Danny and Michael Philippou offer a macabre vision of motherhood and grief with their new chiller.
Bring Her Back looks set to leap instantly onto any Top 10 Creepy Kids in Movies lists going forward, the teaser prominently showcasing one of the most unsettling little monsters we’ve come across in a while. Some real Hereditary shit going on there. Here, take a look:
See? Jesus Christ, I can’t tell if they hired that kid or summoned him. I kid, I kid; that’s Jonah Wren Phillips, who cropped up in seasonal misfire How to Make Gravy, as mute foster kid, Oliver. Besides, if the other trailer that dropped simultaneously is any indication, it’s his foster mum, played by Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins, that we need to keep an eye on:
From Danny and Michael Philippou, the boys behind RackaRacka and the excellent 2022 suburban horror, Talk to Me, comes what looks like another take on toxic grief. Plotwise, we have two freshly minted orphans, teenager Andy (Billy Barrett – weirdly, his grandad is Shakin’ Stevens) and his younger, sight-impaired sister, Piper (newcomer Sora Wong). Following the death of their father, they’re fostered with Hawkins’ eccentric Laura, who already has the aforementioned Oliver under her care.
As it happens, Laura also had a blind daughter – one who drowned in the swimming pool not too long ago. And, as you might guess, Laura has a plan to… Bring Her Back. And clearly that’s bad news for our foundlings.
Bring Her Back looks like a profoundly upsetting experience, which is sometimes what you want in a horror flick, if we’re being real. Kids in peril and domestic abuse don’t need supernatural seasoning to be disturbing; the human horror is enough for most. Adding a skein of the uncanny over the top might be overegging the pudding – or it might make this another instant classic for the Brothers Philippou.
Bring Her Back is in Australian cinemas from May 29, 2025.
RELATED
MORE IN News
