---
title: "Bring Her Back"
year: 2025
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/bring-her-back"
fi1m_id: "bring-her-back"
imdb_id: "tt32246771"
tmdb_id: 1151031
wikidata_id: "Q127602379"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 77
critics_reviews: 18
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:50.111668+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Bring Her Back (2025)

Directed by Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou · 1h 44m · MPA R · Horror

## Identity

Bring Her Back

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/bring-her-back
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** bring-her-back
- **IMDb ID:** tt32246771
- **TMDB ID:** 1151031
- **Wikidata ID:** Q127602379
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32246771/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1151031, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q127602379

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 77 from 18 reviews

*In a sentence:* A foster mother in a cardigan, an empty swimming pool, and a boy who should not be allowed near the cutlery

> Sally Hawkins plays a foster mother who is kind, funny and attentive, and she is the most frightening thing in the film. The Philippou brothers’ second feature is grimmer and better built than their first, and it explains itself more than it needs to.

## Synopsis

Andy (Billy Barratt) is seventeen and a few months short of being able to apply for guardianship of his step-sister Piper (Sora Wong), who is partially sighted. When their father dies, the two are placed with Laura (Sally Hawkins), a former counsellor who has lived alone in a cluttered house on the edge of town since her daughter Cathy drowned. Laura is warm, chatty and delighted to have a girl in the house again. She is less interested in Andy. Also living there is Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), a small boy who does not speak and rarely leaves his room. Danny and Michael Philippou direct from a script by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman.

## Review

Danny and Michael Philippou’s first film, [*Talk to Me*](https://film.one/film/talk-to-me), was about teenagers passing an embalmed hand round a party, and it was frightening in the way a dare is frightening. *Bring Her Back*, their second, has no party and no dare. It has a foster home, two grieving children and a woman who has decided what she wants. It is the better-made film of the two and by some distance the harder to sit through, and it would be better still if it trusted us to work out what Laura is doing without showing us the instruction manual. It runs 104 minutes and feels longer, which is partly a compliment.

Andy (Billy Barratt) and his partially sighted step-sister Piper (Sora Wong) lose their father in the opening minutes, and the film does not soften it. Andy finds him. Barratt plays the aftermath as a boy trying to be the grown-up and getting it slightly wrong every time, which is exactly right. They are sent to Laura (Sally Hawkins), who lives in a cluttered house with an empty swimming pool in the garden, and who lost her daughter, Cathy, in it. She greets Piper like a returning relative. She greets Andy like a lodger.

Hawkins is the reason to see it. Laura talks constantly, laughs at her own jokes, offers tea and hugs and a drink to children who should not be drinking, and never for one moment stops watching. The performance works because Hawkins does not signal. There is no cold flicker behind the eyes, no line delivered a beat too slow; she is warm all the way down, and the warmth is what makes her so frightening. When she starts to separate Andy from his sister, she does it with concern in her voice, and we found ourselves half-believing her while knowing exactly what she was doing. We have not seen that done better in a horror film for some years.

The house is built for her. Vanessa Cerne’s production design fills it with blankets, mismatched crockery and a dead child’s drawings that nobody has taken down, so it looks like somewhere a bereaved woman has stopped tidying rather than a haunted house. Aaron McLisky shoots it close and low-lit, the camera often at a child’s height, and lets the corners of rooms go dark so we are never sure how big the place is. Cornel Wilczek’s score is low and sustained and knows when to stop. The sound is the best of the craft: chewing, breathing, bare feet on tile, mixed so close that we flinched at things the camera had not shown us yet.

Then there is Oliver. Jonah Wren Phillips plays him as a small, silent boy with a stare, and for the first half hour he is simply odd. Then he is not. There is a stretch around the midpoint that we watched through our fingers, and we do not, as a rule, watch things through our fingers. We were horrified, and then a little ashamed of how much we admired the practical effects, because admiring anything felt like the wrong response. The Philippous have a gift for the body doing what a body should not, and here they use it on a child, which is the point, and also the reason some people will leave.

