Chaotic good twins Danny and Michael Philippou, the unruly brains behind smash hit horror movie Talk to Me and now its hugely anticipated follow-up (but not sequel) Bring Her Back, have been preparing for this moment from the day dot.
Life-long lovers of way-out movies, they began by creating mayhem on their wildly popular YouTube channel, RackaRackca. So named for Adelaide suburb Pooraka, where they grew up, it’s racked up nearly 7 million subscribers since, setting the scene to storm the big screen. But first, the dynamic directorial duo assisted on numerous sets, including Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, absorbing valuable know-how.
Producer extraordinaire Samantha Jennings of Causeway Films backed them all the way, and it paid off. Talk to Me, which debuted at the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival, caused a scene when it was selected for Sundance the following year. Garnering A-list fans the likes of Ari Aster, Jordan Peele and Stephens Spielberg plus King, a bidding war erupted, with powerhouse distributor A24 swooping in. A huge hit worldwide, the film raked in way more than its modest budget.
ScreenHub: Talk to Me review: an Australian horror to possess you
All of which piled a tremendous amount of pressure on their shoulders for the release of Bring Her Back, rolled out across Australia by Sony on 29 May 2025. ‘It was the most terrifying thing ever, putting it out into the world,’ Michael says of their jitters. ‘When we made Talk to Me, no one expected anything. But to have this pre-built pressure is anxiety-inducing. But all you can do is create something authentic to you, make it the best you can, and then whatever happens, happens.’
Bring Her Back: jumping back in
Danny, valiantly battling against a whispery, hoarse voice but with his enthusiasm undimmed, agrees. ‘It was like exposure therapy; we had to confront it and jump in.’
They needn’t have worried. Bring Her Back is a triumph backed in by rave reviews. A darker, more tragic film, it makes Talk to Me seem like a teen comedy in comparison. ‘We wanted to commit to a different energy,’ Michael says.
‘It’s a horror movie with a stronger connection with character and drama, which goes against our instincts of fast, punchy YouTube stuff. Can we tell a snowballing story that spirals out of control in a contained way? That was the challenge.’
Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine, The Shape of Water) delivers one of her most compelling turns ever as Laura, the deceptively cheery foster mum from hell. ‘She’s just a master and able to conquer anything that she puts her mind to, always bringing such realism and humanity, but she’d never tackled a character quite like this,’ Danny says. ‘I couldn’t even fathom her bringing that skill set to this, and it was such an honour to be able to work with her.’
ScreenHub: Bring Her Back review – a rivetingly terrifying tragedy
Laura, grieving a lost daughter, has dark designs on feisty teenager Piper (Sora Wong), who is blind. Piper is placed with Laura alongside her loving stepbrother, Andy (Invasion star Billy Barratt), but their adjustment is exacerbated by How to Make Gravy star Jonah Wren Phillips as Ollie, a fellow foster kid with issues.
Michael raves about Hawkins’ physical transformation drawn deep from within, with no prosthetic transmogrification required. ‘Oh my god, in the editing bay, there are scenes towards the end where we pulled up the brightness and properly looked at her face, and it’s transformed, no makeup, to something so unhinged it’s terrifying.’
Wong receiving a standing ovation at the Los Angeles premiere for her debut performance was an extraordinary moment, the brothers agree. ‘It was so important to have a real vision-impaired girl, so we did an Australia-wide search with thanks to Nikki Barrett in casting, who’s amazing,’ Michael says.
‘We did an improv scene with Sora, and she just ran with it. You either have it or you don’t, and she knocked it out of the park.’
Barratt, who is English but nails the Aussie accent, was roughly the same age as Wong when he landed his first movie gig, taking her under his wing. ‘He was able to really big brother her as a mentor,’ Danny says. ‘And Michael and I let her know there’s no such thing as a bad take. She can’t let us down. Everyone’s finding it together.’
Bring Her Back’s startling sound design is a star unto itself. Working with sound editor Emma Bortignon, the Philippous went for a more-is-more approach.
‘There’s so much we learned on Talk to Me that we wanted to implement on this, mixing in Dolby Atmos so we could layer in so much, like rain on the roof,’ Michael says.
‘What’s cool about filmmaking is conveying things like theme and story not just through script and dialogue, but through costume, visual settings, sound and music, all those mediums together. When you have super-talented artists working on a unified vision, it gives a film so much depth, and that’s awesome.’
Danny, who co-wrote the film with Bill Hinzman, the lads’ former tutor at Adelaide’s MAPS Film School, loves the stuff that lies beyond what we see and hear. Fear lurks between the frames. Like the snippets of an arcane ceremony on a disturbing VHS tape Laura is studying closely, in a desperate attempt to bring back her daughter.
‘I love weird little videos you come across on the internet that are terrifying because the context isn’t there,’ Danny says. ‘You’re dropped into this thing, and there are clues, so you can put them together and theorise, but over-explaining always takes something away, for me. It feels too by the books, too clean.’
There’s nothing clean about Bring Her Back, mired in the darkest of places. But even here, reality isn’t quite what winds up onscreen. ‘It was important for us to find a house that also had a pool at its heart, so every window would lead there,’ Michael says of Laura’s not-quite-right home.
‘We found exactly what we were looking for, but the front yard’s actually public land. So we’d be filming, and joggers would run through going, “Oh look, there’s a demon over there,” with their phones out asking if they could film it. All we could say was, “We can’t tell you not to, but please don’t”.’
Bring Her Back is in Australian cinemas from 29 May 2025.
