By Ryan Dailey
Upon the first viewing of Bring Her Back, one might say Sam Raimi decided to write a film based on his recent viewings of Fallen and Talk to Me and choose to make the Deadite a child. Only when this reviewer watched the credits was it revealed that Bring Her Back was the follow up to Danny and Micheal Phillippou’s debut offering, which was Talk to Me. Essentially the filmmakers went back to the well and used a different bucket.
When Andy and Piper (Billy Barratt and Sora Wong, respectively) are orphaned after finding their father dead in the shower, Andy just shy of his 18th birthday expresses interest in adopting Piper, as he has been the one mostly helping her deal with her blindness since coming back to his estranged family.
The children fall into the system, being placed with a foster parent until such time that Andy becomes of legal age to start the adoption process. The two are taken in by former child services employee, Laura (Sally Hawkins) after which, the film becomes what can only be best described as sequences from M. Night Shayamalan deleted from his film, The Visit.
The film is a solid one, however, offering enough psychological horror as a result of Laura’s continuous gas lighting of both children as well as the relationship between Piper and Andy, which I will not spoil here.
Gore hounds will not be disappointed either, as there are scenes that made even this grizzled horror movie fan wince in pure shock and disgust, the knife scene being the most prominent.
Sara Wong is one of the high points of the film. At 14 years old, with no professional acting experience and a legitimate sight disability, Sara delivers a performance that is believable as well as natural. Barrat is not to be left out, as he can portray child-like innocence in one scene and transition to a tortured soul on the cusp of manhood, doing his best to keep it together for Piper. Honorable mention goes to Jonah Wren Phillips, who plays the Deadite like Connor. This young actor deserves a spot on the “Scariest Children in Film” wall of fame, right next to Miko Hughes’ Gage from 1989’s Pet Semetary.
Bring Her Back is still solid, managing to mix all of the afore-mentioned film homages into a cohesive, terrifying, white knuckle horror/thriller. For this reviewer, it falls into Longlegs territory, meaning it is an excellent film, no doubt, but one will more than likely only view it once a year or so.
Bring Her Back is currently streaming on HBOMAX.
4 out of 5.