The stages of grief as conceived by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are, of course, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But what if a grief-stricken individual were stuck on bargaining and made a deal with the wrong entity to jump off the stages-of-grief train altogether? What if, by grasping at a horrifying straw of a solution to an incalculable loss, the grief-stricken survivor instead made a huge mess out of everything?
Sure, this is a well-tread trope in horror movies, but Bring Her Back, from Australian horror maestros Danny and Michael Philippou, tells this simple story quite well. Before we learn about Laura (Sally Hawkins, outstanding in this multi-faceted and obsessive role) and her arcane attempts to bring back her daughter, who tragically drowned in the family pool, we’re first introduced to brother and sister Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt). These adopted siblings are thrust into the foster system after the horrifying sudden death of their father. Piper, who is blind, has always been looked after by her older brother, and it takes quite a bit of convincing for former social worker and foster mother Laura to take them both in.
It isn’t long before we’re introduced to Laura’s surviving child, Oliver (played to maximum creepy effect by Jonah Wren Phillips), a kid who rarely speaks and who’s not even close to alright. While still mourning the loss of their father, Piper and Andy have to deal with an overbearing and intrusive foster mom and a seriously weird new sibling who Laura frequently locks away. Everything goes wrong from there, as Laura has plans in mind for all three of the kids to deal with her own grief in an incredibly unhealthy (and bloody) way. While Piper gets drawn toward Laura as a kind of surrogate mother she never had, and Andy recoils in suspicion and disgust, their new sibling Oliver stares into space—and does other, worse things. The highlights of Bring Her Back are twofold: Laura’s crafty manipulation to get closer to her desired result and pin everything bad on Andy, and some seriously unsettling and gruesome practical effects involving Oliver.
The Philippou brothers are already fairly well-known for their critically acclaimed horror debut Talk to Me from 2022, which they made after getting their start on production staff on The Babadook nearly a decade prior. Talk to Me also deals with loss and resurrection in quite a different but equally compelling method, and these brothers have continued that winning streak with one of the best scary movies of the year. The cinematography from Aaron McLisky is excellent, as there’s a visual feeling of dread and foreboding throughout Bring Her Back, and the atmospheric soundtrack from Cornel Wilczek is quite suitable for the terror taking place on screen. This is not a jump-scare type of horror film—it’s cerebral and psychological. Call it elevated horror if you want; I just call it compelling. How the different characters handle or don’t handle loss is metaphorically translated into videotaped rituals, obsession with the wrong things, shame, and even violent outbursts.
Again, the concept of resurrection and playing God to awaken things that shouldn’t be touched goes back many years—further back than even Stephen King’s Pet Sematary—but the latest incarnation of this story is told in extraordinary fashion. Australia has produced quite a bit of compelling horror cinema in the past several years (including personal favorite You’re Next and the upcoming Dangerous Animals), and this is one of their horror exports that’s not to be missed. You may never look at a wooden kitchen island or a slice of melon the same way again—and you’ll have to see the movie to know what I mean by that.
