When the twin film-makers Danny and Michael Philippou premiered their irrepressible 2023 horror debut Talk to Me they gave the genre a much-needed shot in the arm. Carefully avoiding the pitfalls of monotonous gore (see In a Violent Nature) or “cerebral” horror (think Alex Garland’s Men), these brash Australian YouTubers brought energy and vivacity to the table. They had made an incessantly entertaining, profoundly chilling movie about incursions into the afterlife.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, their follow-up film creaks under the weight of “tricky second album syndrome”. Bring Her Back’s USP, and MVP, is Sally Hawkins. She plays a former therapist turned foster carer called Laura who, as the film begins, is welcoming into her remote Adelaide home the newly orphaned teen rebel Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired younger stepsister Piper (Sora Wong).

Within minutes Andy spots that something is amiss. Laura’s other charge, a mute preteen skinhead called Oliver (Jonah Wren), displays cannibalistic tendencies and a penchant for strangling cats and taking hungry chunks out of the woodwork. Laura, meanwhile, soon reveals that she is grieving the loss of her daughter and might just be nurturing a plan that involves Russian snuff movies, body-hopping demons and a triggering set piece, not for odontophobics (those who fear dental torture), that involves a key character repeatedly crunching down on the serrated end of a kitchen knife.

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None of this works without Hawkins. Her Laura is instantly one of the great horror villains. The performance notes include her Poppy character from Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky as well as Christian Bale in American Psycho. It’s as if she’s taken all the quirky and inextinguishable optimism of Poppy and warped it into something completely unhinged. “I know I’m a weirdo!” she says early on with a terrifying hint of menace. When she hugs Andy tightly, saying, “It’s OK, I’ve got you!”, the phrase lands as a soul-curdling threat.

The film around her, alas, is less impressive. The demon-centred plot is silly and convoluted. The narrative is overloaded. And, worst of all, unlike Talk to Me there’s not much fun to be had here.
★★★☆☆
18, 104min
In cinemas from July 26 (previews)

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