Bring Her Back was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Releasing International in Australia on 29 May 2025. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $39.1 million.
Plot
After finding their father, Phil, dead in the shower, 17-year-old Andy and his sight-impaired stepsister Piper are sent to live with Laura, an eccentric former counselor who also fosters a mute boy named Oliver. Andy becomes unsettled by both Laura and Oliver's strange behavior, including Laura's favoritism toward Piper. At the funeral, Laura steals a lock of hair from Phil's corpse. That night, Andy reveals to Laura that he resents his father for being abusive toward him but affectionate toward Piper. Laura reflects on the death of her daughter, Cathy, who was also blind and accidentally drowned in the backyard pool.
It is revealed that Oliver is possessed by Tari, a demon Laura summoned to carry out a resurrection ritual to bring back Cathy. The next day, Andy releases Oliver from the room Laura locked him in and encourages him to write on a notepad to communicate. Oliver tries to eat a kitchen knife, mutilating his mouth; when Andy carries him across the white border that circles Laura's property to get help, Oliver violently convulses before uttering "help me." Laura returns, angry, and Andy finds that Oliver wrote the word "bird" on the notepad.
Laura returns Oliver to his mute, passive state by mimicking the disturbing ritual from a VHS tape and feeding him Phil's hair. While showering, Andy hallucinates an apparition of his father, who warns him that Piper will die in the rain. Shocked, he slips, is concussed, and has to recover in the hospital.
Laura takes Piper to the shed, where she's kept Cathy's corpse in a freezer, and dresses her in Cathy's sweater. After bringing Andy home from the hospital, she watches the rest of the VHS tape — the corpse of the deceased is fed to a possessed host, who then regurgitates the corpse into the body of a person recently killed in the same manner as the one to be resurrected, bringing them back to life. Laura intends to drown Piper in the pool during the rainstorm, use Oliver to eat Cathy's corpse, and regurgitate it into Piper to bring back Cathy. Later that night, Laura punches Piper while she sleeps and frames Andy for the assault to drive a wedge between the siblings.
As Tari grows increasingly hungry and restless, Oliver's condition deteriorates and he consumes inanimate objects and parts of his own body. Andy goes to the foster agency and sees a poster for a missing child named Connor Bird; recognizing Connor as "Oliver," he convinces Wendy, their social worker, to investigate. Andy leaves Piper a voicemail apologizing for keeping their father's abuse of him a secret and warning her about Laura. Laura intercepts the message and cleans the house to deceive Wendy. However, during the visit, she breaks down and confesses her plan to resurrect Cathy. Wendy and Andy discover Connor eating Cathy's corpse in the shed. As they attempt to flee, Laura runs them over with her car, killing Wendy and injuring Andy, whom Laura then drowns in a rain puddle.
Laura brings Piper home from goalball practice for the ritual. Having eaten some of Andy's flesh, Connor speaks with Andy's voice to lure Piper. Suspecting something is amiss, Piper locks herself in the bathroom and breaks down upon finding Andy's body. Laura drags Piper to the pool and begins drowning her while Connor watches. Piper struggles, and Laura tearfully releases her after Piper calls her "mum." Piper escapes and is rescued by a passing car on the road. Connor, who'd been giving chase, steps past the circle boundary and collapses as Tari leaves his body. Police arrive, identify him, and find a guilt-stricken Laura cradling Cathy's corpse in the pool.
Cast
Billy Barratt as Andy, a guilt-ridden and traumatised 17-year-old boy
Sora Wong as Piper, Andy's visually impaired younger stepsister
Stephen Phillips as Phil, Andy and Piper's deceased father
Mischa Heywood as Cathy, Laura's deceased 12-year-old daughter
Production
In April 2024, it was announced that Danny and Michael Philippou (known as RackaRacka) were developing an original horror film follow-up to Talk to Me, with producers Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton at Causeway Films. The film had Sally Hawkins attached to star and A24 was handling sales for distribution worldwide.[5] The Philippou brothers originally planned to direct a film adaptation of Street Fighter in 2023, but exited the film to focus on Bring Her Back, inspired by psycho-biddy horror.[6][7] The script was written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman,[8] and it was produced by RackaRacka with financing from the South Australian Film Corporation and Salmira Productions.[9]
In late May, Billy Barratt, Jonah Wren Phillips, Sally-Anne Upton, Stephen Phillips, and Sora Wong joined the cast of the film.[10] In an interview with People, Wong stated that she had "zero experience with acting", auditioning after her mother discovered the casting call on Facebook.[11]
Production took place around Adelaide, including Adelaide Studios, with post-production led by KOJO Studios. The crew were mostly South Australian.[16]
Editing was by Geoff Lamb and the score was composed by Cornel Wilczek.[17][18] The film was executive produced by the Philippous, Daniel Negret, Salman Al-Rashid, and Sam Frohman.[18]
Bring Her Back had a special screening for Adelaide Film Festival club members on 26 May 2025,[21] before being released in cinemas in Australia on 29 May 2025 by Stage 6 Films. It was released on the following day in the United States by A24.[22] It was released in the United Kingdom on 1 August 2025.[23]
Reception
Box office
As of September6,2025[update], Bring Her Back has grossed $19.3 million in the United States and Canada and $19.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $39.1 million.[4][3]
In the United States and Canada, Bring Her Back was released alongside Karate Kid: Legends and was projected to gross $5–7million from 2,449 theatres in its opening weekend.[24] The film made $3.1 million on its first day, including $850,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $7.1 million, finishing in third.[25]
Critical response
Sally Hawkins' performance as Laura received unanimous acclaim.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 264 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "A domestic nightmare that draws its most profound scares from Sally Hawkins' deranged performance, Bring Her Back is an exemplary chiller that reaffirms directors Danny and Michael Philippou as modern masters of horror."[27]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[28] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 80% overall positive score, with 57% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[25]
Monica Castillo from RogerEbert.com gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that it is "perhaps more chilling—if slightly less focused—than their breakout feature debut". Castillo noted the film's fast pace and shocking moments, but criticized the VHS segments as being an "unnecessary scare tactic". She praised the performances of Hawkins, Barratt and Wong for their emotionally-deep performances and the film's sustained tension, but ultimately wrote that it did "not meet the high watermark of the brothers' first outing."[29] Jeanette Catsoulis of the New York Times acclaimed the "sublime lead performances" with particular praise for Barratt's performance as Andy. Catsoulis also praised the film's visual shock value and emotional weight, but called it "more logically muddled than its predecessor".[30] David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote that the film is a strong follow up to Talk To Me, boasting a "superior grasp of pacing and catch-release tension". Fear also praised Oliver's character as rising above "the whole creepy-youngster trope", having derided it as being "overused and lazy in most cases".[31]
A review by Sammie Purcell from Rough Draft Atlanta praised the practical effects and upsetting nature of the film, but "it doesn’t earn the depth of emotion it wants to achieve." Purcell praised Phillips' performance as Oliver for being "one of the film’s best and, oddly enough, manages to offer a little bit of humor in an otherwise bleak narrative." She further writes that "it’s hard to balance really effective emotionality with the type of vicious storytelling the Philippous appear to be interested in", having found the mix of grotesque visuals and emotional themes to be ineffective.[32] Barry Wurst from HollywoodinToto was far more critical, giving the film one and a half stars. Wurst wrote that he found the film's violent scenes far too intense, criticizing it as being "desperate for attention." However, he gave high praise to Hawkins' performance as being the "reason to see [the film]."[33]
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