Bring Her Back (2025)

5/10

Like the previous film Talk to Me by the same creative team, Bring Her Back—once again directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman—combines effective filmmaking and strong performances with an undercooked script. Unlike Talk to Me, which had a strong hook in the form of the embalmed hand that allows spirits to possess people, Bring Her Back has a less original concept that makes its flaws stand out more. Despite grappling with challenging subjects like grief, loss, and child abuse, the film’s stubborn refusal to answer basic questions makes for a slightly frustrating experience.

Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are stepsiblings put into foster care after their father dies. Foster mother Laura (Sally Hawkins) adopts them, but things about her are a little weird, from going through text messages on Andy’s phone to keeping her taxidermized dog in the living room. There’s also mute foster sibling Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). Laura has experienced the death of her own daughter Cathy, who like Piper was 12 years old and partially blind. Laura’s strange behaviour, her loss of Cathy, the demonic cult seen in found-footage-style opening scenes, and the very title of the movie mean any veteran horror viewer can guess where this is going.

There’s a lot to like about Bring Her Back, starting with Sally Hawkins’ performance. She makes Laura alternately sympathetic, horrifying, manipulative, and vulnerable. Barratt and Wong convince us of Andy and Piper’s strong bond, and Phillips as Oliver will be remembered as a standout among demonic children in horror movies. There are some horrific images aided by impressive practical effects. The scene involving a cantaloupe and a knife is a particular standout—as are any in which Oliver eats things people don’t normally eat, to be honest.

But even more so than Talk to Me, the film leaves the viewer with too many questions about what transpires onscreen. To be fair, many will find it refreshing the filmmakers don’t feel the need to spoonfeed the audience every single detail. Indeed, ambiguity and refusing to explain things can make horror more unsettling. Some will argue Bring Her Back gives the audience as much detail as it needs to. The biggest reveals about Laura’s intentions, for example, come in the form of captions on the grainy VHS type she watches showing footage of the demonic cult.

For this viewer, however, the filmmakers leave so much unexplained it makes you wonder what the point of many scenes is. A key example is Laura’s persistent gaslighting of Andy, such as making him think he’s wetting the bed or that he might have assaulted someone. How does this advance her final goal? Why does she encourage Andy to kiss his dead father on the lips at the latter’s funeral, or cut off a lock of his father’s hair to feed Oliver? If the intent was to associate Laura with a general sense of weirdness and unease—well, mission accomplished. But without any real payoff, these moments feel pointless.

Mild spoilers follow.

Then there’s Oliver. It’s clear early on Laura’s plan is to bring her daughter back. What is Oliver’s function in relation to this goal? A prototype for Laura to show she knows how to bring a spirit back into a living body? But Oliver seems to be possessed by a demon or entity distinguished chiefly by its desire to eat anything, including objects—like a knife—that threaten to severely injure or kill the human body it inhabits. That’s very different from bringing back a loved one with their recognizable personality. Also, it’s unclear why his belly is distended in a way that indicates malnutrition near the end of the film.

If you’ve read my Talk to Me review, you’ll notice a similarity with this one: large sections of the review are taken up asking what various elements are supposed to mean, the logic of the plot, etc. I don’t think it’s because the plots of these films are particularly complicated. The basic stories are straightforward. But in both cases, the Philippou twins and Hinzman introduce many elements that never have any payoff or explanation. It’s as if the audience is thinking more about the implications of these story than the directors and screenwriters.

One of the people I saw Bring Her Back with observed that this film is at heart a family drama with a layer of supernatural horror. I think that sums it up well. The ramifications of a world in which spirits and demons are real always feel glossed over in these movies. Bring Her Back has enough elements to appeal to horror fans, and the actors make it absorbing in the moment. But the half-baked treatment of the story left me feeling underwhelmed in the end.