Are Danny and Michael Philippou the new kings of horror? Well, they may be the new princes or the new marquesses of horror anyway; I can’t think of anyone who outranks them. The Philippou brothers grabbed audiences by the throat with their debut Talk to Me, and now they’re back with a macabre new adventure set on their home turf of suburban Adelaide in South Australia. It takes place in a bizarre house with a triangular empty swimming pool destined to be filled with rainwater as the film’s bad weather continues into the horrible finale.
Bring Her Back gives a great villainous role to Sally Hawkins and a terrifically smart debut for non-professional teen Sora Wong. It’s a horror preying with hideous expertise on our protective instincts towards the vulnerable, our fear of our own vulnerability, the shame and guilt of abuse, and survivors’ wretched sense of loyalty to their abusers. And the theme of blindness and visual impairment might even call to mind the unreconstructed attitudes of movies such as Wait Until Dark and Don’t Look Now.
