Cinematic Mode – Bring Her Back frights and delights with its tale of grief

In 2022, Talk to Me was a breakout horror hit for South Australian directors and twin brothers Michael and Danny Philippou. Using the lens of Australian teenage party culture, social media and trends to tell a story about talking with the undead, it was a truly horrifying affair and one of the best genre films of the 2020s thus far. Flash forward to 2025, and the pair have followed this up with Bring Her Back, a piece with higher production values, the immeasurably talented Sally Hawkins and a vivid exploration of grief. The results are an unbelievably fun ride that will delight horror fans.

Following the death of their father, step-siblings Andy and Piper are taken in by Laura (Sally Hawkins), an ex-counsellor looking to fill her home more after the death of her daughter. Upon arriving, they meet Oliver, another adopted child, a mute who acts odd and distant. Andy notes odd occurrences not long into their stay; Laura isn’t quite the kind soul she presents herself as. A dark secret surrounds Oliver. Having a hard time convincing Piper of all that’s going on due to her being blind and not really able to see the true nature of everything going on, the siblings have entered a housing arrangement that’s more than they bargained for.

The cast of Bring Her Back are all playing crucial and incredibly memorable roles in the film, eloquently working and dancing around each other to depict the bespoke chilling horror venture. No one part of the team is wasted. Andy is a troubled young boy who acts out and has a complicated history with his father, more haunted by him than grieving him. Sora Wong, in her first ever role, is an absolute powerful force as Piper, the film’s image of grace and purity and kindness (but not naivety). Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver is performing amazing feats of physicality, his movements animalistic and a source of tension throughout the entire picture. Sally Hawkins, a grieving mother who puts up a kind motherly facade but with secrets and dark horrors underneath, is a perfect casting choice to round it out. It’s unbelievably joyous and satisfying to see the same woman who is the mother in the first two Paddington movies and the innocent soul in Shape of Water to be downright unhinged.

Bring Her Back’s strength, like the prior Philippou joint, is how uniquely dripping in Australiana it is. Set and filmed in Adelaide and surrounding areas like Lightview, Laura’s house is eerily isolated with surrounding forestry and greenery as far as the eye can see. The house, while pleasant in architecture harbours secrets in a shed by a drained swimming pool; the same pool that Laura says her daughter, Cathy, drowned in. There are incredibly apt needle drop moments of several iconic Australian Pop and Rock songs (which I won’t spoil for the fun surprise to my Aussie peers). All of these moving parts and pieces make for a delightfully disarming horror experience where, despite Australia’s worldwide image of being chill and down to earth, it is housing terrors in this siloed area in South Australia. This type of disarming technique of putting horror in a place you’d perhaps least expect is mastery from the brother directors at this point, two films down.

Of course, a horror movie isn’t effective unless it haunts and captivates its audience. Bring Her Back more than succeeds on that front, choosing to focus on very specific moments of terror and intense gore rather than rely on jump scares or frequent scares. Though there’s perhaps less horror and tension throughout the whole piece compared to Talk To Me, its intensity is amplified to make hallmark moments more emphatic. Both the makeup and prosthetic departments deserve flowers for how enticingly grotesque and horrid the gore is here. I’m not being hyperbolic when I tell you moments had me gripping the armrests of the cinema chair, gritting my teeth, not just showing these intense images and deformities but also lingering on them. One particular moment had the entire audience groan in horror as flesh gave way to blood, membrane and bone. This is what horror films at the theatre are all about: building shared dread and terror. The Philippou brothers brought the goods here.

There are scarce complaints to be had with Bring Her Back. Though I like it a little less than the directors’ prior foray due to the mechanics of the cultic ritual undertones and its greater world having some holes, it’s all made up for by how stellar the performances are and how delightfully it grosses you out. It’s another of those horror movies where the kids have little to no credits to their name, but I fully expect them to succeed and blow up due to how strong they are here. It’s got Sally Hawkins being carnal and deranged like you’ve never seen her before. It delights and scares. Make no mistake, you’re in bloody good hands with the Philippou brothers once more.

Bring Her Back is in cinemas on May 29.

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Checkpoint Gaming attended a screening of Bring Her Back as a guest of Sony Pictures Australia.