BRING HER BACK : Tuesday 17th June 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BRING HER BACK' this week, and this Australian supernatural horror film is Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou and Co-Written by Danny Philippou, whose debut feature film was the critically acclaimed and commercially successful 'Talk to Me' in 2023. The brothers are known together online as RackaRacka, and are Australian twin filmmakers, YouTubers, and stunt performers, and are known for their horror comedy YouTube videos. The film was released here in Australia and the USA at the end of May and in the UK on 1st August, has so far grossed US$20M from a production budget of US$15M and has generated largely favourable critical reviews.

Here then, following the death of their father in the shower, a brother Andy (Billy Barratt) and his almost blind step-sister Piper (Sora Wong) are placed into foster care with the eccentric former counsellor of twenty years Laura (Sally Hawkins), who also has in her care a mute young lad named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). 

We also learn during their initial introductions that Laura had a daughter Cathy (Mischa Heywood) who drowned at the age of twelve in the home swimming pool, and who was also blind. Andy quickly becomes disturbed by Laura's behaviour, her favouritism towards Piper, and Oliver's strange mannerisms. He tells his social worker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton), and Laura, of his intention to apply for Piper's guardianship when he turns 18 in three months time. Laura begins subtly undermining Andy's mental condition, implying he is unfit to look after his sister, particularly after she reads a text message on Andy's mobile phone to a friend that Oliver is 'fucking weird!'

At their father's funeral, Laura secretly cuts a lock of hair from the body and later tells Andy that some believe the soul lingers in a corpse after death for up to a few months. She also urges Andy to kiss his father one last time, which he reluctantly does on the forehead, after which she kisses the corpse on the lips. That night, back at the house the three of them play a drinking game and play loud music which they all dance to. With Piper passed out on the sofa, Andy shares that their father was abusive toward him when he was eight years old especially, but was always affectionate toward Piper, which caused resentment. Laura reflects on her grief over Cathy's death and says she would give anything to hear Cathy call her 'mum' again. 

The next day, Laura runs an errand in town and takes Piper leaving strict instructions for Andy to leave Oliver locked in his room. However, Andy sees this as a chance to bond with Oliver, and so he unlocks the door and they both sit at the kitchen bench. Andy pulls half a cantaloupe melon from the fridge and with a large kitchen knife begins slicing off big chunks and offering a slice to Oliver. He grips the blade and Andy releases his hold and turns his back, but Oliver starts chewing on the knife breaking his two front teeth and badly cutting his upper lip. There's blood everywhere. 

When Andy tries to carry him across Laura's white painted circle property line to get him to a hospital, Oliver begins to convulse and scream. Laura, arrives and takes Oliver to her room and calms him by rubbing his head in a circular motion. He reluctantly returns to his mute state. Laura then feeds the lock of hair to Oliver. Later that night, Andy attempts to shower but is interrupted by Oliver, who speaks in Andy's father's voice, warning, 'She'll die in the rain'. Andy hallucinates this as an apparition of his dead father, slips on the wet floor out of sheer fright and is concussed. 

With Andy recovering in hospital, Laura takes Piper to a padlocked shed and dresses her in Cathy's clothes. Cathy's corpse is in the shed, stored in a chest freezer, which Laura guides Pipers hand over saying it is frozen meat. It is revealed that Oliver is a demonically possessed child, overtaken by a demon that Laura summoned via an amateur occult resurrection ritual learned from a pirate VHS recording. The corpse of the person to be resurrected is fed to a possessed host, who then regurgitates the corpse and its lingering soul into the newly dead body of a person killed in the same manner as the one to be resurrected. Laura intends to drown Piper in the pool during a forecasted heavy rainstorm to mimic Cathy's death and use Oliver to complete the ritual. Meanwhile, Oliver becomes more and more restless.

Upon Andy's return, Laura sprays herself with his cologne and savagely punches Piper while she sleeps, giving her a severely blackened eye, and then convinces Piper that Andy assaulted her that night. Piper is unsure but says she could smell Andy's scent. Laura accuses Andy of being abusive like their father, provoking an outburst. Andy leaves in a state of shock from his own behaviour towards Laura. Following this angry altercation, Laura takes Piper to a goalball practice session to remove her during the ritual's setup.

As Oliver's hunger becomes ever more intense, he trashes the house, bites Laura savagely on the arm, starts biting chunks out of the wooden kitchen bench top and eating the wooden splinters leaving several teeth embedded in the worktop, and then starts chewing on his own arm and hand. Meanwhile, Andy visits the foster agency and learns Oliver is actually a missing child named Connor Bird who has been missing for two weeks according to a poster displayed on the wall, and that Laura's foster background was never vetted. He convinces Wendy, to investigate. During their drive to the house, Andy warns Piper via voicemail about Laura and reveals the truth about their father. Laura intercepts the message, hurriedly cleans and tidies up the house, and deceives Wendy during the visit, until Wendy notices Laura's bleeding arm. Upon questioning, Laura hysterically claims she can resurrect Cathy. Wendy and Andy discover Oliver eating Cathy's corpse in the shed, but before escaping are run down by Laura in her car. Wendy is killed outright, and Andy survives but is badly injured. Laura then finishes off Andy by drowning him in a muddy puddle of rain.

Laura hurriedly collects Piper from her goalball game and returns her home. Having eaten some of Andy's flesh, Oliver now speaks with Andy's voice to attract Piper. She follows the voice and touches his face and head but is stopped by Laura. Suspicious, Piper locks herself in the bathroom and finds Andy's body laying on the floor. Laura breaks in and explains the ritual to Piper then drags her to the pool which is now filled with rainwater, and proceeds to hold her under the water. Piper is able to kick herself free and screams 'mum', at which point Laura hesitates and releases her. 

Oliver in the meantime has descended onto the steps of the pool and follows Piper as she climbs out. Piper escapes to the road, having kicked Oliver where it hurts, and is rescued by a passing car. Oliver crawls past the painted circle and collapses as the demon leaves his body, and Police arrive in the darkness of night to find and identify him as Connor Bird. Laura, now downcast, carries Cathy's partially consumed corpse into the pool and cradles it as officers surround her, and as the rain stops.

'Bring Her Back' won't be for everyone, but for aficionados of the horror or supernatural genres this film is sure to please with its tale of an unhinged foster mum literally hell bent on bringing her dead daughter back to life. The Philippou brothers have here delivered a tense, unsettling and at times macabre offering that is not short on violence and gore but all at once is as effective at examining the themes of life, death, grief, friendships and family all wrapped up into one neat package. At the same time they have further established themselves as masters of the genre while cementing their position as Directors to watch for what they'll come up with next. The performances of Jonah Wren Phillips especially as Oliver/Connor is a standout for a twelve year old lad, and Sally Hawkins proves she up for anything as the deranged foster mum Laura who takes us from tragedy and trauma, to heartbreak to manipulation and horror along the way. My only criticism of the film is the poor continuity within some of the scenes that left me thinking that the attention to detail was lacking somewhat. However, that said, this film is a worthy follow-up to 'Talk to Me' and quite possibly qualifies as one of the best horror films you're likely to see this year.

'Bring Her Back' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-