We ask a lot from our horror movies, which is perhaps the main reason they can be so divisive, and so difficult to get right. We want them to shock, but not traumatize; to disgust, but not sicken; to creep us out, but not bequeath a month’s worth of nightmares. On top of all that, can we please have some jokes?
Instead of stressing over these pressures, some genre filmmakers, a number of them women, are determinedly carving their own idiosyncratic paths. Among these are the Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who have followed their wonderfully disquieting debut feature, “Talk to Me” (2023), with another three-word imperative, “Bring Her Back.” The two movies have more in common than their titular grammar: Both draw sustenance and momentum from familial grief, and both exhibit an extraordinary sensitivity toward their emotionally flayed central characters.
When we meet Andy (Billy Barratt) and his younger stepsister, Piper (Sora Wong), Andy’s father has just died and the siblings must be fostered for three months until Andy can assume guardianship of Piper, who is legally blind. At first, their temporary foster mother, Laura (a delicious Sally Hawkins), seems welcoming, if a little dippy, her somewhat rundown property boasting a taxidermied pup, a mysterious chalk circle and a strange little boy who is mute and near-feral. His name is Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips, incredible) and I could write several paragraphs just on what he puts in his mouth. Suffice to say that, during one horrifying episode, I didn’t exhale until it was over.
Even so, the movie’s forceful visual shocks (executed mostly with practical effects) are easier to bear than its restlessly mounting anguish. Though more logically muddled than its predecessor, “Bring Her Back” operates from a core of tragedy whose weight offsets the nebulousness of the plot. Why is Laura, who recently lost her own daughter, so determined to drive a wedge between Piper and her fondly protective stepbrother? Why is she mesmerized by grainy camcorder footage of what appears to be a bloody satanic ritual? Why must Ollie be kept locked in his room and apparently starved?
Answers will arrive, after a fashion, but they don’t matter as much as they should in a movie with such sublime lead performances. Hawkins knows exactly how to play Laura’s cheery psychopathy and cunning cruelties, and Wong, in her first film role, gives Piper a spirited independence. But it’s Barratt, with his angelic features and soulful authenticity, who makes Andy the film’s gently gaping wound. Barratt was barely a teenager when he appeared in the smashing Apple TV+ show “Invasion” (2021-25), but his talent was undeniable, and the Philippous, working once again with the brilliant cinematographer Aaron McLisky, understand perfectly how to film him for maximum hurt.
Supernatural fidgeting aside, “Bring Her Back” doubles down on its predecessor’s willingness to punish the innocent. I’m beginning to think that the Philippous don’t just want to shatter our nerves: They want to break our hearts.
Bring Her Back
Rated R for weaponized urine, gobbled kitchenware and something unthinkable in the freezer. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters.
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