Bring Her Back is the new movie from the apparent goofballs who made Talk to Me. Their pre-movie intro does not, in fact, represent the grimness of their productions. They also merrily spoiled aspects of the film while heaping praise on their cast. And maybe that spoilage might be needed for this rather unconventional flick that doesn’t go out of the way to explain itself.

It’s about a brother and sister who lose their pa and get put into the foster care system. The younger sister is mostly blind and the elder brother might have a history of violence. Their foster mom (Sally Hawkins) is slightly off kilter and already has an even more off-kilter foster child. Something is clearly up.

I was on the fence at first… undecided if I was going to go with a perfectly ok 3 until the film convinced me it was better than I was thinking. The issue is that something bizarre is going on and the film has no interest in explaining anything. So I was soft on it… until the weirdness and violence and gore coalesced into something unique, unexpected, and unsettling.

This is not the world’s happiest fun time horror movie… I came away a little disturbed and fairly unhappy. It’s a brutal, mean film that constantly puts its innocent foster kids into some bad situations. It had me genuinely wondering how they were going to survive each scenario, especially as it rammed its way into the third act.

The directors in their intro heaped praise on Hawkins (who deserves it) and toss out kudos to their actually vision impaired lead actress. Plus the rest of the young cast too. Everyone does a good if disturbing job… these kids might need therapy.

And the Philippou brothers prove their writing/directing bona fides by one-upping Talk to Me. Both films have a unique take on some classic horror tropes. I look forward to their twisty Aussie takes on more horror in the future.

I’m not gonna say this is an easy watch or a happy go-lucky horror comedy. Its dark and miserable and unpredictable in a way similar to – but quite different from – Talk To Me. I very much enjoyed it, even if I felt a little antsy about its pace and limited reveals in the first half.

Score: 87