{"id":31380,"date":"2025-05-29T14:24:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T21:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=31380"},"modified":"2025-05-29T14:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T21:24:47","slug":"bring-her-back-chills-to-the-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=31380","title":{"rendered":"BRING HER BACK Chills to the Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 99 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This feature from A24 opens exclusively at cinemas on May\n30th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Australian twin filmmakers Danny and Michael\nPhilippou scored a surprise hit with \u201cTalk to Me,\u201d a little $4-million-dollar\nindependent horror feature that went on to gross over $90 million worldwide.\nThankfully, their follow-up is not a sequel, but another original tale filled\nwith chills and a palpable sense of dread. \u201cBring Her Back\u201d is anything but a\nfeel-good summer movie, but that isn\u2019t its intent and it is a memorably\nunsettling moviegoing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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17-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) is a high school student\nwho spends much of his time caring for his visually impaired 12-year-old\nsister, Piper (Sora Wong). One day, they discover their father dead in the\nshower. After the traumatic incident, Andy is informed that he can\u2019t file the\npaperwork and assume custody of Piper until he turns 18. The two are told they\nwill be placed in foster care, and that the young man can proceed with his\nrequest in a few months. They are taken to a secluded home, where they meet\neccentric guardian Laura (Sally Hawkins) and Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a\nmute child under her care. The foster mother attempts to connect with the pair\nby revealing that she has also experienced a tragic loss, that of her teenage\ndaughter. While Laura makes a personal connection with Piper, she and Andy butt\nheads. It soon becomes clear the guardian has complete control over their\nfuture, and as events escalate, may also have something dastardly in mind for\nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film is being sold as a possession thriller, but that\nelement of the story is secondary to the drama involving loss, grief, and the\nbattle between Andy and Laura over Piper\u2019s care. This is a horror movie, but\nthe most chilling events all involve tense interactions between the residents\nin this closed-off environment. Virtually all of the central characters have\nlost important people in their lives, and the filmmakers do an excellent job\nearly on of establishing them and presenting their psychological states with\nmore depth than one might anticipate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy\u2019s relationship with his father (and, to a degree,\nsister) is far more complicated than it initially appears. As Laura slowly\nundermines the teenage boy and becomes a more and more intimidating force, one\ncan see the horrific lengths that she is willing to go through to get what she\nwants. Her behavior is both surprising and unsettling. Memorable bits involve\nan unusual request at the funeral for the deceased, and a surprising reveal\ninvolving some secret nighttime activities. Moments with young Oliver are\nespecially unsettling, as the youngster unexpectedly acts out in shocking ways\n(including a horrifying act of self-mutilation). None of these scenes are easy\nto forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of these shocks could easily have been overplayed, but\nthere is a grounded approach to the story and performances that make them\nconvincing. Hawkins is an Oscar-winner who always gives exceptional\nperformances, and really gives her all to the role. It\u2019s very interesting to\nwatch the performer, who often plays introverted characters, become more\noutwardly threatening in this feature. And the younger cast members are equally\nexceptional. All the performances are convincing, allowing the story to eventually\ngo to even darker places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, the film\u2019s most effective elements do come\nfrom the disturbing games being played by Laura on her foster teen, perhaps\nbecause they feel more relatable and realistic. So much so, that the finale,\nwhich features the potential for the supernatural, almost doesn\u2019t seem\nnecessary. And, as many may have already noticed, one should be warned that the\npsychological and physically distressing things the young characters are put\nthrough can be hard to watch, especially for parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not an upbeat horror feature that ends on an\nadrenaline-filled high, but that isn\u2019t what these filmmakers are going for. In\nthis story, loss, despair and guilt clearly pushes all of these characters to\ntheir absolute limits, only to meet with more grief and suffering. One can\u2019t\ndeny that the atmosphere and uncomfortable air that permeates the entire film\nis the work of expert filmmaking. \u201cBring Her Back\u201d<\/em> wants to rattle\nviewers and does so with considerable ease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 99 minutes This feature from A24 opens exclusively at cinemas on May 30th. In 2023, Australian twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou scored a surprise hit with \u201cTalk to Me,\u201d a little $4-million-dollar independent horror feature that went on to gross over $90 million worldwide. Thankfully, their follow-up is not a sequel, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":31384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[216,2056,2749,3546,3547,3548,3549,5181,9319,10982,13823,17539,18727,19420,22825],"class_list":["post-31380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-216","tag-australia","tag-billy-barratt","tag-bring-her-back","tag-bring-her-back-film-review","tag-bring-her-back-movie-review","tag-bring-her-back-review","tag-danny-philippou","tag-horror","tag-jonah-wren-phillips","tag-michael-philippou","tag-sally-hawkins","tag-sora-wong","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}