Bring Her Back.

Review #2387: Bring Her Back.

Cast: 

Billy Barratt (Andy), Sora Wong (Piper), Sally Hawkins (Laura), Jonah Wren Phillips (Oliver / Connor Bird), Sally-Anne Upton (Wendy), Stephen Phillips (Phil), and Mischa Heywood (Cathy) Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou (#2065 - Talk to Me)

Review: 

"I love that there's - that it's scaring people, as well as touching them. Like, that feels so incredible. And, yeah, as you said, the scares are definitely there, and, you know, it's pretty gnarly at times." - D. Philippou

"If it is - yeah. And it's so, so incredible that you can do this imagery or, like, talk about these subjects, and I feel like it feels really raw, which is - it can be rare sometimes in a horror film." - M.Philippou

It sure is nice to see a sophomore effort from a directing duo in the best venue possible: a movie theater, free from the whims of streaming and since it is an Australian production, technically an example of world cinema. The funny thing is that Talk to Me and Bring Her Back each came as a surprise to me in finding out it was in theaters, because if there is anything that tempts me to watch a movie, the "on a whim" option wins out far more than say, a critic site with tomatoes (I'll be honest with you: I still don't know what RackaRacka actually is).* As with the last Philippou brotherly effort, the movie was written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman. We might as well get to the point: it is a satisfactory horror movie, so that's nice to hear. Sure, some might wonder just how far you can teeter on the edge of bleakness or wonder aloud about how many times people love to say "it's about trauma" when talking about movies (what's next, making me watch Hereditary to try and get me to appreciate its mediocrity?), but it is at least jaded enough to know where to end up at the end. Besides, who doesn't like shock value and a bit of blood? Grief, grief, grief, sometimes you need to see a movie about people stumbling onto oddballs (look, there may be some places that have you kiss corpses on the head, but I'll be damned if I go along with that). It relies heavily on just rolling along with careful pacing (104 minutes sounds about right) and a highlight performance to rally it all together, at least in the eyes (and ears, well) of this viewer.

 

It should be noted that Wong made her film debut here, having been casted after her mother encouraged her to do a casting call she saw on Facebook, while Barratt has a few films of experience already. They do work well together in that shaky bond of eyes and thoughts in a world that is weary regardless of if one can see it beyond shapes or not. Barratt in particular excels in making the journey of wear and tear at new surroundings of doubt and strange things one to really feel for. And then there's Hawkins, who plays things with such an unsettling quality that comes within natural believability, one who knows what they want to say and do with the new people in her life, a manipulator born in the shrouds of grief. Manipulator, victim, whatever you want to term her character, she pulls it all in for an engaging performance all about truths and lies to be seen and heard. Phillips rounds out the main cast with a ravenous hunger that is about as unsettling as can be possible when not having many words to convey for said strange behavior. The knife sequence in particular is probably the highlight of the movie in terms of jagged strangeness and getting the movie closer to locking in for those not already believing this environment as one of, well, being nuts. The ending apparently was intended to be a bit bleaker, and I guess it makes sense to say that the Philippous stated that the movie has folks in and out of the "cycle of grief".* Even in the eyes of what you see, it might have even gotten bleaker, but so it goes. But at any rate, it is a neatly vague type of horror movie involving delusions and grief that will make its punches clear for interesting moments and a solid new effort from its two directors.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*And then there's ones I just don't feel like doing, such as what, the sixth Karate Kid movie? To say nothing of another Final Destination movie. And I would not be caught dead watching a live-action remake of a movie I already saw in animated form 10+ years ago. 

**Call me a rube, but with how Talk to Me went out and with how stuff was going with the aforementioned corpse chewing, I thought that when Laura did the ritual thing (scroll to spoiler reveal, I guess): she actually would succeed in getting someone else into the body of Piper but having it be Andy, who happened to die by drowning just like, well, Cathy. But it is funny in a mean way to go through the trouble of getting VHS tapes about possession and then have to skirt around the whole bringing-back thing.

Talk to Me (2022).

