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Bring Her Back (2025)

After enjoying Talk To Me, I was intrigued with what Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou would come up with next. The set up is that Piper and Andy are step brother and step sister who after the death of their father are sent to Laura and as Andy is nearly 18 he has three months to show he is responsible to be the legal guardian of Piper. This is a slow build up type film which might put some people off but I like this type of film but it has to feel like it's building up to something and this definitely does, there is something strange happening every so often and then the story progresses. The vast majority of the story takes place in this house which despite being quite big (compared to British houses with this being an Australian house), the film still feels claustrophobic.

This was an 18 certificate film and boy did it deserve that rating. There were about four occasions which made me look away. The first time was by far the worst as it involved Ollie eating the knife with the blade going into his teeth and it cuts away and then back to those teeth which on a huge cinema screen just looked gross. Another instance came when he started tearing strips of his arm as for something to eat and then he tried to eat the wooden dinner table which must have been done as a slightly comedic moment because of how absurd it is.

Sally Hawkins deserves awards for her performance though she probably won't because horror rarely gets nominated. There is something off with her from the very moment we see her and as the film progresses she becomes unhinged. It is difficult to fully hate her because even though what she is doing is terrible, she is doing it to bring back her deceased daughter so there are mixed emotions when it comes to how I should feel about Laura and her actions. Billy Barrett and Sora Wong are very good together as two people who are looking after each other and want to be together. Even when Andy is framed for attacking Piper, there is a sense that she doesn't 100% believe that he did it. Despite being visually impaired, Sora Wong more than holds her own and her fight scene with Sally Hawkins was unexpected although it felt like the shaky cam was used to hide things but I thought that Wong was very good as was Jonah Wren Phillips who is front and centre of the story and if anyone deserved your sympathy then is Ollie who has been kidnapped and used to effectively bring Laura’s dead daughter back to life. His own life ruined and its hard to believe that if/when Cathy knew the truth she would be happy with what happened.

Talk To Me is the film you make when you want to get noticed in a crowded horror genre, Bring Her Back is what you make when you want to show that your first film wasn't a one hit wonder. I had high expectations and they were met. It does everything that a horror film should do. I saw this immediately after the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot and one of these films had tension, horrific moments, tension, a great story and performances ... .and the other is the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. When people talk about how good horror films have been in 2025 and in the last couple of years then they should talk about this film because not only is it horrific and very good, but its an original story and not based on an existing IP. Definitely worth your time.

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