With its world premiere, Bring Her Back started making the mainstream festival rounds, and genre lovers quickly began picking up on the film’s heavy themes. Along with the uncanny warmth within the soley supernatural visual elements, the film’s darkness was one shaped by longing, and, as the darkness was, as it was directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, ever so slightly Australian. Unease filled the atmosphere of walking into screenings for the film, the psychological horror of its darkness accompanied by emotional depth. With the feel of an aged film, the VHS quality of the footage drew viewers into the film.
As it drew viewers into the film with the VHS feel of aged footage, and the silence of a still home, the glimpsed satisfaction of a blind girl, and the aural calm blurred behind the footage, the first teasers drew a complete feel of silence. By the time the first teasers of the film were released, the pre-release marketing campaign had established a strong control of the narrative by framing its advance hints as questions. The obscured details provided marketing for a cult, selfish, and tragic storytelling framed by the grief, trauma, and obsession of loss. Fans of the film began building a narrative around released marketing hints and voyeuristic pity, framing the storytelling around the sadistic desires of a cult or selfish motherhood.
Two Siblings, One House, and a Storm Beneath the Floorboards
In a suburban town, Andy and Piper move into their new foster home after their father’s passes away. Andy, at age 17 and the older sibling, steps into the caretaker role. Piper, who is visually impaired, depends on her older brother for emotional and physical safety.
Sally Hawkins plays Laura with a warm, unsettling demeanor, as she grieves for her daughter Cathy. The controlled stillness of her home hints at darker things. Though neat and quiet, Laura is deeply devoted to her obsession and will stop at nothing to achieve her goal of resurrecting her daughter Cathie.
Oliver is certainly a chilling and disturbing presence, and like Laura, silence is his home. His presence is a relief to the film, who use him to remove any anxiety the audience may experience.
When Fiction Mirrors Real Life
A testament to the quality of Bring Her Back and the dedication of the cast, as they use their real-world experiences to inform their acting.
Sora Wong has the unique challenge of being born with limited vision due to coloboma and microphthalmia. When Wong was cast to play the role of Piper, she had zero prior experience in the acting world, whether that be achieving formal training, theater, or any type of acting workshop. In various interviews, Wong has mentioned that the role was a form of mirroring, an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that disability is not just a topic that gets symbolic representation or used merely as a dramatic emotional touch, but instead an experience that is lived through and has many facets. That sentiment can be seen in every single frame where Piper is the first to detect danger and every one else is completely unaware of the threat.
Billy Barratt provides Andy with the solidness, as he is the character that embodies a young man grappling with the internal battle of survival and responsibility. In your mind’s eye, the performance Barratt provides triggers that quiet strength that a lot of Indian viewers would be able to recognize, and hold true to, without consciously realizing it. That is, he is portraying a young man who has been driven into taking on the full responsibilities of adulthood, and is, therefore, a man before he is of age to be one.
Sally Hawkins is the emotional earthquake of the film. Laura is an emotionally torn and fractured character, but is able to embody both sides, as she is impacted by both the soft and the kind. Moreover, the young women Hawkins has previously portrayed who have been emotionally broken, has had to deal with the turbulence that comes with having weak inner emotions, is extremely tender, and adds an emotional depth to the story. It is true that Laura can be feared, but the majority of those who feel fear for her character end up having a deep emotional pain for her.
Although he has very little speaking lines, Jonah Wren Phillips gives one of the most bone-chilling performances in the whole film, which is a testament to the enormity of the performace. His silence adds to the performance and should not be seen merely as the lack of speaking.
Personal Themes
Bring Her Back, while an Australian film, is also an Indian film in its emotional tenor.
Fragile Nature of Foster Care
In India, the notion of “family” continues to be confined to blood relations. Adoption and foster care are stigmatized or looked down upon in many parts of the country. Laura’s obsessive, unstable, and worshipful emotional attachment to her foster children is the movie’s representation of the guardianship dark-side when grief is left unprocessed.
Rituals of Grief
In Indian culture, the loss of loved ones in India is often accompanied by community and individual mourning rituals, and by spiritual acts. The movie portrays the results of loss when it spirals into extreme and desperate grief fixation. Collecting home videotapes of the deceased, Laura brought back treasured “memories” in the form of ritualistic objects that represent a culture of death to which many people hold tightly.
Blindness Beyond the Literal
Piper’s partial blindness has a profound meaning. She has insights that Andy does not. Her disability does not make her weak; it is an asset because it gives her a perspective that is often ignored. The film portrays disability as a societal strength rather than a weakness, which is contrary to the underwhelming views that are often held.
Reception of the Release of the Trailer
The release of the trailer for the film stirred up excitement with Indian horror clubs. Audiences felt that this release would be “different.” Viewers appreciated the film’s focus on slowly building dread rather than cheap tricks used for horror.
Following this films release, there was emotional devastation for many viewers. People experienced this film as “the type of horror that crawls under your skin” and “deeply emotional. ” People felt the film empathetically expressed how horror and grief can influence a person. People understood how grief was more than sadness and how it could contort and shape individuals.
Some audience members even expressed that the film’s genre did not fit as “horror.” Rather, the film was pure tragedy under the guise of terror.
Quiet Tales from Behind the Camera
There are tales which describe the tone the film. The Philippou brothers, previously known for more active and chaotic horror films, decided to focus on slowing things down for this film. This was their beginning foray into psychological open new forms of horror which are darker and more character driven. The house was designed to be a character of the film. The external design was welcoming but the interiors of the house were overwhelming and stifling.
The production spanned a little over a month, shooting in South Australia. For the story for the film, the triangular pool, a space of grief and rebirth, was built specifically for the film. It was not pure aesthetic when the director included VHS-style footage of the rituals in the film. It meshed well with the director’s vision of memory decaying over time like old tape footage.
An interview with Sora Wong describes how, in between intense scenes, Hawkins would completely transform but would immediately return to her usual self for a quick consolation. Hawkins was shaken for the duration of the emotional scenes but claimed they told her what true acting is, which was a guiding lesson for her.
Some cast members were changed as production was just beginning, most notably Oliver. The directors were reported to be looking for people who would not “act mute” rather someone who would still be emotionally closed off. Phillips was the ideal candidate to fulfill their request.
While bringing her back may appear to be a conventional horror film, it is a deeper reflection on grief, motherhood, and love to a frightening degree. The performances resonate, and the atmosphere remains palpable long after seeing the film. The true stories of the actors involved increase the film’s authenticity. The film’s emotional focus is on loss, the loss of a loved one, and the irrational need to refill that loss with something.