The Philippou brothers, Danny and Michael, first film, Talk to Me, was probably the buzziest horror film of 2023 and became a sleeper indie hit. It was also one of the best horrors of that year. Some would even say it was the best horror released that year.

With that success behind them (I talked about their work as YouTube content creators in my review of Talk to Me), I ended that review with a warning: the brothers shouldn’t rush off to make a sequel. After all, how hard would it be to have the hand end up in someone else’s possession?

Fortunately, the brothers didn’t rush off to make that Talk to Me sequel. I mean, don’t get me wrong…they are currently developing a Talk to Me sequel, but at least it wasn’t the first thing they tried right out of the gate. Instead, they gave us Bring Her Back.

That’s important because the Philippou brothers are very much part of a new horror vanguard, one that includes filmmakers like Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons) and seems increasingly interested in putting storytelling and character ahead of simply delivering gimmicks and scares.

In fact, if I had to pick four films that best represent where horror is right now, I think the films made by Zach Cregger and the Philippou brothers would be great choices. Collectively, these films demonstrate how contemporary horror can be both accessible and thematically ambitious, using strong concepts as a starting point rather than an end in themselves. More importantly, these directors haven’t simply tried to replicate the success of their first major horror films. Instead, they have used their follow-ups to further develop their unique filmmaking styles.

Ironically, Cregger’s Weapons, also released in 2025, might have been one of the reasons Bring Her Back got somewhat lost in the 2025 conversation. Not that it did poorly at the box office relative to its budget. But the buzz wasn’t there in quite the same way it was for Talk to Me, which is too bad because I think it is a better movie.

Truth be told, Bring Her Back also shares a lot of the same DNA as Weapons, even though it follows a linear narrative structure. It is a mystery thriller. Part of the story revolves around missing children. There are things that don’t add up until the reveal. There is an antagonist who…okay, no spoilers.

But just because Cregger’s film was the one that had the buzz doesn’t mean Bring Her Back isn’t a great film. If nothing else, Danny and Michael Philippou are better than Cregger, and pretty much anyone else, at creating complex young characters who are remarkably relatable. And man, do they flex this muscle with this film.

Bring Her Back centers on the relationship between seventeen-year-old Andy (Billy Barratt) and his younger sister Piper (Sora Wong), who is visually impaired. After their father, who is fighting cancer, is found dead in the shower, the two end up in the care of social workers who hope to place them up for adoption. Andy, who is nearly old enough to become Piper’s primary caretaker, pleads to be kept with her after a former child therapist, Laura (Sally Hawkins), agrees to take Piper into her care.

But once they arrive at Laura’s house, Andy slowly starts to suspect that she might be hiding things from them, particularly when it comes to her strange, mute foster son, Oliver.

I’ll stop there because I don’t want to spoil the surprises, though it’s hard…because I really love this film.

In Bring Her Back, the Philippou brothers continue to do an excellent job of fleshing out their young protagonists so that they feel like real people with real histories. This was true of Talk to Me as well. Andy, in particular, has believable flaws that naturally stem from his history of abuse. His devotion to Piper is his most redeeming feature, but even this feels flawed. He is protective of her, but at the cost of being too protective, trying to shelter her from hurtful truths that could help her mature in a desperate attempt to keep her happy and optimistic.

Not that Piper is a caricature of optimism, which in many respects shows the futility of Andy’s actions. She, too, feels like a genuine person. One that isn’t easily molded by the manipulation of others.

The world in which they operate also feels genuine. A lesser film might have stripped Andy of his agency once things start spiraling against him. Instead, Bring Her Back still has characters who are willing to at least hear him out, even after his credibility has been called into question. That feels real.

So does watching the situation at Laura’s house take unintended turns. This is a film where even the most clever antagonist can’t account for every eventuality. Amy Madigan might have won the Oscar for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” for Weapons, but that doesn’t mean Sally Hawkins didn’t do an incredible job in her role. In fact, the performances across the board in Bring Her Back are tremendous, and a lot of that has to do with the material. The cause and effect in this film always feels layered in distrust, cynicism, and unpredictability.

Then there is the mystery itself, and the way the brothers resist overexplaining the paranormal elements of the story. They clearly established the rules of their world beforehand, but largely leave it to the audience to decipher the clues and piece together why the supernatural occurrences happen the way they do. It meant that I still had things I was able to piece together after the film was over.

But for some viewers, Bring Her Back might be a hard watch. It is a film that places child abuse front and center, though it handles the subject maturely. And it doesn’t always spare its young protagonists from harm on screen. So yeah…get ready to have your heart broken. The emotional stakes in this film are real.

Bring Her Back might not have been the success Talk to Me was, but it’s still a fantastic movie that deserves the attention of any fan of modern horror. Much like Ari Aster and Robert Eggers were considered to have their fingers on the pulse of horror in the previous decade, the Philippou brothers are worth considering as representing the voice of horror in this one. Two films in, and it is already clear that they have a knack for making films with commercial appeal that still come across as elevated horror.

Bring Her Back has a solid mystery, genuine tension, characters you care about, excellent performances, and an unpredictable plot. Is Weapons a better movie? Overall, yeah…but probably not by as much as you’d think. Honestly, it is Cregger’s skill at nonlinear storytelling that does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Are you missing out if you don’t see Bring Her Back? Absolutely. Hands down, it is one of the best horror films of 2025. And I can’t think of a character I rooted for more in a film that year than Andy.