What holds it back is the explaining. Laura keeps a collection of old videotapes, and Geoff Lamb cuts to them in bursts throughout, grainy footage of people doing things in rooms. By the third burst we understood the mechanism; by the fifth we were being told again. The script, by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, makes the mistake a good deal of grief horror makes: the meaning is clear from the premise, and the film keeps underlining it. The last twenty minutes, which we will not describe, are also so unrelenting that the sadness underneath, which is real, has to fight to be heard.

Several critics have set this beside *Hereditary* and *Pet Sematary*, and the debts are there: the dead child, the parent who cannot leave it alone. Neither of those films had Sora Wong, who plays Piper without a trace of pathos and whose partial sight the film uses cleverly, letting her hear the house before she sees it.

See it in a cinema if you can bear to, because the sound is mixed for big speakers and a dark hall. Do not see it on a full stomach, and do not see it the week after a funeral.

*Fi1m score 74, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come out in favour, and almost every review lands on the same reason: Sally Hawkins. Her foster mother is described as unhinged, chilling, and a deliberate reversal of her usual warmth, and several reviews say she carries the film on her own. Praise also gathers around the sound design, the practical effects and the body horror, and around the way the Philippou brothers use grief as the engine of the story rather than as decoration. Several reviews call it a confident second film that is bleaker and more ambitious than Talk to Me.

The reservations are about the plot. The Times finds the demon business silly and overloaded, and misses the fun of the debut. The Playlist thinks the film over-explains its themes. The i Paper feels it reaches for provocation rather than insight into grief, and Vulture notes that Hawkins overwhelms her younger co-stars. The spread is narrow: nobody dislikes it, and the doubters still admire the performance.

## Straight answers

**Is Bring Her Back worth watching?**

*Bring Her Back* is worth watching for anyone who wants a horror film that is grim rather than fun, and we scored it 74. Sally Hawkins, as a foster mother who is warm all the way down and frightening because of it, is the reason to see it. It explains its own mechanism more than it needs to, and the last twenty minutes are unrelenting.

**How long is Bring Her Back, and what is it rated?**

*Bring Her Back* runs 1h 44m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a horror film.

**Where can I watch Bring Her Back in the US?**

*Bring Her Back* is streaming on HBO Max, Apple TV, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Bring Her Back, and is it suitable for children?**

*Bring Her Back* is an 18 in the UK and R in the US, and it is not suitable for children at any age. It contains a death found by a teenager in the opening minutes, and a stretch around the midpoint involving a small boy that we watched through our fingers, with practical effects of a body doing what a body should not. The squeamish should stay away.

**What should I watch after Bring Her Back?**

After *Bring Her Back*, try [*Talk to Me*](https://film.one/film/talk-to-me) (2022, Fi1m 76): The Philippous’ first film: a party dare with an embalmed hand, faster and less sad. Then [*Hereditary*](https://film.one/film/hereditary) (2018, Fi1m 83): Another family that grief will not let alone, with Toni Collette at full stretch; and [*The Babadook*](https://film.one/film/the-babadook) (2014, Fi1m 86): Australian horror about a mother, a son and a book that will not stay closed.

