Film Review: Bring Her Back
A24 May 2025 Release
Tw: Spoilers
Bring Her Back (2025) does not stray from the regularly scheduled programming that is A24’s wacky endings and mid-movie twists. The film’s main premise is about a ritual to bring back the dead that a mother intends to perform for her late daughter who drowned.
The take on grief that is displayed onscreen is accurate to how some people feel polarizing losses in life. A mother’s grief for her child drives her to have no limits on what she would do to get her back. The ritual video that Laura is basing her plan on is disturbing, to say the least.
The character that I feel for the most in this film and who I wish had a better end was Andy, played by Billy Barratt. His backstory and his character development were well done and I would have liked to see him be the one to get a happy ending. Though A24 is not known for happy endings. While it may be a cliche, I am a sucker for a happy ending. Especially after this film did a good job of getting the viewer to like the characters in the film. A likeable protagonist is harder to see die. In the end, Andy met his demise so that his sister could escape and live.
Ollie was a character who suffered severely as well to make the resurrection possible for the grieving mother. The most disturbing scenes featured his insatiable hunger that drove him to take a bite not only out of a table but his arm. The gripping sense of disgust I felt during the scene was enough to churn my stomach. One other movie that I have seen in theaters physically made me nauseous and that was Bones and All (2022).
The film is more disturbing than scary. I found several jump scares to get my heart racing, but none that made me unable to sleep at night. My overall rating for this film was 3/5 stars.
I use the app Letterboxd to track all of my movie logs. I find this app to be most beneficial when I want all the information about a film quickly. The actors, the actresses, the writers, the directors, the length of the film, the average rating on Letterboxd, and people’s reviews thus far.
While I don’t take all of the Letterboxd reviews to heart, I certainly find myself scrolling through there when I want to laugh. Even the bad reviews of my favorite films are entertaining. The average rating thus far on Letterboxd overall for Bring Her Back (2025) film is 3.8/5 stars.