Bring Her Back
May 27th, 2025
MOVIE: BRING HER BACK
STARRING: BILLY BARRATT, SALLY HAWKINS, SORA WONG, JONAH WREN PHILLIPS
DIRECTED BY: DANNY PHILIPPOU, MICHAEL PHILIPPOU
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 99 MINUTES
Much of the conversation around Danny and Michael Philippou’s latest film, Bring Her Back, centers on one big question: “Is it the scariest movie of the year?” It’s a familiar question every time a new horror movie hits theaters. But horror is deeply subjective—if it scares you, then it’s doing its job. For me, Bring Her Back isn’t just scary—it’s the most disturbing movie of the year. It gripped me with relentless anxiety around life, death, family, grief, and the extremes people go to suppress pain. As a follow-up to their breakout hit Talk to Me, this is a bold, brutal evolution—a chilling and emotionally resonant piece of horror cinema worthy of the praise it’s receiving.
Much like Midsommar, the film opens with a sudden, devastating loss. Teenagers Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) find their father dead in the shower, leaving them orphaned. The situation is further complicated: Piper is blind and requires care, and Andy, not yet 18, becomes her unofficial guardian. They’re soon placed in the foster care of Laura (Sally Hawkins), whose home is isolated, eerie, and full of strange rules. Laura lives with her mute son Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), and the house holds a dark past that slowly unravels as the siblings adjust to their new, unsettling reality.
The pace of Bring Her Back is deliberate, even patient. The Philippou brothers, who also wrote the screenplay, take their time building tension, gradually layering disturbing imagery and dread. Visually and technically, the film is striking, with meticulous sound design and bold cinematography that immerse viewers in a sense of escalating fear. And then there’s Hawkins, who delivers a mesmerizing, unsettling performance. Her character gaslights with surgical precision, cloaking abuse in faux kindness. Once a child care worker and therapist, Laura is a woman shattered by the loss of her child, and her way of coping is terrifying. She keeps secrets buried deep, and as each is unearthed, the film plunges into darker and more harrowing territory.
What makes the Philippous so fascinating is how far they’ve come. Once known for chaotic, stunt-heavy YouTube content under the RackaRacka brand, they’ve reinvented themselves as auteurs with a unique horror voice. Talk to Me was a frenzied, supernatural party about teens communing with the dead. Bring Her Back is quieter and heavier, about the death of innocence and the devastating grip of grief. The two films feel spiritually connected, sharing the same visceral intensity and immaculate craft. But where Talk to Me felt youthful and chaotic, Bring Her Back feels grown-up and deliberate.
As the film unfolds, it becomes increasingly grim—but never hollow. It’s full of soul, especially in Laura’s arc. Her descent is tragic, and anyone who’s experienced a complicated relationship with a mother figure may find something uncomfortably familiar in her story. Bring Her Back begins with loss, descends into psychological horror, and ends with the ache of unresolved grief.
Make no mistake: the Philippou brothers are shaping modern horror alongside auteurs like Ari Aster and Jordan Peele. And with Bring Her Back, they may have delivered their masterpiece.
4 STARS
BRING HER BACK IS PLAYING IN THEATERS FRIDAY, MAY 30TH, 2025.
Written by: Leo Brady