### Reviews we read (25)

- **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (90/100, inferred): The Philippou brothers craft a tight, visceral chamber piece of terror with naturalistic style and original scares that surpass recent horror clichés. Hawkins gives a superb, outrageous turn as the unhinged foster mother in one of the year's best films. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-danny-and-michael-philippou-b1238880.html)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as alive with nasty, visceral thrills and says the Philippous expertly and jarringly show how grief feels through energetic and compelling nightmares. Sally Hawkins excels at portraying the dangerous foster mother who manipulates the vulnerable orphans. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-05-29/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-horror-a24)
- **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman (Critics Pick): The critic finds it a majorly disturbing piece of horror that genuinely creeps you out and gets under your skin, with Sally Hawkins chillingly creepy as the foster mother from hell. The Philippous create a hallucinatory domestic nightmare that is messy at times but impressionistic and effective in its malevolent shock. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-danny-michael-philippou-1236398175/)
- **Empire**, Jamie Graham (80/100, inferred): The film builds a suffocating atmosphere of menace through visual flair and themes of grief and the supernatural. Hawkins delivers a startling performance in this accomplished but occasionally logic-holed sophomore effort from the Philippou brothers. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/bring-her-back/)
- **Little White Lies**, Katherine McLaughlin (4/4/4): The Philippou brothers ramp up the brutality in a dysfunctional domestic horror where a grieving foster mother isn't what she seems, anchored by a sensationally unhinged Sally Hawkins performance and strong ensemble work including impressive newcomer Sora Wong. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/bring-her-back)
- **Sight and Sound**, Kim Newman (80/100, inferred): The Philippous deliver an impressive follow-up to Talk to Me with a rare horror film that trusts its audience, focusing on sibling bonds and a remarkably complicated, sometimes terrifying antagonist in Sally Hawkins' foster mother. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/bring-her-back-sally-hawkins-terrifying-philippous-foster-family-horror)
- **The Telegraph**, Tim Robey (4/5): The film is one of the most disturbing horrors in years, batteringly violent and howlingly sad, with Sally Hawkins plotting in cable-knit cardigans amid cult rituals. It splices influences from Pet Sematary and Hereditary into strong, bleak meat that leaves little safe ground. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/bring-her-back-review/)
- **Time Out**, Ian Freer (4/5): Sally Hawkins delivers a tour de force as a foster mother whose maternal instincts have gone batshit crazy in this dark and depraved Aussie chiller that cements the Philippou brothers as fresh voices in horror. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/bring-her-back-review-2025)
- **The AV Club**, Matt Schimkowitz (B): The critic sees it as a relentless domestic nightmare and grim fairy tale of resurrection and child endangerment, praising the unrelenting tension, Hawkins' manic turn, visceral body horror, and sound design as an improvement over the directors' debut, though it becomes overly brutal with some ineffective twists. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/bring-her-back-review)
- **Screen Daily** (75/100, inferred): Sally Hawkins gives a fiendish performance hinting at wickedness before revealing unspeakable evil as a malevolent foster mother in this riveting examination of warped maternal instincts. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-delivers-unspeakable-evil-for-the-philippou-brothers/5204609.article)
- **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it fun to watch Sally Hawkins go evil in a messier but more emotionally ambitious film than the directors' debut, praising her towering, compelling performance as a manipulative foster mother while noting it overwhelms younger co-stars and has underdeveloped ideas. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-goes-evil-for-fun.html)
- **IndieWire**, Ryan Lattanzio (60/100, inferred): The review describes a conceptually half-baked horror movie about a dangerously unwell foster mother's ritual to resurrect her dead child, highlighting Sally Hawkins' psychotically good performance while noting familiar grief-and-trauma tropes. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/bring-her-back-review-1235123898/)
- **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (60/100, inferred): Hawkins is brilliantly unnerving in a reversal of her usual persona as the eccentric, coercive foster mother obsessed with a dark ritual. The film excels at oppressive dread and squelchy gore but focuses more on provocation than deeper insight into trauma and grief. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/bring-her-back-will-shock-you-sally-hawkins-brilliantly-unnerving-3833274)
- **Financial Times**, Jonathan Romney (★★★☆☆): Hawkins shatters her cosy image in a suburban gothic tale that goes full out with gore and Hitchcockian winks but is less controlled than the directors’ debut. It remains intelligent, with inventive use of the lead character’s visual impairment. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/8816d723-a696-4be2-8448-c7dc9a1fe55d)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The Philippou brothers consolidate their status as leading horror filmmakers with a story of orphaned siblings placed in the care of a sinister foster mother played by Sally Hawkins. The film excels in its unsettling exploration of vulnerability, abuse and grief through barnstorming performances and inventive scares. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/30/bring-her-back-review-philippou-brothers-sally-hawkins)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Lovia Gyarkye: The critic calls it a solid sophomore outing that explores how bereavement drives people toward unimaginable acts, functioning best as a disturbing study of grief with strong atmospherics, sound design, body horror, and performances from Hawkins and others, though it has some narrative waywardness. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/bring-her-back-review-philippou-brothers-sally-hawkins-1236212871/)
- **The New York Times**, Jeannette Catsoulis (Critic’s Pick): The critic calls it an emotionally potent chiller in which Sally Hawkins plays a menacingly unhinged foster parent to two bereaved siblings. The film draws strength from familial grief and shows extraordinary sensitivity toward its central characters while delivering forceful visual shocks. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/movies/bring-her-back-review.html)
- **The Observer**, Wendy Ide: The Philippou brothers deliver a queasily unsettling trauma horror where grief opens the door to evil in a foster home run by a chillingly cheerful Sally Hawkins. Excellent sound design and Hawkins’s superbly chilling performance stand out in an otherwise bleak and sometimes clichéd film. [Read](https://observer.co.uk/culture/film/article/bring-her-back-is-the-most-unsettling-film-of-the-year-review)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★☆☆): Sally Hawkins delivers one of the great horror villain performances as a former therapist turned foster carer, making the film work despite a silly, convoluted demon-centred plot and overloaded narrative. It lacks the fun of the directors’ debut Talk to Me. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/bring-her-back-review-sxwxjwctm)
- **The Skinny**, Stefania Sarrubba (★★★★★): The film is a terrifying ride and another imperative story of grief that delivers an affecting, elating experience with squirming scares. It is anchored by a monumental, deranged Sally Hawkins performance, supported by strong practical effects and especially distressing sound design. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/bring-her-back-review)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (8/10): The Philippou brothers' follow-up to Talk to Me is even more devastating, expertly blending grief and horror into one of the year's best horror films. The critic singles out the standout performances by Sally Hawkins and Jonah Wren Phillips for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/bring-her-back-review-a24/)
- **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (8/10): The critic calls it the feel-bad horror of 2025, praising its disturbing atmosphere and Sally Hawkins' complex performance, while noting it's bleak and not for everyone. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1861370/bring-her-back-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson (75/100, inferred): The critic praises the strong cast and imaginative storytelling in this grief-themed horror, noting excellent continuation from the directors' previous work and strong performances, especially by Sally Hawkins. It highlights the film's unease and technical achievements but mentions some clichés. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/bring-her-back-2025-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **The Playlist**, Marshall Shaffer (C): The review criticizes the film for being too literal and over-explaining its themes compared to the previous film, though it praises the focus on young characters and practical effects. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/bring-her-back-review-the-philippous-get-too-literal-in-their-talk-to-me-follow-up-20250516)
- **Deadline**, Glenn Garner: The Philippou brothers' sophomore feature is a grief-driven horror that doubles down on darkness while navigating themes of trauma with a sense of catharsis. Sally Hawkins delivers a chilling performance as a grieving foster mother who gaslights the children, supported by strong turns from the young cast. [Read](https://deadline.com/2025/05/bring-her-back-review-sally-hawkins-philippous-1236393052/)

