Now that Ari Aster has gone on to make head-scratching, divisive-to-the-point-of-inciting-violence films with Joaquin Phoenix, it appears Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou (aka the RackaRacka twins) are now assuming the role of A24’s resident dispensers of elevated horror. Even though the duo’s 2022 debut Talk to Me raked in nearly $100 million at the box office, I thought their tale of teens getting their kicks by communicating with the dead via a severed, embalmed hand went off the rails in the third act.
Their new film Bring Her Back sees them improving on their formula of creating heartbreaking horror in which fucked-up things happen visually and narratively. While Talk had one teenage protagonist grieving the loss of a parent, Back has two: stepsiblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), the latter of whom is blind. After discovering their father dead in a shower mishap, the pair is sent to live with Laura (Sally Hawkins), a foster mother and counselor who’s a bit too excited to have Piper in her home. There’s also another foster kid there — the mute, bald, usually shirtless Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips).
Something tells me the Philippou twins are huge fans of the Mike Leigh film Happy-Go-Lucky, which features a career-launching performance from Hawkins as the ultra-chipper main character. Hawkins hits us with the quirkiness at first — she plays her foster mom as tackily dressed and New Age-y, showering Piper with adoration while getting Andy to work out the issues he had with his dad.
But the minute Laura says she’s still grieving the loss of her daughter, who was also blind, we immediately know these siblings are unfortunately going to go through some strange, sordid shit. The shit in question mostly involves two things: a videotape of a skeevy resurrection ritual; and Oliver, who stalks the home looking for anything (food, furniture, dead bodies) to eat.
The Philippou brothers’ smart and scary debut opens this week at Regal and AMC locations
With a script by Danny Philippou and Talk collaborator Bill Hinzman, Back is tonally more in the psycho-thriller vein. Even when rain shows up in the second half, cinematographer Aaron McLisky keeps the visuals dry, dreary and dread-filled. But the twins — who got their start posting bloody spoof videos on YouTube — do not skimp on the stomach-churning gore. There are some gruesome-ass moments of body horror that’ll definitely have audience members clasping their chests in disbelief. (I got a bit of a sick kick watching people get visibly grossed out at the screening I attended.)
Even though you’ll obviously root for the lead teens (the Charlie Tahan-looking Barratt mostly keeps things sullen, while Wong is the film’s lone ray of purehearted sunshine) to figure everything out and get the hell out of this impending nightmare, don’t be surprised if you’re also captivated by Hawkins’ and Phillips’ scary/sad/sympathetic performances. Hawkins exudes enough pitiable gravitas to make you feel empathy for her character, even when she’s doing dastardly shit to win over Piper and make Andy think he’s going mad. As for Phillips, I don’t know where the hell they found this boy, but his dead eyes are convincingly unsettling.
Just as with the Philippous’ last film, Bring Her Back has the directors continuing to create supernatural scare-fests that are more about trauma than terror. Usually, the trauma is the terror. Characters are haunted and scarred way before the horrifying stuff happens, and they end up either letting the pain consume them or finding a way to cope and move forward. In this cinematic horror universe, the spiritual demons that get summoned ain’t got shit on the personal demons people already have. τ
