Bring Her Back (2025) Film Review: Grueling, unflinching portrait of grief is horror at its peak
- reeltalkin'
- Aug 2
- 4 min read
Two step-siblings find themselves orphaned and are placed with a new foster mother, where they uncover a terrifying occult ritual in her secluded home.
This latest A24 offering is brought to us by Danny and Michael Phillippou, known for their horror/comedy YouTube videos and the 2022 cult sensation Talk to Me.
Their recent venture into supernatural body horror has already gained positive word of mouth and a solid critical status, cementing the brothers as genuine genre visionaries and pioneers for modern cinematic horror.
The brilliant Sally Hawkins stars as an eccentric former counselor turned foster mother, whose overly happy persona masks the devastating grief and trauma she suffers after tragically losing her daughter, Cathy, who drowned in the garden pool. This deeply disturbing narrative is rooted in real-life horror that will truly get underneath your skin and grisly body horror, which will test the limits of even the most hardened horror fans.
The Philippou siblings, alongside writer Bill Henzman, who previously worked with the pair on Talk to Me, craft a sombre, slow-burn mystery that respects audiences and trusts them to take note of any visual/audio clues which quietly reveal the macabre nature of Laura's off-putting behaviour and her eventual intentions to somehow resurrect her daughter.
The film is gripping from the very start, where we are introduced to seventeen-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) and his partially sighted step-sister, Piper (Sora Wong), who find their naked, dead father in a bloody mess on the bathroom floor. This tragic event triggers the bleak, heavy tone of the narrative, which is unrelenting in its exploration of what grief and trauma can do to an individual's mental health and the lengths one will go to repair this brokenness.
The film exhibits truly exemplary performances across the board. Hawkins demonstrates her impressive versatility as an actress, embodying a warm, welcoming motherly role for the children, whilst hiding a dark intensity and unimaginable sorrow, which gives way to some truly heartbreaking moments and makes her more sympathetic than most 'villains' of the genre. Although her character does unspeakable, disgusting things, especially regarding her other foster child, 'Oliver' (Jonah Wren Phillips), she feels multi-faceted, and one can at least understand the deeply human motivations behind her monstrous actions.
Likewise, both Barratt and Wong are excellent in their respective roles, sharing a believable onscreen sibling bond as Andy demonstrates a strong protective instinct regarding his visually impaired sister and Piper proves admirable resilience and independence, despite her apparent disability. The pair do come across as authentic teenagers who clearly share a deep bond, despite Andy's secret envy towards his sister, as she was the favoured child in their family. When they move in with Laura, this favouritism continues as Cathy was also partially blind, and Andy soon becomes a victim of gaslighting as Laura attempts to turn his own sister against him with cruel mind games and manipulation.
Twelve-year-old Jonah Wren Phillips definitely deserves much praise for his incredibly unsettling, often frightening performance as a mute host of a melevalont, demonic entity which Laura calls upon to aid her mission to revive her daughter. The boundaries pushed by the directors are very haunting, with unforgettable sequences of nasty, gory body horror centred around the creepy Oliver. The vile, graphic imagery presented in the film is truly nauseating, shocking stuff, which is brought to life with fantastic prosthetic and make-up work, and the truly phenomenal, committed performance by such a young actor.
The inclusion and focus on children in horror fiction has always been a fascinating moral dilemma for decades, and this movie certainly takes risks regarding its harrowing visuals of young lives in great distress or pain, which will very understandably cause upset for viewers, particularly parents of young children.
This story is certainly not for the faint of heart; however, it seems clear from behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast that the young performers were treated very well, and Jonah displays sound professionalism and enthusiasm for the genre despite his youth. This remarkable role will hopefully go down as one of the most memorable and impressive child performances in horror movie history, alongside the likes of Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1974), whose raw, intense, and petrifying physical transformation parallels the dark descent into hell that Oliver endures.
Bring Her Back is arguably superior in comparison to Talk to Me in light of its examination of what the loss of a loved one does to an individual, especially regarding the unfathomable grief plaguing a devoted mother who cannot find a healthy way to move on from her daughter's untimely death. The real horror of the film comes from this obsession with the past and inability to cope with the trauma of losing a child, making for a solid, character-driven, timeless story that is deeply rooted in the harrowing human experience.
Grimy, raw, and daring, Bring Her Back presents an emotionally devastating, draining narrative, with an inspired combination of truly disgusting, visceral body horror, disturbing psychological thrills, and universal themes of loss and grief, and the dangers of obsession. The oppressive, bleak tone and controversial aspects surrounding its heavy usage of child actors will definitely not be for everyone; however, fans of the brothers' previous works should find much to sink their teeth into here, and the movie is certainly worth watching for its chilling lead performances alone.
You will not be able to get this one out of your head for a while - modern horror at its finest!
Check out the trailer for Bring Her Back (2025) below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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