Where much of Australia’s film industry is centered in the big cities on the country’s east coast, Danny and Michael Philippou proudly represent South Australia. The twin brothers set and filmed their debut horror film Talk to Me in that state’s capital city of Adelaide, and now they’ve gone to the city’s suburb of Leawood Gardens for Bring Her Back. The area itself is unremarkable, but the brothers want us to know that they developed their craft hundreds of miles away from Sydney and Melbourne and don’t intend to forget their home as they place their movies in multiplexes across the globe. As for Bring Her Back, it shows the Philippous’ talent for convulsive images amid stories driven by grief, but it’s such a mess that you can only hope this was rushed into production before they could work out the kinks.
The film begins with 17-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) and his legally blind stepsister Piper (Sora Wong) finding their father (Stephen Philips) dead after he slips in the shower and hits his head. Piper is assigned to a foster mother named Laura (Sally Hawkins) who takes in special-needs kids, but Andy has to beg and plead not to be separated from her. Just like the Karate Kid sequel this week, this movie’s characters are all dealing with loss, but unlike in the Hollywood movie, that feeling permeates every scene. Laura had a blind biological daughter (Mischa Heywood) who drowned in the backyard swimming pool, which is why she keeps her pool dry now. She’s taking care of a boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Philips) who has gone mute since losing his entire family. She tells Andy, “I’d give anything to hear [my daughter] call me ‘Mum’ one more time.” That is truer than he can possibly know.
The ingenious bit about this horror film is its misdirection. You can’t tell which of the four people in this house are the threat and which are in need of rescue. Laura goes through Andy’s phone mere hours after he arrives at her house, she takes Oliver into the forest late at night with a shovel, and she locks Oliver in his room when she leaves him home alone. Then again, Oliver puts his fist through a glass window, and when Andy tries to take him to a hospital, the boy goes into convulsions when he crosses a chalk line that goes around the house. Andy himself has visions of his dad’s decomposing corpse in the house, and he’s desperately trying to keep Piper from discovering the truth about him. The details that signal something wrong in Laura’s house don’t point toward any one person.
That does keep us in suspense, but the story elements are even looser than they were in Talk to Me. Laura secretly watches VHS tapes of murderous rituals from years past, and how she came into possession of these or into contact with the people in them is never explained. The same goes for why she’s keeping Oliver prisoner, or how Laura keeps the stuff in her house a secret from the authorities. It’s more understandable why her cat is scared to death of the kid — he’s creepy — but that doesn’t pay off in any solid way. While Piper’s visual impairment ought to be an interesting handicap for a slasher-movie final girl, here it just seems like a plot convenience, since a child who could see the things in Laura’s house would be running for the hills.
Even so, the British Oscar nominee Hawkins does some great work late in the film when we see how far Laura has truly gone. The Philippous remain wildly talented with special effects on a budget, as they show rain acting in unnatural ways when it hits the windows of the house, as well as Oliver mutilating himself with a kitchen knife to Andy’s great horror. Maybe the Philippous’ storytelling skills will catch up with their flair for visuals. Maybe it’ll happen with the sequel that they’ve mooted for Talk to Me. Let’s hope it happens soon.
Bring Her Back
Starring Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, and Sora Wong. Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou. Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman. Rated R.