Review #2065: Talk to Me.

Cast: 

Sophie Wilde (Mia), Alexandra Jensen (Jade), Joe Bird (Riley), Otis Dhanji (Daniel), Miranda Otto (Sue), Zoe Terakes (Hayley), Chris Alosio (Joss), Marcus Johnson (Max), Alexandria Steffensen (Rhea), Ari McCarthy (Cole), and Sunny Johnson (Duckett) Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou.

Review: 

What better way to close out the month than with a debut feature from a couple of Australians? Well, actually, the story is more interesting when you consider that these two directors originally started on YouTube. They grew up in Adelaide in South Australia and actually got into filming each other at a young age with backyard wrestling. Eventually,  after uploading some stuff involving "fake fails", the channel RackaRacka was created in 2013. I have not actually viewed the videos of the channel, but I'm sure that the description of videos with stunts and practical effects is accurate. The film was written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, and it serves as the debut feature for the Philippous, who plan to shoot any film they can in their native Australia, and judging by the preview screenings in 2022 that got itself right into a bidding war at Sundance the following year that fit for (successful) distribution in the States by A24, one might want to inquire further about where these folks can go from here. 

One thing that can be said is that it is an effectively paced film for a debut, one that doesn't go for cheap scares in 95 minutes. It makes a modern tale of possession through a ceramic hand that is basically done as if one was going through peer pressure (oh if only folks tried out weird hands rather than things such, as, say whippets). So yes, it starts out involving folks trying out a hand and being recorded when evidently letting the spirit in for about 90 seconds. Of course, one little hiccup can throw all of the fun (or "content", to be wry) out the window when the dread of seeing something hit closer to home looms. For that, it will strike as a dividing line between folks who will really appreciate the character-driven horror that isn't reliant on too much gore and goes for selective moments to twist the knife...and folks who react in their own ways to folks believing films are really "unsettling". I appreciate the effort the film takes to deliver surprises, but for me, the best aspect may very well be the fact that the film muddles through a foundation of the increasingly weird situations that come from "nay, don't slam the ceramic hand into pieces" for a dutiful ending above all. Well, that, and those select shock moments with effects that don't betray the ambitions set out by the filmmakers. Simply put, it is a decent effort, and it invites the curiosity for what other type of scares could come from the filmmakers (well, I don't mean it sequel-baits itself, but God only knows). As such, the group of fresh faces (read: Australians who are more familiar in their country moreso than ours, to their credit) fit the tone set put in making a feature that doesn't seem adrift enough for an American to stumble away from, which makes it pretty quick to go with these folks. Wilde carries the film about to where you might hope to see in a distinct manner that comes from the dilemma of bewitched terror. The other performances are fine, but it really is more her story rather than one to set folks up to be picked off, at least for the most part. It is a story about grief and the human element in reaction to that for which the film bases its self. Of course, there are those moments where I found a bit dark amusement eithin the plight of such weird befuddlement, so your milage may vary. I don't know, maybe I am just am the kind of person who favors the visceral timing of other horror movies, or maybe it merits further viewing, but I found it just fine, perhaps not the surprise I thought but more of an adequate burn rather than a straight burner of horror. The dread is around, I just found it moderately present rather thar a great terror to erase the little doubts that arise from thinking about horror films (at least this is one that tries to rely on phones rather than shying away from it). Going into it cold will help with expectations that one might have. As a whole, Talk to Me is a solid effort, one that merits curiosity for the people behind it within perspective and ambition to make their Australian identity more than just a filming ground that I can give a good deal of respect to.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Well, well, here we are at the end of July at 38 reviews. In my book, it is a modern record worth mentioning in the history of Movie Night, since the only other big month of 38 was June 2012, part of the old era. This is the first month ever with a review for every day (which I thought would be fun to do after realizing the pattern around the 10th), and I hope you enjoyed the quality of the reviews for such a historic month. August obviously will have its own sort of normal post rate for useful reviews that will be part of a theme, as was the case the last two Augusts. Stay tuned.