Bring Her Back

Bring Her Back
US theatrical release poster
Directed by	Danny Philippou Michael Philippou
Written by	Danny Philippou Bill Hinzman
Produced by	Samantha Jennings Kristina Ceyton
Starring	Billy Barratt Sora Wong Sally Hawkins
Cinematography	Aaron McLisky
Edited by	Geoff Lamb
Music by	Cornel Wilczek
Production companies	Causeway Films RackaRacka
Distributed by	Stage 6 Films (through Sony Pictures Releasing International)
Release date	29 May 2025 (2025-05-29) (Australia)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	US$15 million
Box office	$15.1 million

Bring Her Back is a 2025 Australian supernatural horror film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou and written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman. Produced by Causeway Films and RackaRacka, in association with Salmira Productions and South Australia Film Corporation, the film stars Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, and Sally Hawkins. The plot follows two step-siblings who are placed in the middle of an occult ritual to bring their foster mother's daughter back to life.

Bring Her Back was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Releasing International in Australia on 29 May 2025, and by A24 in North America on the following day. It received positive reviews from critics.

Plot

17-year-old Andy and his younger stepsister Piper are placed in foster care after finding their father dead in the shower from complications after chemotherapy. Their foster parent is Laura, an eccentric former counselor, who has taken in her mute nephew Oliver. Laura tells them her daughter Cathy, who was visually impaired like Piper, drowned in the backyard pool. Andy is unsettled by Laura, her clear preference for Piper, and Oliver's strange behavior.

At the kids’ father's funeral, Laura tells Andy that some believe the soul lingers in the body after death. She pressures Andy to kiss his dead father on the lips despite his protests. Laura secretly snips hair off their father's corpse and pockets it. That night, Laura gives the kids alcohol, and Andy reveals their father was abusive toward him but affectionate toward Piper, which left him resentful. Laura says she would give anything to hear Cathy call her "mum" again.

The next day, Andy lets Oliver out of the locked bedroom, who tries to eat a chef's knife. When Andy tries to take him to the hospital, they cross over a white circle surrounding the house and Oliver convulses violently. Laura returns in a panic and calms him by rubbing his head in a circular motion, a technique from a VHS tape depicting disturbing rituals from a demonic cult. Oliver briefly begs for help but is forced back into a trancelike state. In her bedroom, Laura observes disturbing videos on the VHS of the cult's activity, including making a circular pattern that calms the demons. She feeds Oliver the hair she snipped at the funeral. That night, Andy attempts to shower, something he struggles with after being traumatized by their father's death, and hallucinates his father's dead body while showering. His father warns Andy to not allow Piper outside in the rain. Shocked, Andy slips and is concussed.

In the hospital, he pleads with Laura not to let Piper leave the house, fearing she'll die. Laura brings him his body spray and promises to keep Piper inside, but she ignores him and takes Piper to the padlocked shed. She attempts to treat Piper the same way Cathy was treated, by dressing Piper up in Cathy's clothes, asking her to stay and live with her, and telling her to call her “mum” if she wants to. She takes Piper to a freezer in the shed containing Cathy's preserved corpse, allowing her to touch the frozen body.

Andy's incessant bed-wetting is revealed to be from Laura urinating in a cup and pouring it onto Andy while he sleeps, and his deep sleeping is revealed to be Laura tampering with his protein shakes. It's revealed that Cathy's body and Oliver are part of a demonic resurrection ritual, as demonstrated from the cult's tapes. It requires a demon-possessed vessel to consume a corpse, then vomit the remains into a freshly killed body that died in the same way. Laura plans to drown Piper to replicate Cathy's death and use Oliver to complete the ritual. After Andy is discharged, Laura covers herself with Andy's body spray and punches Piper in her sleep, blames Andy for the assault, and tries to turn Piper against him. Piper is unable to tell who assaulted her, but recognizes Andy's scent. Laura argues that Andy is abusive just like his father was, that he hurt Piper out of jealousy, and that he is violent and aggressive. Piper is distraught over their arguing as Andy leaves the house, and Laura takes Piper to play goalball as part of her preparation.

Oliver, now monstrous and bloated, trashes the house and bites Laura's arm before he begins eating his own flesh. Meanwhile, Andy visits the foster care centre that paired him and Piper with Laura and sees a "Missing" poster that reveals Oliver is a missing child named Connor Bird. He realizes that Oliver writing “Bird” earlier was an attempt to identify himself. Andy speaks with social worker Wendy, who reveals that Laura used to be an adored social worker at her agency for twenty years, which is why her background as a foster mother was never checked. Andy calls Piper to explain his concerns, and he and Wendy travel to the house to investigate his claims. Laura, having listened to the call on Piper's phone, panics and begins vigorously cleaning the house in an attempt to hide the mess. After Wendy conducts a walkthrough of the house, she notices that Laura's arm is bleeding. Laura insists to her that Cathy can be brought back to life through a ritual she's working on. Andy and Wendy find Oliver feeding on Cathy's frozen corpse and try to flee, but Laura runs them down with her car, killing Wendy. A critically injured Andy is then drowned in a puddle by Laura.

