A couple of years after their debut breakout horror film Talk to Me, brothers and filmmaker duo Danny and Michael Philippou return with a haunting new film Bring Her Back. Their filmmaking process, they share, is one that puts emotion at the heart of their project. “With the movies that we make, whether it’s horror or any other genre, we really want our stories to have a strong emotional core. The stuff we want to create, we want it to work on multiple levels,” said Michael. Daniel agrees, adding, “We don’t want to be scared of something that’s a horror movie. We want to embrace that it’s a horror film, and be proud of making a horror film.”
Bring Her Back tells the tale of a brother Andy (Billy Barratt), and his low-vision sister Piper (Sora Wong) as they enter the care of their new foster mother. Slowly they uncover a terrifying ritual in their new secluded home.
The inspiration of the story began close to home, as one character is inspired by an interaction with the directors’ friend. “Our friend’s little sister is non-sighted, and there was a situation with her family where she really wanted to go and catch the bus by herself, but her parents wouldn’t let her do it,” Danny says. “She was trying to communicate with them that she’s going to have to learn to navigate the world without everyone babying her all the time, that she needs to have her own independence.”
That theme carries into one of the main characters of the film, Piper, who experiences a tragedy with her brother Andy, but the aftermath spins them into horrors beyond imaginable. “Talk to Me feels like a party horror film, but this film is more character-driven,” Danny says. “We liked the challenge of a contained story about these three characters, focusing on their relationships.”