Aussie horror twins return with the mother of all evil

MA15+, 104 minutes

3 stars

The Australian Philippou twins - Michael and Danny - burst onto the horror scene with Talk to Me (2022). It was a well-made and vivid movie, by no means just a gory frightfest, in which dealing with death and grief played a big part.

This movie - like the first, written by Danny Philippou with Bill Hinzman - has some similar themes but the story is quite different. The horror is far from being just supernatural and all the more unnerving for it. Bring Her Back is aiming to run emotionally deeper than its predecessor did and, while I had some reservations, it's an impressive achievement.

There's a prologue in which some kind of bizarre, possibly occult, ritual is being undertaken. There will be more about that later. Then we move into a seemingly more mundane, if tragic, situation.

After the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his sight-impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) are going to be separated in foster care: Andy's troubled past makes him hard to place. But he pleads with their caseworker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) not to split them up as he turns 18 in three months and will take on Piper's guardianship then.

He gets his way, but had he known what was in store he might have reconsidered.

British actress Sally Hawkins plays Laura, their foster mother. While casting a foreign performer in an Australian movie often feels like a bid for international appeal, Hawkins is brilliant in the role. Among other roles, she played Mrs Brown in the first two Paddington movies but she's a very different kind of mother here.

It doesn't take long to feel there is something a bit off about Laura, who lives in a house out of town. While at first glance she seems cheerful and slightly eccentric, it doesn't take long before cracks appear in the veneer, revealing something more than unpleasant underneath.

Laura fusses and fawns over Piper but treats Andy in a far more perfunctory way. She's aggressively nosy, not just politely curious, and some of her behaviour is worse than inappropriate. It's creepily fascinating and more than a little uncomfortable to watch.

And who is that strange, bald little boy with the haunting eyes who's standing in the middle of the unfilled pool in the backyard? Oh, that's Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), Laura explains, another of her kids. He's selectively mute. Oh, and he's not allowed out, so he's locked in his room when nobody else is home. Nothing to worry about.

The film could just about have forgone the supernatural elements - which aren't explained in exhaustive detail - and worked as a dark thriller about obsession and loss and the extremes to which people will go when devastated. But the spooky elements, not overexplained, add their own frissons and we get more than enough to know that something is very, very wrong. The kids are not there out of the goodness of Laura's heart.

Barratt and Wong make you care about the step-siblings and their relationship and you don't want anything bad to happen to them. But given this is a horror movie, the chances are high that something will. Wren Phillips is a haunting and disturbing presence and he and his character undergo a lot.

The production design and cinematography are excellent, as are the sometimes gross visual and practical effects (consider yourself warned).

Flaws? Well, there's a big information dump towards the end of the movie and a couple of credibility gaps: a mobile phone that's always open so anyone can access the contents (and an owner who takes no security measures) and characters who put up with far more than seems credible before taking any action.

Others won't be as fussed as I was about much of this and, regardless, the film is definitely worth seeing. It will be interesting to see what the Philippous come up with next.