Bring Her Back

“grapefruit.” holy &$#*! it has been a while since i’ve wanted to yack in the movie theater and no it wasn’t from over buttered popcorn. the philippou brothers have competely outdone themselves and made a film that not only terrifies and unsettles but develops its characters to tell a powerful narrative on insatiable grief. the central relationship of andy and piper is so strong and while grief is a common theme within the horror genre, i feel it is executed perfectly in this film. sally hawkins, jesus christ. this film is proof that horror films deserve much more in awards consideration for acting. her and the young boy who played “ollie” were so phenomenal. speaking of the boy who played “ollie”, i am so impressed with the prosthetics and practical gore. there isn’t a movie out in the last five years that matches the detail and utter atrociousness of the gore on display here. props to the kid for being able to work with such so effortlessly on camera as i could barely stomach just watching, let alone acting it. sound design was top tier as well and it perfectly maintained the uneasiness and suspense within the house. i could gush for hours but i want to spend more of this review speaking on the ending so here is your warning. SPOILER WARNING (also for the *last of us part ii)* the ending here is so superb. i think the death of andy is really well done and i keep thinking about the scene where piper hears his voice despite him being already long dead. it was a deliberate choice to have him to die via drowning like laura’s daughter and part of me would like to think the ritual failed because of such. however, i really liked the ending in the pool. to be honest, i immediately thought of the video game, the last of us part ii. at the end of the game, ellie travels to santa barbara to finally enact revenge upon abby for the murder of joel. a violent and rather pathetic duel ensues in the shallow water of the beach, with ellie eventually gaining the upper hand and begins to drown abby. then, all of a sudden, ellie lets go. the visions of a struggling and beaten joel no longer appearing in her mind, rather, a happy one. killing abby wouldn’t bring joel back. it wasn’t what he would have wanted and it would just tarnish the last happy moments that she had left with him. i say all of this because bring her back mirrors this to a tea with just the inverse. rather than grieving their father figure, laura grieves the loss of her daughter and decides in the very last moment that it would not truly bring her back. rather than drowning piper the way her daughter did, she needs to lift her up from the water and hold onto what she still has of her daughter (which she took very literally). if you read this far, i am seriously just rambling but i found the parallel themes of obsession and deciding to move on really engrossing. back to the film as a whole. this is the best horror film thus far and the philippou brothers are the kings of modern horror right now hands down. excited to see what they work on next and i don’t think i’ll sleep tonight after seeing any scene with ollie and his chompers.