SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains some spoilers for the new horror movie Bring Her Back. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
We are still less than halfway through the year 2025, and yet it feels wholly appropriate to expect that no movie released between now and the end of December will match the extreme intensity of Bring Her Back. A mix of the unrelenting grim atmosphere and painful body horror make it a cinematic experience you can’t help but squirm through. Albeit in much darker fashion, it’s the second time that twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou have unleashed such a nightmare, the feature being their second after their critically acclaimed 2023 feature debut Talk To Me, and it raises the question: how do they know when they’ve pushed things too far?
As captured in the video above, I had the pleasure of interviewing the directors and young stars of Bring Her Back last month during the film’s Los Angeles press day, and I asked the Philippou brothers about how they meter their sensibilities in relation to the audience. They are aware that their work pushes movie-goers, and it’s something that is kept in mind both in the writing of the script and during post production. Said Danny Philippou,
You sort of modulate that with like the script and the edit as well. You get to find where you feel like it's too far and you balance that out. And we've got an amazing producer named Samantha Jennings that helps us there as well. It's just something you feel out in the writing and the editing process.
Tipping a cap to one of their collaborators is notable, as it acknowledges that what the Philippous can stomach in the content of their movies is perhaps not what everybody can stomach. For example, in the making of Talk To Me, they had to cut down the sequence where Mia glimpses into hell because they were told it wouldn’t get past ratings boards. In their words,
Michael Philippou: I think our line is probably further than normal people.
Danny Philippou: It was pretty far.
As expressed in my four-and-a-half star Bring Her Back CinemaBlend review, the film is a lot to take, but it’s brilliant in its execution. I’m a veteran horror fan who is simultaneously disgusted and elated watching the sequence where Oli chews on the chef’s knife, as it sent me jumping out of my chair. I also just can’t laud the counter-chewing scene enough (that sound design!).
Bring Her Back is a special experience brought to life by filmmakers with a special and horrifying vision, and I’m beyond excited to see everything that they have in the works (including Talk To Me 2). Starring Sally Hawkins, Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, and Jonah Wren Phillips, the A24 release is now playing in theaters everywhere, and every genre fan should make great strides to not miss it.
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