Danny and Michael Philippou made the unlikely jump from youtube comedy to horror filmmaking to shockingly great success with their debut Talk to Me. A follow up to their breakout is still in the works, but in the meantime we have their sophomore effort Bring Her Back, a film incredibly different but equally effective than what came before. A24 is one again behind them here, but this is much more in the bleak arthouse vein that the studio has become known for on the horror front.
Bring Her Back is a pretty rich film narratively. To put things as simple and spoiler free as possible; the film follows Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), a pair of step-siblings who lose their father to an accident and are sent to a foster home together. They are put into the care of Laura (Sally Hawkins), a strange but seemingly sweet woman who fosters them as well as a mute young boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). Andy struggles with his father's passing, all while Laura's actions become more and more bizarre.
Talk to Me is a film with some deep themes under the surface and some truly scary moments, but it also shuffles in moments where it feels more like a fun slumber party horror. Bring Her Back does not do that even a little bit. The Philippou's follow up is one of the bleakest and frankly saddest horror movies I've seen in a long time, giving small glimpses of emotional hope amidst a sea of darkness. I've seen some argue that this isn't a horror movie, and I'm sorry but I could not agree less. It may not be jump-scare filled scares, but a ton of the middle act of the film is skin-crawlingly gruesome. I also tend to be more scared or uncomfortable when I don't have a grasp of where a film is going, and this is one where I was constantly trying to figure the narrative out. The combination of rough gore with not knowing what's hiding behind the film's corners ultimately got under my skin.
While the Philippous' abilities within the horror genre are a big piece of why this works, the cast is without question the highlight here. Sally Hawkins is damn near revelatory. I know her from more wholesome work from her like Paddington or even Spencer, but this is a performance that just floored me. She is genuinely haunting, luring you in with her seeming kindness only to pull the rug out from under you. It feels as close to Toni Collette's Hereditary performance as we've gotten since and that is a massive compliment. The child performances shocked me even more though. Billy Barratt is magnificent, giving us a flawed but trying his best brother character through a performance that is damn near impossible not to sympathize with. Part of this is how great his chemistry with Sora Wong as Piper is, as the two sell you on the pair of them as siblings who only have each other and it gives everything that happens to them more weight due to how much you care for them. Piper is also blind, giving Andy an even more protective approach with her and also allowing the Philippou's to make some very interesting creative choices to put us into her point of view. The last key performer is Jonah Wren Phillips, and his performance is frankly terrifying. It isn't often you see a child performer forced to take on such a physically unsettling performance but he is truly special here.
It isn't something you necessarily think of amidst a bleak horror movie, but the set design really wowed me. The house the kids move into feels very lived in with different spaces carrying different emotional and thematic weight while also adding to the unnerving feeling of the film. The cinematography and sound also work in tandem to create something constantly stressful but engaging. I also have to highly salute the practical effects, I wasn't expecting too much gore but when it comes it gets bloody gruesome and made me squirm more than once.
While I found its take on grief and commitment to a bleak and unsettling horror, this is a tough recommendation. If you're into that dark A24 style of horror like Hereditary definitely give this a go. But if you're looking for horror more on the entertaining side maybe just stick with Talk to Me. 4/5
Comments
Post a Comment