
What greater hell could exist for a parent than the loss of a child? The lengths they would go to undo what has been done, the bargains they would cut, must be bottomless.
Pain that fathomable — even for those who haven’t experienced it — makes for good horror. It roots the supernatural in something real. And without the real, horror is just a bunch of spirits and spooks zooming around trying to make boogey out of nothing.
Which is where I’m at with Bring Her Back, the latest from Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou. Their previous effort, 2022’s Talk to Me, also dealt with crushing loss and paranormal assistance. It’s a modern horror classic, one that stands out for its exemplary sound design, supervised by Emma Bortignon. The sound of a knife picked up and the crunch of gravel underfoot raises the hair on the back of your neck more than any shock image could.
That focus and Bortignon’s work continue in Bring Her Back. You’ll first notice it when young Piper (Sora Wong) races through the house in search of a tool to help open a door. Piper has low vision — she can make out only shapes — and guides herself via touch and sound. The Philippous and Bortignon use this tactility to alert the audience of Piper’s vulnerability and shift the focus from the visual to the aural. Not everything here should be understood through sight.
That theme continues throughout Bring Her Back. In one of the more unsettling moments in the movie, the appearance of a butcher knife sets the room on edge and creates instantaneous tension. But when the camera follows one character and leaves the other holding the knife off-camera, the ensuing sounds of bone on metal paint a truly horrific image in the mind.
These are the moments where Bring Her Back succeeds. And there are plenty of them. Unfortunately, there are just as many that don’t, particularly those that seem to exist for no reason beyond gratuity.
The story revolves around Piper and her 17-year-old brother, Andy (Billy Barratt). Both are orphaned when their dad dies suddenly — and maybe mysteriously — in the shower. The two are placed in the foster care of Laura (Sally Hawkins), a quirky woman living with her stuffed dog, a house cat and another orphaned child. His name is Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a selective mute with eyes so sinister only a Satanic priest would love them. I guess Andy hasn’t seen The Omen, because if he had, he and Piper would’ve hightailed it outta there quicker than you could say “demon child.”
Oliver and the stuffed dog aren’t the only unsettling things in this creepy cottage in the middle of the woods. Laura is a disturbing presence. A few years ago, she lost her daughter, Cathy (Mischa Heywood in flashback), who was also visually impaired. Laura refuses to accept that loss. If only Piper knew the extent of Laura’s refusal.
The rest of Bring Her Back plays out in the usual manner. Piper starts to come out of her shell and enjoy her time with Laura. Laura gaslights Andy to drive him and Piper apart. Oliver does weirder and weirder things. Laura’s locked shed out back holds sinister secrets. So on and so forth. It’s not formulaic, but it’s familiar. That’s good in some aspects, trying in others.
My questions fixate on the feral child Oliver. What narrative purpose does he serve? If he’s here to creep the audience out by performing tasks of increasing disgust, mission accomplished. But if that’s all, then he’s also extraneous because Laura’s arc follows a similar pattern as she dives deeper into the occult. It’s a nice touch that she doesn’t have a big, dusty book of spells to consult but a garbled VHS tape. But where did she come across that tape? And when? Was it after Cathy passed, or had she always been this way?
Bring Her Back is not interested in answers and explanations. It aims to set the audience down an unsettling path and hope they find the boundaries along the way. Frankly, if the Philippous did manage to answer all my questions, Bring Her Back would be insufferable. It’s not. It’s swift and scary and contains enough excitement and unsettling imagery for an engaging time. But I still have questions.
ON SCREEN: Bring Her Back is now playing in theaters.