Bring Her Back

Sally Hawkins

Danny and Michael Philippou's Bring Her Back is the creepiest horror film I've seen in some time, a worthy successor to the brothers' Talk to Me. As in that film, the brothers' success with the juvenile members of the cast is variable. but Sally Hawkins gives a ravening performance as a grieving mother who will stop at nothing to be reunited with her dead daughter. Hawkins plays Laura, a retired therapist who adopts two orphans who have recently lost their father. Twelve years old Piper, who is legally blind, is doted on by Laura, but she treats older teen Andy with disdain. By the time we see Laura dumping her own urine on Andy while he sleeps to make him think he is a bedwetter, we are hip to the fact that something inside Laura doesn't jibe with her happy go lucky facade. That and a remaining child who seems to be catatonic creates a properly sinister atmosphere. The audience waits for Laura to go full bore bonkers and Hawkins and the brothers don't disappoint.

I wasn't fully satisfied with the back story that underpins this flick, but if you are dealing with occult cannibalism then you really cannot produce something that makes rational sense. Like almost all horror, Bring Her Back deals with irrational, unconscious fears. I do wonder if the brothers will ever leave the horror genre and their preferred theme of juvenile trauma. Bring Her Back is a good film on its own terms, but, like Talk to Me, does not transcend its genre. Those with squeamish stomachs should skip this unless they want to indulge in some lunch liberation.