Bring Her Back

"Family requires sacrifices."

2025 1h 44m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 1,994

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Following the death of their father, a brother and sister are sent to live with a foster mother, only to learn that she is hiding a terrifying secret.

“Family requires sacrifices.”

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Cast

Billy Barratt
Andy
Sally Hawkins
Laura
Mischa Heywood
Cathy
Jonah Wren Phillips
Oliver
Stephen Phillips
Phil
Sally-Anne Upton
Wendy
Sora Wong
Piper
Kathryn Adams
Anna

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Philippou
Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Languages: English
Countries: Australia, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Philippou, shot by Aaron McLisky. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cornel Wilczek. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Geoff Lamb shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Billy Barratt and Sally Hawkins and Mischa Heywood carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Family requires sacrifices.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt32246771 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Philippou directs. Aaron McLisky behind the camera. Cornel Wilczek scores. Geoff Lamb cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Australia, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released last year.
2International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.
3Directed by Michael Philippou, shot by Aaron McLisky. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Cornel Wilczek. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Geoff Lamb shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Billy Barratt and Sally Hawkins and Mischa Heywood carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Family requires sacrifices.".
8IMDB entry: tt32246771 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has 6 community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
10Classified under 16 themes, including "sibling relationship", "ritual", "supernatural", "death of father".
11Released under 17 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Aaron McLisky
Original score: Cornel Wilczek
Editing: Geoff Lamb
Production design: Vanessa Cerne
Makeup / hair: Mariel McClorey
VFX supervisor: Francesco Cadoni
Sound: Cameron Grant
Stunt coordinator: Judd Wild
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $15,000,000
Box office: $39,410,222
Return: 263% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Bring Her Back (2025)

Also by

Michael Philippou

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Chris Sawin2025-06-01
★ 8/10
From Australian twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me), Bring Her Back follows brother and sister Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong). Piper is mostly blind (she can see shapes and colors) and Andy has taken care of her for as long as they can both remember. When Andy and Piper’s father dies suddenly, they are adopted by a woman named Laura (Sally Hawkins). Laura has a mute son named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) and had a daughter who was also blind and is still grieving her death. What begins as an awkward transition during tragedy becomes an abhorrent struggle for survival as Andy and Piper eventually uncover what Laura has planned for them. Talk to Me was a riveting horror debut by the Philippou brothers/RackaRacka and had the benefit of being injected with the incredible concept of chasing the high that comes with being possessed. Bring Her Back is a bit more familiar as it deals with a woman attempting to bring her daughter back to life in the body of a similar vessel. Cinematographer Aaron McLiskey and sound effects editors Lachlan Harris and Lee Yee deserve a ton of credit for making certain elements of Bring Her Back look and feel like someone with impaired vision is experiencing them. Visually, the film often focuses on what’s taking place in the foreground while the background is blurry with just enough movement for the brain to piece together what’s occurring. When Piper and Andy are in Wendy’s (Sally-Anne Upton) office, the woman in charge of placing them in the foster care system, the first thing you see and hear are the bracelets on Wendy’s wrist as she types. In the sequence when Andy is driving Piper to Laura’s house for the first time the visor is down during a sunny day. Andy notices that Piper can’t see or feel the warm color of the day and puts the visor up, which sees an immediate change in Piper’s behavior and body language. Andy and Piper find their deceased father in the shower, which results in Andy having a traumatic response to showers throughout the rest of the film. During their father’s wake and every time Andy considers taking a shower, Andy has a panic attack. Andy breathes heavily and understandably looks shaken during these sequences, but it’s highlighted by the way the sounds of the world are muffled by his accelerating heartbeat. The concept of the film is that the living situation with Laura is meant to only be a temporary thing. In three months, Andy will be old enough to apply to be Piper’s guardian. Laura, who has slowly been figuring out a way to bring her daughter back this whole time seemingly waiting for a blind girl to end up in the local foster system, meets the siblings with mind games the minute they walk in the door. Like Talk to Me, Bring Her Back is jarring and relentless at times with unsettling moments going a step beyond what would be physically comfortable. Oliver’s moment in the kitchen with the knife is a solid example. The highlight of the film is Sally Hawkins's performance. Hawkins has never shied away from challenging films, but Bring Her Back is her first interaction with the genre and she delivers in every way imaginable. Laura is a nasty character with one goal in mind and Hawkins's performance blurs the line between pure terror and actual empathy for her. While Laura downright murders people in Bring Her Back and commits all these heinous acts, she is still a mother who has never gotten over losing the person she cared about the most in this world. And part of you still feels sorry for her by the end of the film. The juxtaposition of what Laura is presenting as a seemingly caring foster mother and the dark ritual she’s planning for Piper is somewhat disappointing. Knowing Laura’s intentions so early on in the film (it’s given away in the title and all of the marketing of the film) makes some of the slower moments in the film feel a bit longer than they should. How the film slowly reveals what’s going on with Oliver is a bit more satisfying. There’s a palpable tension early on where Laura seems like she could either be a gypsy-like character that dabbles in some sort of dark arts or just has a weird infatuation with the dead but cares about the well-being of Andy and Piper. Riding that tension a little bit longer where the film could have felt like it could have gone either way may have had a better payoff. It feels like modern horror films, especially the ones from this year, give a peek behind the curtain too soon and you’re left riding this varying wave of monotony. Bring Her Back is another mesmerizing effort from the Phillipou brothers with gnarly sequences that teeter on being fully gruesome. Sally Hawkins portrays a nurturing nightmare of a motherly figure to terrifying perfection.
Dean2025-07-13
★ 8/10
Wasn't expecting such a great horrow show from Australia. It's quite gruesome. Well done.
hamfaceman2025-08-14
★ 7/10
Decent trauma horror. Chewing scene was great! Go ahead and put this ham on your face as you may need it to cover your eyes in some scenes.