Bring Her Back

Bring Her Back

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

Main Cast: Sally Hawkins Sora Wong Jonah Wren Phillips Billy Barratt

My best friend was always scared of anything even slightly bloody or unnerving. Someone waving a pair of scissors about would have her looking away. Fast forward 20 years and she’s as big fan as I am. I don’t know what changed but she was the perfect companion for our recent cinema visit.

There are horror films that rely on jumpscares and then there are horror films that make you think long and hard about the human condition, that swerve so closely to a what seems like a possible reality, that scenes from that film sit with you for the longest time. You don’t know where to place your sympathies. Bring Her Back is just that kind of film, for me.

It was intense! I was attracted to this film via its disturbing advertising poster. That picture , it turns out, was the least of my unsettled worries. This film doesn’t need loud theatrics to scare you—it lets unease bleed slowly into every scene.

This film was an example of the best kind of horror movie in my opinion. The plot revolved around two suddenly orphaned step siblings, placed with a seemingly lovely foster mum, but things are definitely not how they appear at first. Sorrow has taken root in that house some time ago and their carer is nursing a terrible grief. She is quite open about this,she has lost a child. The home also houses another foster child about whom the foster mother lies and treats very differently. I do not want to give very much of the story away. Suffice to say the foster mum took the older brother on reluctantly, and she begins to gaslight him in snide and humiliating ways. In fact, it is the younger sister that interests her. We get glimpses of a strange ritual seen on a videotape, this is key to the story. The foster mum is played by Sally Hawkins who is usually cast in gentle roles like Paddington’s “mum” but she conveys the sense of a woman on a dangerous mission, talented manipulator and someone teetering on the edge of both madness and hope brilliantly.

The young cast are outstanding I should particularly mention that Sora Wong is in her first ever professional role, and she is is a total natural. She plays the young stepsister, both she and the character are partially sighted. This fact is central to the story. A seasoned performer and an award winner Billy Barratt plays the older brother superbly. His character is the one who realises that there is some very very wrong. . Jonah Wren-Phillips playing the other mysterious foster child had an extraordinary job to do, a job which would create the most disturbing body horror moments that made you want to look away, but somehow you do not. I really hope he is okay after inhabiting that role! There were also a couple of jump scares, and it will be hard to ever look at chopping up a nice watermelon in the same innocent way ever again, It’s not just the story that lingers, but the mood—the unsettling atmosphere clings long after the credits roll

Ultimately it’s the mounting sense of unease that unfolds gradually that is the most powerful thing about this story. It is a story of grief, longing, manipulation, and the impossible desire to turn back the clock.

“You’ll be thinking about this one during quiet moments—when grief, memory, and longing echo louder than any scream.”

5 Stars