Bring Her Back
Short description
After their father dies, a teenage boy and his partially sighted half-sister are placed in the care of a foster mother who lives in an isolated country house. The boy, who has been looking after his sister and expects to take charge of her once he turns eighteen, grows suspicious of the woman and her silent, watchful son. What the newcomers do not yet know is that their new guardian is set on a ritual meant to bring her own dead daughter back from the other side. The horror film stars Billy Barratt as Andy, Sally Hawkins as Laura and Mischa Heywood as Cathy, with Jonah Wren Phillips, Stephen Phillips and Sally-Anne Upton in supporting roles. It runs 104 minutes and was made in Australia and the United States by A24, Causeway Films, the South Australian Film Corporation and Salmira Productions.
The film is the second feature directed by Michael Philippou and Danny Philippou, following their 2023 debut Talk to Me, and was written by Bill Hinzman and Danny Philippou, with Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings producing. Made for a budget of 15 million USD, it has taken 39 million USD worldwide, a strong return for a horror release. Audiences rate it 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb from 118,000 votes and 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB from 1,949 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.6 out of 10 from 270 reviews, placing critical and audience responses close together. The credited production involved 34 cast members and 139 crew.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 2023, brothers Danny and Michael Philippou planned to start creating a film adaptation of the computer game Street Fighter, but they chose to film this movie instead.
- Before being cast as Piper, Sora Vohn had no acting experience whatsoever. Her mother saw an ad on Facebook seeking a girl with visual impairments, and Vohn was born with coloboma (a defect of tissues in various organs; in ophthalmology, it manifests as a complex or isolated absence of parts of certain eye structures – the iris, choroid, eyelid, optic nerve, ciliary body, or lens) and microphthalmos (a congenital eye defect in which one or both eyeballs are reduced in size), so she met the requirements.
- In one scene, Oliver (played by Jonah Ren Phillips) grabs a butcher knife and tries to eat it, leaving him with a lacerated and bloody mouth. The knife used in the filming was a prop (made of rubber), and the wounded face was also a prosthetic. With the permission of the Philippou brothers, child acting coaches were present on set to help their students with the most challenging scenes. In Phillips' case, his parents, who are actors themselves, were on set.
- According to Michael Philippou, the filmmakers considered several different endings, including one in which Katie (played by Misha Hayward) ends up in Piper's body. As a result, the finale was filmed to be more emotional than originally planned. The film is dedicated to the memory of Harley Wallace, a friend of the Philippou brothers, who passed away shortly before filming began.
- The film title translates to “Sorrow.”
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
