BRING HER BACK directors Danny and Michael Philippou

The AU Review

After taking the world by storm with their horror debut feature Talk To Me in 2023, all eyes were very much on Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou to see how they would follow up such a mammoth success.  Proving that they were no flash in the pan, the twins launched back into the genre with this week's BRING HER BACK, an oft-disturbing tale of a brother and sister and their uncovering of a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother (played by a sublime, against-type Sally Hawkins).  Talking to the duo as the film releases in cinemas, Peter Gray touched on the different facets of horror explored on screen, how Hawkins came to be involved, and how one particular gross horror effect was achieved practically on set.

Transcript

00:00peter gray from the a review hello danny hello michael what's that what's this collection

00:04i see a bit of physical media i see that is yep that is all blu-rays and 4ks right there

00:09yeah let's go talk to me is teased down there somewhere yeah i thought you're pointing to

00:16your bin yeah talk to me is in there well i mean i i spoke to you for for talk to me and um a few

00:24backstage chats are like the actors a few years ago so it's like it's awesome to talk to you

00:29again to see just the insane success that has come from talk to me to this um i saw bring it back last

00:36night like triggered beyond belief it was like it's the feel as i feel bad movie of the year but i mean

00:44that in the best way possible but i and i wanted to say for everyone that sort of wants untouched by

00:50the veronicas to be like the new national anthem i like that you've like just been like no we're

00:55gonna fuck that song right up with it somehow it still feels upbeat to me yeah it's a homer

01:02it's a homage to the veronicas i also like i one of the first things i wanted to ask was um where

01:09grapefruit came from if that's like something between the both of you was that something that

01:15like was thought of to get where did that sort of start because i loved that aspect of of their

01:20relationship here oh yeah so you draw from so many different places when you're writing

01:25and so many rural places as well so i don't use the word grapefruit but my co-writer does

01:30and that's his code word of people that are saying like i'm being serious this is not a joke

01:35grapefruit and and uh yeah it just felt so so rich and so right for these characters

01:40because i feel like and like andy and piper feel they feel so lived in as people like did your

01:46did your own sibling relationship sort of like inform their relationship on screen in any way

01:53well uh only when they're fighting each other yeah when they're fighting it might be me and michael

01:57uh but uh it's actually uh a friend and uh his little sister it's really based on their relationship

02:03and when they are entering new places because she's non-sided he's constantly guiding her and like

02:09like mapping the world out for her and uh it's a really uh beautiful relationship that they have so

02:14there was more drawn on that definitely not me and michael and like obviously the horror here is

02:20still supernatural but it feels more like based in like an emotional mentality like is there is there

02:27an approach for the both of you like regarding tension that like differs from supernatural to the

02:33emotional like are there tools that you implement that like to i guess exacerbate that visceral feeling

02:40yeah it's it's more psychological and so i'd say what laura's doing in a way is more terrifying than

02:49the supernatural stuff because it's grounded in a reality she's a therapist and you know she knows

02:55how to fix people but she's she's using her abilities not to not to heal but to break and she

03:01understands these things and she's got a goal she has an ulterior motive and that's what a lot of the

03:07movie is it's what you see what you don't see truth and lies the layers of someone she's outwardly bubbly

03:13but you know there's this undertone that that's not right with her um so there's there's so much

03:18thematically that that ties in and and it's cool in the script writing process when you get to that

03:23point where everything clicks and makes sense on all those different layers yeah she would like that

03:28because it's like we're meant to like i feel like we love sally hawkins in everything so i guess to have

03:35her in this was a real sort of like i guess trip because she was so frustrating as a character

03:43because like we know like we we can see what she's doing and no one else can like so when it came to

03:49sally hawkins because i believe what she was like the first person that you thought of she's the first

03:53person you reached out to was there ever a case of like if we don't get sally hawkins because like

03:59in like insane incredible performance but like how did you sort of think of her for a role that we

04:06are never expecting her to play she's such a strong character actor and every performance she does she's

04:12playing someone completely different and it was so exciting like she'd never done a proper genre film

04:17before or played a character like this so that was so exciting and it was our producer samantha

04:22jennings that uh i like like gave us the knowledge and said have another look at sally's work because

04:27i'd seen a couple of her films but when i really went down that rabbit hole and like i like watched

04:32her filmography she she's mind-blowing it's so incredible and and yeah we thought she wouldn't

04:37say yes and the call was so amazing of her she was such a beautiful collaborator she's such a gentle soul

04:43uh it's crazy to see her go to the places that she did i feel like it's always like the it's always like

04:47the nicest people that are able to like do the darkest stuff on screen and and one of the things

04:54that like i guess really spoke to me as like because i was like someone who's like lost their

05:01father it was like oh there were moments of this film that yeah i was like i can see my way into this

05:07and i was like there's that sense that you know like grief is kind of like inherited or it's like passed

05:13down in the way that we see in this like did you sort of i guess conceptualize grief as like a legacy

05:21rather than like an isolated feeling was that sort of something that you thought of well it feels like

05:26laura's grief is she's not like reaching out to people and she's trapped herself inside her own home

05:34and in this circle and she's pulling people into this dark place and only if they can break out of it

05:39are they going to be free of this thing and she's turning somebody into a monster she's hurt she's

05:45hurting someone else and in turn they're hurting other people and it's this cycle that's happening

05:50and it's it's terrifying so uh yeah it doesn't it doesn't feel as generational to me as it does uh

05:56like a really morbid isolation and like with as in like with sally hawkins sort of in this role

06:03what did you ever sort of i guess find yourself rewriting scenes or reevaluating after like you

06:10see what she's done like she's bringing this emotional nuance and like this vulnerability

06:15that maybe you hadn't expected yeah it was you know once she came down to australia and we started

06:22going through scene by scene and breaking it down it was that was a a process in itself and some things

06:29would change in the but the beats overall didn't but i guess some stuff that was supposed to be

06:34scary turned more sad because it she connected with the character on such a human level it it it it

06:42was this inherent sadness about it it's a tragedy and laura is not a bad person she's the like life has

06:50turned her into this and she's lost her sanity and that's that's the most heartbreaking thing and then so

06:56there's there's certain scenes that that when you yeah it in it was written out scary but then

07:01it would change yeah i guess the thing that was i'm i'm assuming was always written out to be scary was

07:07the uh the knife teeth seeing how it's like the the sound the sound design in that sequence was like

07:15almost more terrifying than what we see what we see is was i was i had like a such a visceral reaction

07:23to that because and i like i love horror but that was that was pushing it but i was like is it was

07:29like is that one of those things that when you're writing it you're like this is this is the scene

07:33that's going to really like mess people up or like did you did you have any idea of that at all well

07:38yeah like i know that that bothers me like that sound and those sounds and melody bothers me and the

07:44way that we actually accomplished it like with all the rubber knives and everything that we did on set

07:49was i actually chewed on knives for the sound so our sound designer i had the microphone up

07:54right onto my mouth and i was like disgusting you can't fake the sound as i like that you can look

07:59away from the screen but you're gonna hear it as well so uh yeah i like it bothers me and they're

08:05putting that on screen you're like surely that's gonna bother other people as well which is uh yeah

08:09always fun in a horror movie it no it bothered in the best way possible i'm i'm so i'm so excited for

08:15everybody to see this film like i i want everyone to walk into this and just not know what they're

08:21what they're getting themselves into like you guys just have absolutely mastered horror i can't wait to

08:27see what you guys do next i'm like just super excited for everything thank you so much for for

08:33taking this time out and congratulations again just awesome stuff guys thanks so much thanks for

08:38chatting on us again thank you thank you

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