Bring Her Back Review

 

Are you tired of being happy? Do you want to feel sad and depressed? Well, then, do I have the feel-bad movie of the year for you?

Bring Her Back tells the story of brother and sister Andy and Piper, who, after losing their dad, move in with a foster mom who had a dark secret and plan for the two siblings….

Right off the bat, you feel for these kids. The actors do a great job at making these characters likable and feel like real people; plus, not only do they lose their parents, but the sister is mostly blind, and the brother is doing everything he can to look after her. He technically didn’t have to move in with the foster mom, but since he won’t be 18 for another three months, he can’t look after her on his own and doesn’t want them to be separated. And while it is a harsh situation the two are in, there is a sibling levity between the two that you root for.

There is another kid in this, Oliver, and he deserves major props. He pretty much feels like a lobotomized serial killer, which can be a tough acting challenge for adults, but he’s only ten years old, so his acting ability at a young age is impressive.

But the best performance comes from the foster mom, played by Sally Hawkins, who is usually great in everything she’s in, but this is definitely a standout for her in her career. Her character is very complex; at some point you’re weirded out by her, other times you hate her, and then sometimes you feel bad for her. There are even a couple of points you think she might have a turnaround, and then it starts all over again. It’s a lot of plates she has to balance and convey in her acting, and she really does a fantastic job.

The biggest theme of this movie is about loss and grief, which is tonally and visually conveyed throughout the film with rain and a water motif, which the filmmakers do a good job visualizing with interesting shots and camera movements, but it’s so depressing and gloomy looking that you could watch this movie in the middle of a desert under a sun lamp and you’d still feel like you need to dry yourself off afterwards.

There isn’t a whole lot of gore in this movie, but there are a couple of scenes that just go from 0 to 11 on the gross-out meter fast. Like, apparently appetites can go almost as fast as the speed of light because that’s how much I lost mine at a couple of parts, lol.

There is “something” going on, which isn’t hard to guess, and they don’t really go too much into the “how,” which I could see bugging some people, but honestly, it didn’t bother me too much just because… Well, without spoiling anything, the type of movie this turns into is a popular one, and there are enough hints and cool visuals that it was easy for me to ignore the nitpicks and just roll with it.

The story is a little loose, not in a boring sense, but there are just not a whole lot of plots/casts of characters; a lot of the film’s story is conveyed through vibes and somber music and sequences of characters being distraught. So while the visuals, music, and performances are top-notch, it will leave the viewer feeling very sorrowful and dejected, like movie theaters should hand out wide-eyed kittens for people to play with after just to lighten the mood lol.

Props to the camera operator; a lot of the movie is shot using handheld camera work, which gives the film a very low-key and “realistic” feel, but despite the craziness and looseness, I was impressed with how many bits of information and character progression are conveyed visually.

A nice surprise was at one part during the film, they play a song I’m a big fan Untouched by the Veronicas,” which is a sort of obscure song from about 15 years ago that isn’t mentioned a lot to my knowledge, so to hear it pop up randomly in the movie was a nice surprise, and the way it was used was a nice little subversion in the scene.

So coming out, I think people might be a bit mixed on this film, like they’ll be impressed by the filmmaking and the acting, and as a horror movie, it is very effective, but it is just so heavy and somber that I don’t know if people will be rushing out to see it again or recommending it to people unless you just really want to feel depressed. I give it a low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I appreciate and commend the effort that was put in, but it’s a harsh bummer 😂