans of them both. Already in the home is Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), who has what appears to be a birthmark under his right eye and is selectively mute. Then there’s Laura (Sally Hawkins), the bereaved mother who’s happy for the company.

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Some of it, at least. Initially bubbly in a vaguely sinister way, she’s smitten with Piper – who, like Laura’s dearly departed daughter, is vision-impaired — but dismissive of Andy, whom she only took in to avoid separating the pair. Bring Her Back is the second film by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, the twin brothers whose Talk to Me is one of the best horror movies in recent memory. They’ve avoided the sophomore slump here, even if their follow-up doesn’t reach the same unnerving heights (or depths, depending on your perspective) as its predecessor.

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Hawkins, who exudes warmth in movies like Happy-Go-Lucky, The Shape of Water, and Paddington, is cast brilliantly against type as a disturbed — and disturbing — matriarch whose overzealous enthusiasm is clearly masking unspoken pain. She at first seems like the free-spirited boho aunt who never had kids of her own but loves to entertain her nieces and nephews (sometimes in age-inappropriate ways), but a passing comment here and subtle gesture there put you on edge. There’s a certain nervous energy to Laura, and you don’t have to be an empath to pick up on it instantly. Hawkins is brilliant in a role you can’t imagine anyone else playing, and Laura isn’t as dissimilar to the characters we’re used to seeing her play as she initially appears — she’s just chosen a darker way to channel her emotions.

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This being a horror movie, any suspicions you have about her are correct. (Oh, are they ever.) When she isn’t being passive aggressive to Andy or showering Piper in affection, Laura is holed up in her room watching a grainy VHS tape of what appears to be a cult-like ritual whose exact contents shan’t be spoiled here; suffice to say that it’s related to the “her” of the title. The other standout is Wong, a first-time actor who, like her character, is vision-impaired. Piper can see shapes and colors but not much else, making her dependent on her older brother even when she’d prefer not to be. She’s also quietly tenacious, a quality Wong shares as a performer.

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Bring Her Back shares a number of similarities with Talk to Me, including the fact that both titles act as commands with an implied “...or else” at the end, though some are subtle inversions. Where the first movie concerned a daughter attempting to commune with her dead mother, this one follows a mother refusing to let go of her gone-too-soon daughter. But both are ultimately about the inability to process such a loss and the extreme, often self-destructive lengths the bereaved will go to in order to find closure. The two movies are, if not quite twins, then certainly a pair whose thematic through lines make them more compelling together than they are on their own.

Hawkins is brilliant in a role you can’t imagine anyone else playing.

Possession, resurrection, and the porous boundaries between this world and the next are evergreen horror subjects, and the Philippous’ ability to make such well-trod territory feel new speaks to their natural talent. Even the ostensibly normal aspects of their work announce themselves in unsettling ways, imbuing the smallest moments with dread. That's especially true of literally every scene involving Ollie, who's best described as a cross between catatonic and feral.

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The Philippous, a uniquely ambitious pair of cinematic siblings who got their start on YouTube, have an intuitive understanding of their chosen genre: what makes it work, what makes the audience tick, and what kind of images you can’t unsee even if you’d like to. In Bring Her Back it’s a young child biting down on a kitchen knife until cracking several teeth and splitting his lip that leaves the most lasting impression, though it has some stiff competition. By the time that excruciating scene is over, you might have trouble discerning the boy’s screams from your own — and wondering what, or who, possessed him to do it in the first place.