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Bring Her Back centres around young half-brother and sister Andy (Billy Barratt – Kraven The Hunter) and Piper (Sora Wong), whose Dad has passed away.
The situation leads to them staying with foster mum Laura (Sally Hawkins – Wonka), with a view to the 17-year-old Andy applying for guardianship of Piper in three months time, when he turns 18. The young girl is partially-sighted, but they soon learn that Laura’s young daughter, Cathy, passed away some time back, and that she was blind.
However, she also has a son, Oliver, who’s been selectively mute ever since Cathy died, but while he’s clearly not firing on all cylinders, where is the title going to fit into this? And if Laura’s suitable for fostering, surely she should do something about the danger of a disused swimming pool, with no water in it?
Bring Her Back shows us many gross and gory things happening, including a few full-on, genuine shocks that I’d never seen before, along with moments such as a pane of glass exploding, causing a woman behind me to jump!
And I don’t want to go into much detail about what ensues, since those should only be discovered once you come to them. However, it’s safe to say, that if you’re thinking Sally Hawkins has been amazing in films before, here, she’s absolutely fucking insane! Give her the Best Actress Oscar! I just hope that because it’s many months before that comes along, Bring Her Back doesn’t get forgotten, and there’s also fantastic lead performances from Billy Barratt and Sora Wong as Andy and Piper.
Just one gripe… This is a theatrical film, and brotherly director duo Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou shot it in 2.00:1, which fits correctly on ZERO cinema screens! You just end up black bars all the way round. This is a common trait with many A24 films, and I don’t know why they didn’t just stick with 1.85:1, especially since it’s clearly shot that way, since around 55 minutes in, it slowly opens up from 2.00:1 to 1.85:1 for about five minutes, for a rainy scene (for no apparent reason), and then back to 2.00:1. The closing credits are also in 1.85:1, as you can see they meet the top and bottom of the screen, as they scroll up.
Another option would be to just stick with 2.39:1 like their earlier film, Talk To Me.
That one was a reasonable film, but for Bring Her Back, they really pulled out all the stops for this one. With its tension building up slowly, and then really ramping up to 11, the more it goes on, I thought it was brilliant when I first saw it, and thanks to being on Odeon Limitless, I went back again and watched it the following weekend, and it’s become one of the best films of 2025 so far!
Yes, there’s one or two tropes in there which are briefly used, but compared to the contents during the rest of the 104-minute running time, I can excuse such a transgression.
As we head into a new weekend, it’s still showing in many cinemas, so DO go and see it on the big screen.
As for the release date, was it Friday July 25th, or Friday August 1st? Well, July 26th is the official release date, and as that’s a Saturday, it means the “first week’s box office” runs 11 days from Sat July 26th to Sun August 3rd. It’s a very odd situation, but I first saw it happen with Transformers Age of Extinction, back in 2014.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes.
Bring Her Back is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 104 minutes
Release date: July 26th 2025
Studio: 2.00:1; 1.85:1 (one scene)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 10/10
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Producers: Kristina Ceyton, Samantha Jennings
Screenplay: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
Music: Cornel Wilczek
Cast:
Andy: Billy Barratt
Piper: Sora Wong
Laura: Sally Hawkins
Cathy: Mischa Heywood
Oliver: Jonah Wren Phillips
Phil: Stephen Phillips
Wendy: Sally-Anne Upton
Anna: Kathryn Adams
Ivan: Brian Godfrey
Anton: Brendan Bacon
Macia: Olga Miller
Berta: Nicola Tiele
Katrina: Frances Cassar
Naomi: Asha O’Connell
Kimmy: Arianny Ross
Samantha: Amya Mollison
Tari Demon: Ryan Linton Brown
Young Piper: Kira Wong
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.