Bring Her Back (2025) - 7/10

A pre credits sequence indicates from the off that this is going to be nasty, but an instant humanity is injected into this horror as we meet Andy (Billy Barratt) and his step-sister, Piper (Sora Wong). They find themselves in foster care, having just lost their father in traumatic circumstances. They go to live with Laura (Sally Hawkins), who’s a bit energetic. She has another apparent foster child, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips). He’s mute and clearly has trauma in his past too, but inflicted by whom and to what end. Laura takes to Piper, but not to Andy. There’s definitely something not right Something she’s hiding. Something dark and deeply troubling. Oliver draws the focus in the background. Small and shaven headed, with a dead eyed stare, his presence is visually arresting. But it’s Laura that’s the worry. She’s manipulative and driven. She has… had, a daughter, Cathy and her own grief is about to impact Andy and Piper in horrific ways. It’s a graphic and psychologically tormenting tour de force. Laura has been meddling in something in her home in the forest and the trauma that Andy and Piper have to this point endured is nothing compared to what’s coming. The last thing I saw Sally Hawkins in was Paddington 2, she’s very different here. Her motherly exterior the perfect mask for a classic thriller villain. For all its eerie tension building, it does reveal its intentions quite quickly, but it doesn’t weaken it. Full of foreboding menace, the score is minimal and the gore visceral. We’re put in Andy’s frustrated shoes as Laura rips his world apart, all the while thinking she’s in control. She is not. Hawkins is great. Phillips is even better. Hats off to directors Danny and Michael Philippou though, they ride the suspense rollercoaster deftly with this. Their previous outing Talk to Me was great, but this is something else. More tormenting and much scarier.

7/10