A nasty, grief-soaked horror film with strong practical shocks, a bleak emotional core, and a willingness to go far beyond standard foster-family dread. It sounds especially effective if you want horror that is both upsetting and strangely tender about loss.
Bring Her Back
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Horror
Mon · 1h 44m
Director: Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou
Starring: Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Mischa Heywood
Overview
Following the death of their father, a brother and sister are sent to live with a foster mother, only to learn that she is hiding a terrifying secret.
Director
Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou
Cast
Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Mischa Heywood
Curator Review
Verdict
A nasty, grief-soaked horror film with strong practical shocks, a bleak emotional core, and a willingness to go far beyond standard foster-family dread. It sounds especially effective if you want horror that is both upsetting and strangely tender about loss.
Best for
viewers who like emotionally raw horror
fans of body horror and extreme practical effects
people drawn to grief-driven supernatural stories
audiences who want a mean, unsettling atmosphere
Skip if
you want a clean, conventional haunted-house story
you are sensitive to child endangerment or bodily horror
you prefer horror that stays mostly psychological
you want a light or crowd-pleasing genre movie
Overview
Bring Her Back looks like the Philippou brothers doubling down on what made their earlier work hit: grief, cruelty, and grotesque physical horror colliding in a story about vulnerable kids trapped with an unstable caretaker. The setup is simple, but the appeal is in how quickly it turns domestic unease into something feral and deeply disturbing.
Worth noting
The popular reaction suggests a film that is both horrifying and emotionally bruising, with a few scenes designed to become instant nightmare fuel. That combination of shock, sadness, and black humor gives it a very modern A24-adjacent horror identity, but the material sounds harsher and more punishing than stylish.
Bottom line
If you like horror that treats trauma as more than a backdrop, this is the kind of movie that can linger after the credits. It seems built for viewers who want to be rattled, not merely startled, and who appreciate a filmmaker duo willing to push the premise into truly ugly places.
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Themes
grief and mourning, foster care, family trauma, supernatural horror, body horror, child vulnerability, possession or corruption, domestic terror
Topics
grief horror, body horror, supernatural thriller, family trauma, foster care, psychological dread, disturbing, bleak, A24-style horror, practical effects