## Details

- **Director:** Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou
- **Director:** Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou
- **Writer:** Bill Hinzman, Danny Philippou
- **Cinematography:** Aaron McLisky
- **Editor:** Geoff Lamb
- **Music:** Cornel Wilczek
- **Production design:** Vanessa Cerne
- **Producer:** Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings
- **Cast:** Billy Barratt as Andy; Sally Hawkins as Laura; Mischa Heywood as Cathy; Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver; Stephen Phillips as Phil; Sally-Anne Upton as Wendy; Sora Wong as Piper; Kathryn Adams as Anna
- **Runtime:** 1h 44m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 30 May 2025
- **Genres:** Horror
- **Budget:** $15 million
- **Box office:** $39 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I15ttCedfY

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $5.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Talk to Me* (2022), Fi1m 76: The Philippous’ first film: a party dare with an embalmed hand, faster and less sad. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/talk-to-me.md)
- *Hereditary* (2018), Fi1m 83: Another family that grief will not let alone, with Toni Collette at full stretch. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hereditary.md)
- *The Babadook* (2014), Fi1m 86: Australian horror about a mother, a son and a book that will not stay closed. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-babadook.md)
- *Don't Look Now* (1973), Fi1m 90: A drowned daughter, two parents in Venice, and the saddest red coat in cinema. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dont-look-now.md)
- *The Orphanage* (2007), Fi1m 81: Spanish ghost story about a mother, a missing child and a house that remembers. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-orphanage.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/bring-her-back