Bring Her Back (2025) | Gaslighting With Kids!

After some critical and financial success with their first film, Talk to Me, brothers, writers, and directors Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou worked together again to make another horror film for everyone’s favorite horror production company, A24. Three years since the release of Talk to Me, their sophomore effort, Bring Her Back, would be another unique story involving ritualistic possession, but it would go in even darker directions. The studio clearly had confidence in the Philippou brothers and gave them a more substantial budget this time around; however, Bring Her Back would not quite see the same level of financial success as their first film. Is that an indication of which film is better, though? The answer might surprise you…or will it?

Image: A24

Pros

• Good acting from the entire cast

• Makeup effects are well done and help sell the damage being done to one character

• Music is effective during the creepy moments and the somber moments

• Some tense scenes and creepy imagery

• Under two hours long

Cons

• Pacing is a little slower than it needs to be

• Backstory of the kids feels a little too convenient for the plot at times

• The plot is rather telegraphed, so you’re kind of waiting for the characters to catch up and figure things out

• Much like Talk to Me, a character is given a little more sympathy than they deserve

Plot & Thoughts

One afternoon, Andy (Billy Barratt) picks up his sister, Piper (Sora Wong), from school. After getting home, they discover their father unconscious, covered in vomit, on the floor in the shower. He had gone through various treatments for cancer, and the kids thought he had fought it off, but that clearly was not the case. A tumor caused a brain bleed, and the kids are suddenly orphaned. Since Andy is not quite old enough to be recognized by the totalitarian police-state government as Piper’s legal guardian, they are sent to live with a foster parent.

Their new guardian, Laura (Salley Hawkins), is quirky, friendly, and overly enthusiastic about having them live with her, seemingly doing her best to make them feel comfortable as quickly as possible. She lost her daughter in an accident some time ago, but she still has her son, Oliver (Jonah Wren-Phillips). Oliver is mute and behaves strangely, slightly putting Andy off and making him suspicious of the situation with how Laura acts around him. Things seem to get off to an okay start among the three of them, despite a few awkward exchanges. Their relationship seems to improve at first, but Laura’s behavior gets more and more suspicious to Andy, and Oliver’s behavior gets weirder and more violent as time goes on. There’s clearly something more to Laura and her intentions, and it has something to do with a videotape she watches alone that has a gruesome ritual recorded on it.

Image: A24

While letting the audience in on details hidden from other characters can often backfire in storytelling, due to how it can make the protagonists seem dumb or clueless, it mostly works for Bring Her Back. It’s not a complicated plot, so it’s pretty easy to predict what Laura's ultimate goal is as an audience member; however, Oliver’s role in everything is not quite clear until much later, so there is enough mystery to keep you engaged. You are still waiting for the characters to catch up and figure out that there are some nefarious things going on with Laura, and that the danger that the kids are in, but they all behave in believable ways that are not your typical idiotic characters of a horror movie.

Where this movie shines is in the acting, direction, and the creepy imagery. Despite having less than a dozen acting credits among Billy Barrat, Sora Wong, and Jonah Wren-Phillips—this is Wong’s acting debut—all the kids do a fantastic job in their roles. Barrat has to convey a multitude of emotions in complicated situations in his portrayal of Andy, a kid who has suffered abuse and is doing his best to hide that past and his vulnerability from everyone. He’s very convincing to the point that I can almost ignore how circumstantial it is that these two kids would end up on Laura’s doorstep. Sora Wong, despite never acting before, does a commendable job as the somewhat naive sister. Jonah Wren-Phillips steals the show, however. He manages to be the creepiest little kid, due in no small part to his performance and the convincing makeup effects applied to him as he gets more and more deranged throughout the film.

Image: A24

In addition to the child actors, Salley Hawkins rounds out the cast. She is an acting veteran, and she manages to make Laura convincingly charismatic and pleasant, despite her ill intentions. In some ways, it’s a little too convincing because there seems to be some intention behind the Phillipou brothers when it comes to how she is portrayed. Talk to Me’s protagonist was a flawed character, too flawed for me to sympathize with her very much; however, the film seemed to be determined to make her actions seem somewhat justified, if not naive and foolish. Laura is, at least, the antagonist in this scenario, but with how the story ends in relation to her goals, and how the music envelops everything in the process, I, once again, get the feeling that the directors want me to feel sympathy for their character. Regardless of how Bring Her Back ends, it’s revealed that Laura has done some pretty awful things, so I wouldn’t have tried to take the same tone.

Regardless of tone or sympathetic intentions, Bring Her Back succeeds more than it falters. It’s a story that moves at a gradual pace without feeling like it’s too slow to get to the point. The mystery surrounding Laura’s intentions, coupled with the dark and complex backstory of Andy, makes for a compelling and engaging experience to keep you interested, even when nothing explicit is happening. It allows the creepy scenes to linger and the gruesome moments to have their significant impacts. The scene involving Oliver at breakfast with Andy is particularly horrifying and shocking, especially due to the sound effects.

TL;DR

While Talk to Me got a lot more attention and was a much bigger financial success, I prefer Bring Her Back. The acting, directing, and music work well together to tell a creepy tale with some unsettling moments and interesting characters. It moves at a slower pace, but it still manages to maintain your interest and keep things on a slight edge until the third act ratchets everything up to a thrilling finale.

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