Bring Her Back (2025)

I’m a little indecisive right now as to what exactly this post should be about. The weekend of 6/6/25 - 6/8/25 was actually a little stacked for me. I saw both Bring Her Back (2025) and The Phoenician Scheme (2025) over that weekend, with family for the former and with friends for the latter. In addition to that, I went to see a different friend for dinner in another town after watching The Phoenician Scheme. Writing that down, it does not seem like a lot over a few days, but in my case where I mostly just chill at home, it’s actually quite eventful. The reason I’m unsure as to how to proceed is because I again failed to bring my notebook when seeing both films and neglected to write down my thoughts on my phone after the fact as well. As such I may not be able to go into as much detail as I typically do. That being said though, I think I may just make this post about that weekend in general as well as the thoughts I do have on both films. That may change the further I yap, but that’ll be my plan for now.

On Saturday (6/7/25), I went to see Bring Her Back (2025), the latest horror film from brothers Danny and Michael Philippou of Talk to Me (2022) fame. I began my day giving my car its very first service, oil change specifically. I bought the car as new back in November of 2022 and thanks to my current job where I use a company van, I mainly drive my personal car on weekends (if I decide to go out at all). That is a legit nice perk about the job; if I wasn’t given a company car I definitely wouldn’t be working there. Anyhow, I made plans to watch Bring Her Back later in the day with my younger sister and her boyfriend. I initially wanted to watch the film with my usual group of friends, but due to miscommunication (on my part) I thought it was a no go. My sister was the one that got me to purchase and watch Talk to Me on blu-ray in the first place, so I thought that she would like to watch the Philippou brother’s follow-up feature. We saw the film at “The Ciney” in Victorville, California. I recall the actual auditorium we saw it in was quite small, compared to the usual ones. I imagine with the larger studio fare, like Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning (2025) and especially Lilo & Stitch (2025) taking up most of the showtimes, that’s why this movie got the auditorium that it did. The smaller space was fine, but the projector unfortunately displayed some glitching artifacts throughout the film. The artifacts didn’t really block out crucial visual information, but they occurred frequently enough to call it out, especially because this happened to my friend and his SO when they went to see the same movie, at the same theater, and at the same auditorium (just later in the day). After the film, my group and I went to dinner at Yoshi Sushi (the Victorville location, not the Hesperia one). 

Bring Her Back is a supernatural horror film directed by the Philippou brothers and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman. The film centers around two step siblings, 17-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) and his younger blind step-sister Piper (Sora Wong). After Andy’s father dies, both siblings are placed into foster care, only to find that their new guardian, Laura (Sally Hawkins) may have some occultish designs at play. As I said before, I took no notes after the screening, so I’ll be going over the thoughts that stuck with me. To begin with, the effects in this film are very well done. The film isn’t a wall-to-wall gorefest per se, but the select scenes and setpieces that prominently featured more grotesque and visceral imagery did its job in making me squirm and wince. I’d like to think I have a decent tolerance to on-screen depictions of this sort of thing, but I think what really sells these moments in their ability to shock and disturb is the context of the situation. To elaborate, I’ll use the “pencil scene” from The Evil Dead (1981) as an example. As the name implies, one of the characters, now possessed by demons, takes a pencil and uses it to stab another character in her ankle.

There’s a lot of gore and violence in The Evil Dead, but this scene gets me every time and I feel it’s because of the specific “weapon” and location used. Like I can’t really imagine getting stabbed with a knife, but for whatever reason, I can imagine and feel getting stabbed with a pencil. In regards to Bring Her Back, I feel the film elevates its more violent and grotesque scenes, not just with the specific context of the situation, but with superb attention to detail in its visual and sound effects. Even scenes that aren’t gory still got a good reaction from me because of the sound design and specific context of the situation. From what I read, the film uses prosthetics, courtesy of Australian special effects artist Larry Van Duynhoven. The website Dread Central published an interview with Van Duynhoven that I have not seen just yet, but I’ll link for those interested. The publication Polygon also has an article where the Philippou brothers discuss one of the film’s more difficult to watch scenes that I found insightful as well.      

Moreover, I would also like to highlight the acting as well as the film’s writing. For starters, I feel that performances across the board are great, but I’d specifically like to shoutout both Sally Hawkins as Laura and Sora Wong as Piper. Hawkins does very well in initially playing the seemingly caring & accommodating, if somewhat quirky foster guardian. What makes her performance compelling to me is how we see her become more manipulative and desperate as the mask unravels, only for Laura to rip it and barely keep it together as the film progresses. Sora Wong as Piper gives a great performance considering that this is her debut film, apparently coming off of one school play with no professional acting experience prior, according to an interview with People Magazine. Another thing I’d like to mention is that Sora Wong, similar to her character in the film, has limited sight IRL, something that drew her to audition. I think it’s great that The Philippou’s casted Wong to play Piper and seems to be a continuation of their films putting more diverse characters in lead roles. As far as the writing is concerned, what I mean to say is that I like how this film, like Talk To Me before it, runs the gamut between being a supernatural horror as well as a drama that touches on more somber and heavy themes. Characters feel fleshed out and can range from relatable, sympathetic, and tragic. There are even moments of levity throughout the film, which I always appreciate in horror films. 

I’m gonna go ahead and give Bring Her Back a Best Movie Ever. At the time of writing, I don’t have anything negative to say about the film that aren’t minor nitpicks . We did arrive at the theater late, so I missed the opening before the film’s title card. It sounded pretty intense as we walked in so I want to watch it again to see what I missed. That being said, I probably didn’t need that excuse to watch this film again. I give this a strong recommendation, just prepare yourself if you’re already the kind of viewer that’s put off by gore. It turns out I had more to say about this movie than I initially thought so I’ll finish up here and have my next post be on The Phoenician Scheme instead. Have a good night.