Laura brings Piper home. Oliver feasts on Andy's flesh and mimics his voice, confusing Piper and making her afraid. Evading Laura, she locks herself in a bathroom with what she soon discovers is Andy's dead body. Laura breaks into the bathroom and tells Piper that she has spoken to an angel who is possessing Oliver's body, and that the angel will put Cathy into Piper's body, but first she must drown her in the pool. Piper knocks herself unconscious while fleeing. Laura drags her to the pool and begins to drown her as Oliver prepares the transfer. When Piper screams "mum", Laura hesitates and, overcome with guilt, lets her go. Piper escapes to the road and is picked up by a passing couple in their car. She hears an airplane fly over the car, signalling Andy's ascent to heaven.

Seeing his missing person poster, Oliver crosses the ritual boundary and collapses as the demon leaves his body. Police arrive and begin to investigate the house, finding Oliver and confirming his identity as Connor Bird. Laura carries Cathy's corpse to the pool and cradles it as officers surround her.

Cast

• Billy Barratt as Andy, a guilt-ridden and traumatized 17-year-old boy
• Sora Wong as Piper, Andy's visually impaired younger step-sister
• Sally Hawkins as Laura, a grieving mother
• Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver, Laura's foster son
• Sally-Anne Upton as Wendy, Andy and Piper's social worker
• Stephen Phillips as Phil, Andy and Piper's deceased father
• Mischa Heywood as Cathy, Laura's deceased 12-year-old daughter

Production

In April 2024, it was announced that Danny and Michael Philippou (known as RackaRacka) were developing an original horror film follow-up to Talk to Me, with producers Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton at Causeway Films. The film had Sally Hawkins attached to star, and A24 was handling sales for distribution worldwide. The Philippou brothers originally planned to direct a film adaptation of Street Fighter in 2023, but exited the film to focus on Bring Her Back, inspired by psycho-biddy horror. The script was written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, and it was produced by RackaRacka with financing from the South Australian Film Corporation and Salmira Productions.

In late May, Billy Barratt, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, and Sora Wong joined the cast of the film. In an interview with People, Wong stated that she had "zero experience with acting", auditioning after her mother discovered the casting call on Facebook.

Principal photography began in June 2024. The Philippous returned to their home state of South Australia to film in Adelaide and its surrounding areas, like Lightsview. Filming concluded after 41 days.

Release

In February 2025, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the international distribution rights to the film excluding China, Russia and Japan. Bring Her Back was released in Australia on 29 May 2025 by Sony Pictures Releasing International's Stage 6 Films, before releasing on the following day in the United States by A24.

Reception

Box office

As of June 6, 2025, Bring Her Back has grossed $11.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $12.7 million.

In the United States and Canada, Bring Her Back was released alongside Karate Kid: Legends, and was projected to gross $5–7 million from 2,449 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.1 million on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $7.1 million, finishing in third.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 141 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A domestic nightmare that draws its most profound scares from Sally Hawkins' deranged performance, Bring Her Back is an exemplary chiller that reaffirms directors Danny and Michael Philippou as modern masters of horror." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 80% overall positive score, with 57% saying they would definitely recommend the film.

Monica Castillo from RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that it is "perhaps more chilling—if slightly less focused—than their breakout feature debut". Castillo noted the film's fast pace and shocking moments, but criticized the VHS segments as being an "unnecessary scare tactic". She praised the performances of Hawkins, Barratt, and Wong for their emotionally-deep performances and the film's sustained tension, but ultimately wrote that it did "not meet the high watermark of the brothers' first outing." Jeanette Catsoulis of the New York Times acclaimed the "sublime lead performances" with particular praise for Barratt's performance as Andy. Catsoulis also praised the film's visual shock value and emotional weight, but called it "more logically muddled than its predecessor". David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote that the film is a strong follow up to Talk To Me, boasting a "superior grasp of pacing and catch-release tension". Fear also praised Oliver's character as rising above "the whole creepy-youngster trope", having derided it as being "overused and lazy in most cases".

A review by Sammie Purcell from Rough Draft Atlanta praised the practical effects and upsetting nature of the film, but "it doesn’t earn the depth of emotion it wants to achieve." Purcell praised Phillips' performance as Oliver for being "one of the film’s best and, oddly enough, manages to offer a little bit of humor in an otherwise bleak narrative." She further writes that "it’s hard to balance really effective emotionality with the type of viscous storytelling the Philippous appear to be interested in", having found the mix of grotesque visuals and emotional themes to be ineffective. Barry Wurst from HollywoodinToto was far more critical, giving the film one and a half stars. Wurst wrote that he found the film's violent scenes far too intense, criticizing it as being "desperate for attention." However, he gave high praise to Hawkins' performance as being the "reason to see [the film]."

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Golden Trailer Awards	29 May 2025	Best Sound Editing	A24 / AV Squad (for "Trust No One")	Nominated

External links

• Bring Her Back at IMDb