Movie Breakdown: Bring Her Back

Pre-Screening Stance:

I firmly believe that Danny & Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me is one of the best horror films of the last few years, so of course I’m looking forward to their follow up to it. Here’s hoping they hit another home run.

Post-Screening Ramble:

In a lot of ways, Bring Her Back is a pretty direct extension of Talk To Me. It’s not quite as kinetic of a film – there’s much more of a slow build at play here – but just as they did previously, filmmakers Danny & Michael Philippou explore death, grief, and the extreme measures that some might take in order to have one more moment with a lost loved one. Sally Hawkins puts on a dynamic and captivating performance as Laura, a desperate woman who adopts two kids – a blind girl named Piper (Sora Wong) and her stepbrother Andy (Billy Barratt) – and then immediately goes about executing a particularly hellish ritual. As was the case in Talk To Me, the mechanics and history of said ritual aren’t really explained or explored, but the purpose is clear and the results are very gnarly. Seriously, if gore isn’t your thing then be careful with this one – I’m not exactly squeamish but I had a couple of times where I looked away from the screen because it was just that intense.

At any rate, Bring Her Back is absolutely a more than worthy follow up to Talk To Me. It doesn’t quite explode off the screen the same way, but it makes up for it by deftly handling a heavy subject and, of course, delivering some top notch horror. I highly recommend that you give it a go when it hits theaters this Friday, May 30.

One Last Thought:

Danny & Michael Philippou are reportedly in the midst of shaping up Talk 2 Me, which makes a lot of sense for them, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the duo take on a different genre. I’m sure they’d come up with something great.