The Scream Queen

If you were to stumble across the website blackangeltapes.net, then you’d probably assume you’d somehow made your way onto the dark web. From people selling possessed teddy bears to a video of a serial killer ripping a woman’s fingernail off, the site does a good job of making you feel like you shouldn’t be on there in the first place. But this creepy online black market isn’t actually real; it’s a marketing scheme cooked up for new summer horror film Bring Her Back. The second outing for Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, Bring Her Back marks their triumphant return to horror after their debut success Talk To Me in 2022. While Talk To Me explored the world of recreational drug use in youths represented by a paranormal clay hand, Bring Her Back hones in on the dark and strange ways in which we express grief. The narrative follows siblings, older brother Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired younger sister Piper (Sora Wong), who end up being fostered by the odd but seemingly harmless Laura (Sally Hawkins) after the sudden loss of their father. However, Laura, who is also grieving the death of her own visually impaired daughter Cathy, is hiding a dark ritualistic secret involving another child she is fostering, Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips).

* Spoilers ahead!

There are many moments in Bring Her Back that are disturbing enough to elicit genuine, cringe-induced, audibly gasping reactions. There are moments that will make you want to turn away because you know what is about to come, and you really don’t want to see the outcome (i.e. that melon scene). There are moments that are disgustingly gross and skin crawlingly gory. But then, there are the small moments where the Philippou brothers will manage to fill you with heartbreaking empathy. One moment you will be crying because a small child is ripping a large piece of skin from his arm, and the next you will be crying because that same child realises the atrocities he has been through and who he really is. As bleak and depressing as this film may be, there is genuine heart here, conveyed through the coupling of the Philippou’s talent for capturing the human condition and the distinguished performances of the cast, particularly that of Sally Hawkins.

Hawkin’s performance as foster carer Laura is a carefully crafted characterisation of a grieving mother who will above all do anything to be reunited with her dead daughter. As much as she gaslights, kidnaps, and even commits murder throughout the course of the film, she still earns our sympathy by the closing credits due to the small cracks of heartache that Hawkin’s embues within her portrayal of the tragic Laura. As we see her abuse intercut with home videos of her own daughter while she was alive, we understand why she is doing this. With that being said, she is still one eerie antagonist, as you truly never know her next move. One moment, she is gleefully singing along to ‘Alive’ by Empire of the Sun and the next she is pouring urine onto Andy’s lap while he sleeps in an attempt to convince him he is not capable of looking after his sister when he turns 18. Hawkin’s previous roles, particularly that of Mrs Brown in the Paddington movies, allow us to find comfort in her; but as her unhinged eyes dart across the screen, we are reminded that this is far from Paddington. The child actors also do a phenomenal job in portraying the trauma that they have been through, and that of which they are still experiencing. Billy Barratt and Sora Wong are convincing as siblings who have been through the unthinkable, while Jonah Wren Phillips’ delivers a masterclass in creeping round corners, silently depicting the demonic possession that is overcoming him. Like Hawkins, Wren Phillips gives us glances into the person that used to be inside; when he finally remembers who he is and manages to escape, it is an unexpected moment of light in a film that is otherwise filled with despair.

Much like Talk To Me, Bring Her Back swaps traditional jumpscares for more thematically disturbing ideas; but, that does not take away from the film being quintessentially scary. The creepy cult tapes that we see glimpses of at the beginning and then throughout (which can also be seen on the website) are compellingly unnerving; much akin to the website, you get the feeling that you should look away, but know that you cannot. The imagery only becomes more distressing from there, particularly that of the demonic transformation of Ollie, wherein the stunning practical effects are to the highest degree of gross-out. But therein the horror, beauty also prevails, particularly in the final shot of the film, as Laura floats alongside her daughter’s frozen corpse in her pool, police shining their flashlights on the strangely peaceful scene. She is finally reunited, albeit not in the way she imagined, and yet it is so tragic as she remains trapped, literally and figuratively, in this loop of grief she has contained herself within.

Final Verdict:

The Philippou brothers continue to carve out their own unique space within a genre that is overflowing with both schlock and substance (they fall into the latter category). Their style from Talk To Me carries through to this film, as they continue to explore the implications of grief in both gross-out and gut-wrenching ways. Despite its bleakness, Bring Her Back will keep you on edge for the entirety of its runtime; it’s weird, repulsive, and surprisingly sad, but above all it will leave you wanting more of whatever is going on inside the Philippou’s minds’.