It’s almost two years to the day that Talk to Me was released in UK cinemas. It had already generated quite a lot of hype after playing at Cannes and Sundance but I’m not sure many people expected this Aussie indie (18-rated) horror to do quite as well as it did. It took nearly $100m at the box office and was acclaimed by general audiences and critics alike. We loved it – and if you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for! The creative duo behind the film, Danny and Michael Philippou are clearly a couple of very talented dudes and it wasn’t going to be long before they had another bite at the cherry. They’ve already confirmed that work is underway on a sequel, called Talk 2 Me (nice) but after initially being attached to helm the new Streetfighter reboot, they’ve stepped away due to creative differences with whatever studio that was daft enough to annoy them. But hey, it’s not all bad – because they’ve been hard at work knocking out another horror film called Bring Her Back, which we’re about to review. Right now. See below.

In Adelaide, Australia, 17 year old Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired step-sister Piper (Sora Wong) return home from school to find their father dead in the shower. But don’t panic! Social services are here to help! And they do a grand job in this instance, placing the traumatised step-siblings with Laura (Sally Hawkins) a former counsellor who lives in a large house at the edge of town with another foster kid called Oliver. Laura is almost proudly eccentric but it seems like her heart is in the right place. She’s absolutely smitten with Piper as well, who reminds her of her daughter Cathy, who was blind and tragically drowned in the swimming pool just outside. But it’s not long before we start to realise that perhaps she isn’t just quirky and that there is something else going on. Her infatuation with Piper is matched by her disinterest in Andy and the behaviour of Oliver doesn’t allay any fears either. He refuses to speak and spends most of his time staring ominously at absolutely nothing. Oh and he eats flies too. Andy soon suspects that something is amiss and although he doesn’t see Laura pour water onto his trousers at night so that he thinks he’s pissed himself in the morning, we do. He also doesn’t see her when she’s sat in a dark room at night watching nightmarish VHS footage of strange foreign rituals. But we do. It’s not long before Adam realises that he and his sister could be in some serious jelly.

Ok, so right off the bat, the question that most people will ask is; is it as good as Talk To Me. And the answer to that question, in our humble opinion, is no. Not quite. It explores similar themes to Talk to Me. Grief, trauma, loss. In fact, these heavy threads are a bit more front and centre here and although it makes for a more emotionally intense journey, it isn’t ultimately quite as satisfying. The blend of supernatural and body horror is also evident in both and there are some genuinely wince inducing scenes in here. In Talk to Me we had the kid smashing his head against a table repeatedly and Bring Her Back doubles down on that type of savagery with a couple of scenes that are quite tough to stomach. And all shot with that visceral energy that the Philippou brothers will come to be associated with after this. There are shocks aplenty, but where Talk to Me perhaps has the edge is that it’s just a little bit scarier. And that’s not because the plot of Bring Her Back isn’t unsettling at all, because it is. It’s more to do with the way the story is told. Although Andy is our main character, Laura receives equal screen time, and crucially, we see several scenes with just her - usually doing all sorts of insidious shit. This means the audience is privy to information the protagonists are not, which undercuts the suspense somewhat. There’s little ambiguity about her intentions, and while the Philippous wisely avoid over-explaining the supernatural elements, it leaves the latter half of the film feeling a bit too transparent. There’s not much mystery left to uncover.

That said, there are plenty of reasons why this doesn’t derail the film entirely. First and foremost, the performances from the four leads are outstanding. Billy Barratt and Sora Wong strike the perfect balance of teenage defiance and vulnerability, making them incredibly easy to root for. Jonah Wren Phillips brings a chilling presence as the mute Oliver, but it’s Sally Hawkins who steals the show. Best known to many as Paddington’s adoptive mother, her deeply unsettling turn here is all the more disturbing for it. And yet, she still manages to evoke a surprising degree of empathy.

And despite not feeling quite as dread laden as it perhaps could (or should). in terms of the horror, Bring Her Back does deliver. As mentioned, there are some genuinely horrible sequences that will live long in the memory (the one involving a dining table is particularly savage). And while it may not reach the same levels of tension, the grainy, found-footage-style video clips scattered throughout are haunting in the best (and worst) way. They’re the kind of imagery you’ll wish you could erase from memory. Technically, the film is superb, and if the Philippous stick with horror, it’s clear they have the potential to become major voices in the genre.