Bring Her Back (2025)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.