Danny and Michael Philippou's supernatural horror film, Bring Her Back, released in 2025, is a spiritual follow-up to their remarkable debut, Talk to Me, but this time they're more interested in telling a story of pain and heartbreak. The plot follows half-siblings Andy and Piper, who must adapt to a new foster home under the care of their adoptive mother, Laura, following the sudden death of their father. While Bring Her Back isn't as thematically original as Talk to Me, and the main story isn't as poignant, it's brilliantly crafted to make it a thoroughly enjoyable horror film.
Bring Her Back begins with Piper, a teenager, standing alone at a bus stop, listening intently to the conversation of a group of girls from her school. Piper has very low vision, allowing her to discern only light and shadow, but she doesn't want to be treated differently or with feigned empathy, so she prefers to move around without her cane. But when she approaches the group of girls and asks if they have any specific plans for the day, clearly trying to make friends, their confused reaction confirms the difficulties in Piper's life. The girls at her school avoid her because of her blindness, and she spends her days studying or playing goalball at school or with her family at home.
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Stars: Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Mischa Heywood
Soon, Piper is picked up by her older brother, Andy, and the strong bond between the siblings is evident from the very first scene. But they get a terrible shock when they get home, as they receive no response from their father in the bathroom. Judging by the way both girls react, it seems the man has been through similar things before, having fainted in the shower due to his battle with cancer. Although he was recovering fairly well from chemotherapy, he appears to have suffered a terrible heart attack in the shower and died from it, leaving Andy and Piper completely alone in the world. The children suddenly find themselves in an unusually difficult situation, as Child Protective Services takes them in. Andy is not yet 18 and therefore cannot legally be his younger sister's guardian.
They are sent to the home of a woman named Laura, a former counselor who worked with Child Protective Services (CPS), who pretends to be a loving and attentive foster mother to the children. But Andy begins to notice something strange about her, especially her open bias toward Piper, which makes him feel completely unwanted in her home. The situation becomes more complicated when the siblings meet another boy, a few years younger than Piper, who is also under Laura's guardianship. There is something very strange about this boy, Ollie, who never speaks and is often seen grabbing the house cat as if he wants to hurt it.
Just after the opening credits, Bring Her Back shows a found-footage scene in which a woman records a video of what appears to be an occult ritual involving hanging, while a corpse lies in the center of a circle drawn with white powder. Although the meaning of this video or scene is unclear at first, the ritual quickly becomes the most integral part of the film's plot. Essentially, the found-footage video shows a group of people performing a ritual that can resurrect anyone, and the practitioners are clearly Russian, judging by the chants they mutter at certain moments. The film intentionally hides the origin of this ritual from us, but the fact that it is a Russian occult practice is evident from the fact that Laura, who later attempts it, also has to recite certain Russian words during the process.
The ritual process of resurrecting the dead constitutes the main horror elements of the film, as it requires a second human body to resurrect the soul of the deceased. The main rule or law of this ritual is that the deceased person cannot be revived in their own body. Their soul can be revived through a special technique and must then be transferred to a different dead human body, after which the soul will come back to life and live in this new body. The soul of the second dead human is apparently lost forever, but the film doesn't make this clear. An important term of this transfer is that the second human must die in a process exactly similar to that of the person whose soul is being revived.
Therefore, when we see a hanged woman in the first scene, it means that the revived woman died the same way, most likely by hanging herself. But to facilitate the transfer of souls, a third human host is also required, which is transformed into a monstrous being without any human qualities. This is where the circle drawn with the white powder comes into play, as the dark magic involved in the entire ritual turns the third human into a monster only when inside this white circle. As soon as it steps outside the circle, it becomes human again and must be dragged back inside as quickly as possible.
Once the third host has become a monster, it is starved for days, with the intention of inducing terrible hunger so that it devours everything it can. The monster must literally devour the original corpse (the one whose soul is being revived) and then approach the second host to pour some of the first host's bodily remains into it. Along with these remains, the soul is also transferred to the second body, and the original human is finally brought back to life, albeit in a different body. It's unclear what happens to the third guest, who had become a monster, but they're probably the most expendable parts of the ritual once it's over, meaning they almost certainly die and no one cares about them.
Somehow, undisclosed, Laura, Piper and Andy's new adoptive mother, had obtained this VHS tape with the details of the Russian ritual and decided to use the technique. At the heart of Bring Her Back is Laura's overwhelming grief over the loss of her daughter, Cathy, and her longing to be reunited with her. The only logical theory as to how she acquired the tape is that Laura began researching occult and supernatural practices from around the world that involve communication with and resurrection from the dead, and that's when she must have discovered the Russian ritual. Crucially, Cathy had very poor vision and died by accidentally drowning in the house's swimming pool.
It's for this very reason that Laura brings home a blind girl, Piper, roughly the same age as Cathy. Her only interest is Piper, so she intentionally neglects Andy. While in a film with a similar plot but a different genre, Laura would have brought Piper into her life to be a figurative substitute for her dead daughter, in Bring Her Back things are too literal. Laura's ultimate plan is to kill Piper by drowning her in the pool and then perform the ritual to bring Cathy's soul back to life in her body. Cathy would be used to living in a body with almost no vision, so Piper is absolutely necessary. Laura even starts waiting for heavy rain from time to time, as that would be the only way to fill the pool significantly.
But the fact that Laura keeps her dead daughter's body carefully stored in a freezer in the toilet naturally raises questions about her mental well-being. Perhaps she already believed in the supernatural and the occult when her daughter passed away, which is why she immediately put it away, knowing that some ritual would be performed to bring her back to life. Or perhaps she was completely consumed by grief over Cathy's death, so she never took her to the hospital or informed her friends or family, giving her the opportunity to keep the body instead of burying or cremating it. Either way, Laura now wants to euthanize Piper to ensure Cathy can come back to life and reunite with her daughter.
Laura introduces Ollie, or Oliver, as her nephew, who has stopped speaking due to the grief and shock of being recently orphaned, but there's a different secret surrounding his identity. Ollie is actually Connor Bird, a boy who disappeared from his bedroom a couple of weeks ago under very mysterious circumstances. In reality, Laura had chosen Connor as the ideal third human host to turn into a monster that would devour Cathy's body and then transfer his soul to Piper's corpse. No restrictions or rules are mentioned regarding the age of the host used in the ritual, so the only reason Laura chooses a 10-year-old boy is apparently so she can physically dominate and control him when necessary. Or perhaps he was the easiest individual to kidnap, which is why Connor now, unfortunately, finds himself in this supernatural situation.
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