Bring Her Back

The Philippou Brothers are back.

For those fearing that their debut film 'Talk To Me" was a fluke, rest easy.

Or maybe not sleep well for quite a few nights after watching their excellent, dark new meditation on death, BRING HER BACK.

Many of the steps that his film takes are as ballsy as modern horror gets. It never flinches in delivering a modern Frankenstein tale beautifully melded into a meditation of grief.

A tricky subject, deftly handled.

The reliably great Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Blue Jasmine) stars as Laura, the boisterous, hippie owner of a foster home in the Australian countryside.

Her latest two short-term guests are a recently orphaned brother and sister, Andy and Piper. Andy (a terrific Billy Barratt) is 17 with a shadow of a violent past haunting him. He is a caring and attentive guardian to his sister Piper (newcomer Sora Wong, who had no acting experience before the film) a partially blind teenager who can only see light and shadows, but refuses to be defined by that issue.

The two are inseparable after dealing with an unexpected death in their own home, graphically revealed in all too realistic fashion.

Laura's home is an eclectic mess. Loud, caring, tender and in-your-face.

The only other current resident is Oliver, a young, mute, strange looking young boy. His face is scarred, his eyes vacant, his voice silent.

Laura's swimming pool is nearly empty.

That shed in the back yard is well locked.

I'll reveal nothing else as Danny and Michael Philippou tease and pull you in with reveal upon reveal. This isn't the gentle pulling back of an onion. They gnash one secret back after another, ripping plenty of flesh and boundaries along the way.

Hawkins is explosive as a caring woman twisted by loss and grief. Her character is almost impossible to define, but feels hauntingly real.

This one will stick with me for a long time.

Sally-Anne Upton is a treat as Wendy, the agency person who's worked with Laura for decades and thinks that Andy and Piper are in good hands.

Some of the most harrowing scenes feature grisly events that are made even more so by the sound effects team that make you feel every knife & tooth.

The scene in which Andy lets Ollie out of his room and decides to give him some melon left my jaw literally dropped.

The Philippou Brothers are the real deal, proving once again in their second feature film that there are no boundaries they won't cross in their storytelling.

Their style of horror is taboo busting, flesh tearing and heart breaking at the same time.

The stunning finale is paralyzing as it portrays the torture of loss and grief on a grand scale that somehow feels initimate. This is filmmaking that threads a needle between horror and drama and then plunges that needle deep into your soul.

BRING HER BACK took me to hell and back. What a trip.

Horrifying and deeply rooted, it gets an A.