Bring Her Back Ends with a Heartbreaking Realization That You Can’t Truly Bring Back the Dead

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In life, there are few things more heart-wrenching than losing a child. In the latest horror hit from A24, titled ‘Bring Her Back’, this devastating concept is explored through supernatural elements, but it’s the profound sadness and character development that makes it truly chilling. This film takes place in the same cinematic universe as 2022’s ‘Talk to Me’. ‘Bring Her Back’ is the second movie by Australian twin directors Danny and Michael Philippou. The story revolves around two teenage step-siblings who, after their father’s sudden passing, move in with a new foster mother who may be performing occult rituals in her home. With its deeply layered themes, ‘Bring Her Back’ offers a complex narrative that requires careful interpretation to fully understand.

What Happens in ‘Bring Her Back’?

One day after school, Piper (Sora Wong) and her step-brother Andy (Billy Barratt) return home to discover their father deceased on the bathroom floor, apparently having slipped during a shower. Initially, a foster mother named Laura (Sally Hawkins) is only willing to take in Piper because she’s had issues with troubled boys before. However, Andy begs to go with his sister since he plays a crucial role in caring for her due to her visual impairment. Eventually, Laura agrees and they move into her house. It turns out that Laura is not just a grief counselor as they initially thought; she is also a grieving mother herself, having lost her daughter Cathy who was blind and tragically drowned in the backyard pool. Another foster child named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) lives with them too, but he’s unable to speak.

In due course, Andy begins to feel uneasy about Laura’s favoritism towards Piper and Oliver’s odd conduct. As the three-month mark approaches for Andy’s 18th birthday, a time when he can seek legal guardianship of Piper, Laura deliberately stirs tension between Andy and Piper. A chilling incident at their father’s funeral, where Laura makes Andy kiss the corpse, strengthens Andy’s suspicions. Afterward, back home, Laura gets drunk with the children to mourn the loss, leading Andy, under the influence, to have an emotional talk with Laura. In this conversation, he opens up about his past abuse at the hands of their father, revealing that Piper was spared. Moved by this confession, Andy inquires about Laura’s coping mechanisms without Cathy, to which she responds longingly that she would do anything to hear Cathy address her as “mum” once more.

The Oliver Problem

The day after, Andy finds himself at home with Oliver. He opens Oliver’s door, discovering that he had been kept locked inside. But as they step over a white circle marking the house boundary, Oliver suddenly starts convulsing and foaming at the mouth. For the first time, Oliver speaks out for help. Laura arrives, becoming alarmed, and takes Oliver away. She manages to calm him down, massaging his forehead and presenting a VHS tape of a cult ritual to him, which makes Oliver return to his silent, trance-like state once more.

Laura keeps portraying Andy as angry and careless, implying he has tantrums and wetting the bed when he doesn’t. This builds up until one day, Andy faints in the shower and sees a vision of his father warning him that “Piper will die in the rain.” He wakes up in the hospital, begging Laura not to let Piper go out due to his vision. However, she disregards him and takes Piper outside in the rain to show her some of Cathy’s old clothes and a freezer containing Cathy’s preserved body. Although Piper can’t see the corpse yet, Laura asks her to call her “mum,” and Piper responds uncertainly with a “maybe.” Laura also asks if Piper would like to stay with her after Andy turns 18, but Piper kindly refuses.

The Ritual

At this stage, it hasn’t fully dawned on Piper that Laura intends to sacrifice her in a ritual aimed at resurrecting Cathy. This explains why Laura wants Andy out of the picture. From the VHS tape, we discover that the ritual demands the victim to meet the same fate as the person being brought back to life. Subsequently, a vessel (Oliver) possessed by a demon must ingest the fresh corpse and regurgitate into the deceased’s mouth. Quite straightforward, isn’t it?

Following his release from the hospital, Andy’s suspicions are heightened, and he’s had enough. In a final, damning act, Laura attacks Piper while she sleeps, falsely accusing Andy of the assault. Upon visiting the police station, Andy spots a missing child poster that triggers recognition – it’s Oliver. Determined to expose Laura’s suspicious behavior, he enlists social worker Wendy and heads back to Laura’s home. There, they discover Oliver, who has consumed so much food that he’s swollen, having fed on Cathy’s remains. In an effort to escape, Andy and Wendy are run over by Laura, but miraculously, Andy survives. In a desperate bid to eliminate them, Laura then tries to drown Andy in a nearby puddle.

How Does ‘Bring Her Back’ End?

Upon getting back home from her goalball practice, Piper hears Andy’s voice coming from upstairs. Curious, she follows the sound, only to discover Oliver, swollen, in his place instead. Realizing something is amiss, she quickly runs and shuts herself in a bathroom, where she uncover’s Andy’s lifeless body. Laura then signals her intention to drown Piper. In panic, she tries to escape, but ends up knocking herself unconscious in the process.

At the swimming pool, Oliver initiates a move, and Laura starts choking Piper, who remains unconscious. Piper suddenly awakens while submerged, thrashing about and shrieking for help. In an instant triggered by remorse and emotional turmoil, hearing Piper cry out “mum” reminds Laura of the time Cathy initially drowned, and she couldn’t save her on time. Overwhelmed by guilt and memories, Laura releases Piper.

In my perspective as a film critic, I must say that “Bring Her Back” is a gripping narrative filled with suspenseful twists and turns. The protagonist, Piper, darts onto the bustling street and hops into a passing vehicle – a truck belonging to a couple. In hot pursuit is Oliver, who, upon seeing a missing child poster that mirrors his daughter, embarks on a relentless chase beyond the white perimeter lines. Exhausted, he crumples to the ground, seemingly expelling an evil entity from within him.

The climax of the movie unfolds as the authorities arrive and recognize Oliver as the long-lost child. As the story reaches its conclusion, we witness a poignant scene where Laura desperately holds onto Cathy’s lifeless body, both floating in the pool. It appears that Laura has succumbed to her severe arm wound, leaving the police with no choice but to rush towards the grieving mother and daughter.

You Can’t Bring Them Back

In a similar vein as Talk to Me, Bring Her Back is deeply unsettling due to its exploration of our inability to defy natural laws. Both films convey a central theme about confronting mortality. What makes Bring Her Back particularly distressing and intricate is the seeming violation of nature’s order—a child dying before their parent, with the tragic twist that the parent burying their child is portrayed as the antagonist. This narrative structure creates an exceptional foundation for horror, as we find ourselves wanting our protagonists to prevail (for justice for Andy), yet simultaneously developing empathy for Laura due to her heart-wrenching ordeal by the film’s conclusion. The movie’s most terrifying moments are manifestations of grief, mistreatment, and eventual acceptance.

The central idea in the novel “Bring Her Back” and the crux for deciphering its conclusion could be found when Laura chooses not to drown Piper. Upon hearing “mum” again, which had been her desire, Laura realizes that Piper is not Cathy, a fact that will never change. She’s in the pool where Cathy perished, a death she could possibly have prevented, but it’s something she can’t alter. The interpretation of this scene is open to various perspectives, largely thanks to Sally Hawkins’ exceptional acting, but it appears to convey, “I cannot resurrect her.

With all the family she once had now gone, Piper must confront the idea that Andy won’t return to her, but this doesn’t imply he has abandoned her entirely. In one of the last scenes in the movie, Piper recalls hearing an airplane overhead, echoing a previous scene where Andy said when someone dies, “we don’t get burned or buried; we simply board a flight.

Bring Her Back is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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2025-06-04 01:33