Bring Her Back is the sophomore outing for Australian directing duo Danny and Michael Philippou. Their first film Talk to Me was a strong critical success with a 94% tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes while also garnering an 83% on the popcornmeter. It also managed to gross almost $100M worldwide on a budget of less than $5M, providing another example of successful low-budget horror films with strong creative direction.
Most debuts with that level of success these days in Hollywood lead to a big second movie. See Damien Chazelle’s upgrade from a $3M budget for Whiplash to a $30M budget for La La Land. For an even more extreme example, Gareth Edwards debuted with a $500K budget film Monsters and followed it up with Godzilla which cost $160M. The Philippou brothers have taken it a bit slower here. Although they have upped the budget to $15M, it is a modest upgrade and remains a very indie project that seems personal rather than a Hollywood glow up. And I mean that in the best way possible.
Bring Her Back is the horror movie that follows two teenagers who, after their single father passes away in an accident, find themselves in the middle of an occult ritual led by their new foster mother. The plot itself is not a surprise in any way given the title and the setup very early in the film. Much in the trend of recent great horror films, it finds its voice more in the experience and the psychological tension than being outright trying to scare you with what is on screen.
Point 1: Grief Hits Hard
A trend I’ve noticed lately more than before within and across genres and media in what seems to link many of the great things together is the theme of grief. If we look just within the new “elevated horror” genre that has tried to differentiate itself from the more traditional horror films that rely on scares more than deeper emotions, we can count on films like The Babadook, Hereditary, Annihilation, or even the Philippous’ previous film Talk To Me, there is a strong theme of grief that makes them land. Even across genres, a film like Thunderbolts is very much about processing grief, among other things. And then we look across media, currently popular TV shows like the Last of Us and Severance use this theme a lot as well as recent successful video games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Split Fiction are heavily built on it.
This is in no way a criticism because I like all the above properties, but it’s interesting to see how it’s such a strong universal feeling to relate to that many of the best things being put out deal with it. However, what sets all of them apart is how differently they all explore it and that helps them all feel fresh and hit hard despite on the surface feeling like we’re redoing the same things.
Even within Bring Her Back, the characters are all processing their own grief and have complex relations with it. While one person is struggling to get over the mixed feelings of losing someone, another is so averse to moving on that their whole life is consumed by the loss. It was a clever writing decision to put two grieving sides in the story to contrast how they experience similar experiences. Although there is a clear extreme version of this process on one side, the film never vilifies the root cause of it.
You may not come out of the film terrified, but you will definitely feel something for the characters as this tragic story unfolds. What really sells it too are the great performances from the 4 actors that are in the film. Sally Hawkins is of course great, but the younger actors all do incredible jobs in roles that demand a big range.
Point 2: Another Win for Low Budgets
Although the budget for this tripled from Talk To Me, this still is a low budget film compared to most of what is put out there. This is definitely a talking point I belabour a lot, but I’m nothing if not on brand, so I’m going to point it out again.
We don’t need to be spending unfathomable amounts of money on movies. Is every movie possible to make at $15M? No, of course not. But the pendulum has swung too far the other way where more movies that don’t need it are being made with high budgets, and to me that’s a problem on many fronts. A movie I even enjoyed recently in The Gorge on Apple TV+, which is a B movie with literally two people in it and didn’t release in theatres, cost reportedly $70M. Sure there are sci-fi elements that require more effects work than a movie like Bring Her Back, but the scale of the budget is a symptom of the problem right now.
These smaller budget films often have a lot more heart and personality behind them and like the movies I mentioned in the intro, Bring Her Back is no different. Talk To Me and now this have a lot of overlapping themes and you can tell that these types of stories are strong drivers for the directors. Seeing passion on screen feels a lot less sterile and moving when done on a limited budget because it’s like squeezing blood from a stone and you really need to get everything right. This is yet another example of why we need to try to scale back projects to lower budgets where creativity shines. Money should be well spent, not just greatly spent.
Point 3: Homage Is Where the Heart Is
If you are a horror fan, you will have a lot of moments in this film where you point at the screen because a shot reminds you of another movie. If you didn’t think so already from Talk To Me, the Philippous are clearly big horror fans and not just tourists of the genre.
I won’t ruin them all, but it will be hard not to notice homages to a film like Poltergeist with how often there are shots of someone watching the TV and you see the back of their head in front of the glow of the screen. Other classic films have callbacks too, but I’ll let you discover them for yourself so you too can point at the screen in recognition.
That’s not to say that this film relies on those though. There are plenty of places where the directors have found a way of spicing up the way they shot what otherwise could be mundane scenes. Again, I won’t give it away, but one such example that stood out to me was a car whose side mirror falls off and then later when someone is hurriedly backing up that car, the camera is pointed at the mirror on the ground rather than directly at the car.
It’s a small thing, but every small move you make to add a layer to a shot that has been done a million times is something that elevates what you’re watching from a run of the mill to something you sit up to watch. Many other such examples in the film too. I feel like we’re in just their second movie seeing a clear creative language forming and an identity that will carry over to future projects that I’m very much looking forward to watching.
Point 4: The Internet Strikes Again
Even ahead of the movie’s release, a lot of chatter had seeped out about the gore and disgusting content in it. It’s good to know these things ahead of an experience because many don’t deal well with those things. But it became such a big talking point that even I started thinking well maybe this won’t be for me. I’m not big on gore personally. I’m the type of person who covers their eyes when there’s medical scenes on TV (pray for me ahead of watching The Pitt). I don’t like bodily fluid stuff either. It was a concern but having really liked Talk To Me, I decided to give this a chance.
And let me tell you – it’s really not that bad at all. Sometimes, the internet is good to help you know what you’re getting into. And sometimes, the internet blows things out of proportion. This isn’t The Exorcist or any Eli Roth film or anything like that. Is there gore? Sure, yes. But it’s on the level of something like Hereditary where there are a couple of scenes where something gory happens, but they don’t last that long and are far from being gratuitous.
So in case you were concerned or if you were looking forward to it FOR the gore, just know that there isn’t actually that much. It’s on par with the average horror film. Just wanted to set the record straight.
Overall, I thought Bring Her Back was a great film and definitely is likely to be a standout horror of the year. The type of horror here is exactly what I like – emotional and psychological rather than a jump scare fest – and I’m glad to see that there was no sophomore slump here from the Philippous. If you’re a horror fan, I think this is a must see ASAP.
