Bring Her Back Review: Unsettling and Diabolical!

May 25, 2025 Surya Komal 3 Comments Bring Her Back, Danny Philippou, English Movies, Hollywood, Hollywood Movie Reviews, Hollywood Movies, Horror, Horror Movies, Michael Philippou

In 2022, Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou released one of the most original horror films in decades, Talk to Me. It created an entirely new angle to spirits being resurrected and contacted, this time not with a ouija board but with an embalmed human hand. In Talk to Me, the Philippou brothers maintained a nihilistic look at death, grief, and connection where it seemed like no characters made it out without being scared. Where horror is known to unsettle and disturb, at least one character often makes it out alive or is able to have a “happy ending,” even if that is just by surviving. With the Philippou brothers’ Aussie flair, and just two films under their belt, it is clear that these filmmakers succeed in the deeply dark and sombre angles they explored using familiar horror themes.

Bring Her Back, their newest film, feels like it is traveling down the road of classic horror structure until it breaks away bringing its audience through an atmospheric and diabolical look at familial connection. This film is a nuanced look at the demons on earth, beyond and how death creates an intersection, allowing both to meet.

Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barrett) are step-siblings that have been together for what seems like forever, possessing a caring and connected relationship where Piper, who is visually impaired, looks to Andy for guidance and assistance as they both navigate life together. When their father dies, Piper and Andy are sent to live with a foster mother, Laura (Sally Hawkins), and another foster child Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). Laura is going through her own type of loss from her daughter Cathy’s passing.

As Andy begins to get the feeling Laura isn’t as stable as she should be, he must find a way to protect himself and Piper from Laura and her desperate actions. Where many horror films create a situation or setting to work with, centering their film around a killer, demons, or even monsters, Bring Her Back is deeply rooted in its examination of its characters and how their experiences begin to shape the story for all its terrifying elements.

The more we learn about Andy, Piper, Laura, and Oliver, the stronger the directors are able to demonstrate how human emotion and loss can create the scariest stories in our own lives. The more that is revealed about each character, the more we as the audience begin to feel distressed, slowly realizing that no happy ending is in sight.

Bring Her Back is a fusion of almost everything we fear from films and our own lives. From demons and body horror to feeling trapped in the face of authority, the film can not be pigeonholed into one genre and allows the story to take its frights to new levels. Demons can be terrifying but the Philippou brother’s also know that Piper having to put her trust in those around her with a flawed ability to visually see the truth puts her in a situation where the autonomy she seeks is more difficult to find. In this, this movie infuses its horrifying sequences to mirror the terror one feels simply as a human with difficult choices to make for family.

One of the film’s most intriguing ideas it presents is how death can erase demons and it can also create them. As the audience learns more about Andy and Piper’s family, it becomes clear that demons reside in their father, a demon that died with his physical body but still has the ability to grab hold of Andy even after death. As Laura’s intense grief becomes too much for her to handle, a monster is created when death reaches her doorstep.

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The idea that death is so powerful that it can save, hurt, erase, and create the darkest of things is where Bring Her Back is able to expand on grief that is constantly tackled in other films. With a short filmography with much more on the way, it is without question that Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou are becoming some of the most compelling voices in horror.