Review: 'Bring Her Back' is a smart and creepy bit of terror, anchored by Sally Hawkins' unsettling turn as a foster mum
The veil between this life and the next is tattered and not well guarded — and it’s a divide that Australian filmmaking brothers Danny and Michael Phillippou like to poke with a sharp stick, both in their debut “Talk to Me” and now in their equally unsettling horror thriller “Bring Her Back.”
Two half-siblings — high-schooler Andy (Billy Barratt) and 8th-grader Piper (Sora Wong) — are trying to hang together after the sudden death of their father, who passed out in the shower and fell through the glass shower stall. Now they’re trying out a foster parent, Laura (played by the great Sally Hawkins), and hoping child protective services doesn’t split them up.
Piper is visually impaired; it’s explained early that she can see shapes and brightness, but that’s all. (Wong also is visually impaired, and her performance shows that the Phillippous can count amazing luck in casting among their skill set.)
As Andy and Piper try to settle in, something feels off about Laura and her house. Maybe it’s how eager Laura is to please. Or it’s her fascination with Piper’s visual impairment, which Laura says matches that of her late daughter. Or maybe it’s Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a mute boy also living with Laura — but who gets treated radically differently than Andy and Piper do.
That’s as far as I dare take the synopsis, because I don’t want you to go in knowing too much and because I don’t think you’d believe me anyway. Some shocks can’t be described, only lived through.
What’s not shocking, but is disturbing, is how good Hawkins is as Laura, as she rides the edge of madness in ways that will terrify and make a viewer care. Is Laura crazy? Or are the circumstances around her what’s off the rails? Anticipating that answer is part of what makes “Bring Her Back” so tension-inducing and brilliant.
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‘Bring Her Back’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, May 30, in theaters. Rated R for strong disturbing bloody violent content, some grisly images, graphic nudity, underage drinking and language. Running time: 99 minutes.