AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Andy and Piper are meeting their new guardian for the first time. Andy kicks at a rug taped to the floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRING HER BACK")
BILLY BARRATT: (As Andy) Is this for Piper?
RASCOE: Piper can only see shapes and light.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRING HER BACK")
SALLY HAWKINS: (As Laura) Oh, no. My daughter's blind.
BARRATT: (As Andy) Well, is she here?
RASCOE: Laura, the guardian, flinches.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BRING HER BACK")
HAWKINS: (As Laura) No, she's passed.
BARRATT: (As Andy) Sorry.
HAWKINS: (As Laura) It's all right. You didn't know. It's not your fault.
SORA WONG: (As Piper) How'd she die?
BARRATT: (As Andy) Piper.
HAWKINS: (As Laura) She's OK. She drowned.
RASCOE: "Bring Her Back" is the latest from Danny and Michael Philippou. It's a dark and moody horror flick, very much in the same vein as "Talk to Me," their hit two years ago, and not in the same vein as how the Australian twins rose to fame, as the YouTube duo RackaRacka.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right, guys, check this out. This is a real knife.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNIFE BANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right, check this out. And don't move. Act (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF KNIFE SLICING)
RASCOE: What makes "Bring Her Back" stand out is how ominously vague the Philippou brothers keep so much of the movie. We asked Danny about Andy and Piper's relationship.
DANNY PHILIPPOU: They're a little bit of a found family, in a way. They've sort of been married into a brother/sister relationship, and that starts off rocky for them and for Andy, who comes from an abusive home. And he's not totally in love with Piper at the beginning of their relationship back so many years ago. And after a bit of a tragic incident, their bond grew stronger and stronger and tighter and tighter, and they rely on each other for everything. Piper is vision impaired, so she can't entirely see properly, and Andy is playing the role of her eyes, and a little bit to negative effects, in a way, because he's not painting the world for her in a truthful way. He's trying to shield things from her.
RASCOE: This story is about loss and overcoming grief, and it can be a very common backdrop for the horror genre. I have to ask whether you two have experienced this level of grief in a similar way that we see in the movie, or what was the catalyst for this story?
D PHILIPPOU: My cousin lost her 2-year-old. And he was lifeless on the hospital bed, and our family was around him, and they were holding his hands and his feet and his head. And my cousin didn't look like she was ever going to be OK ever again. And she was the last to let him go. And it was a really affecting but traumatizing moment. And the idea of her never being OK ever again or never being able to let him go, like, that was one of the things that was a - like, a seed for "Bring Her Back." And, like, when you're writing horror, like, you need a place to put all those things. Anything that's upsetting you or is traumatizing, you sort of have a place to put it.
RASCOE: You know, we recently spoke to David Cronenberg about his latest film, "Shrouds," which also deals with grief and mourning. Talk to me about how you think horror, as a genre, allows filmmakers to deal with grief in a way that a realistic drama cannot achieve.
MICHAEL PHILIPPOU: It's therapeutic. It's a way to discuss things that maybe you have difficult doing otherwise.
D PHILIPPOU: Yeah.
M PHILIPPOU: And it's - yeah, a lot with grief. But to me, also, I feel like the movie's a lot about love.
RASCOE: People may be listening to this, like, is this a scary movie?
D PHILIPPOU: (Laughter).
RASCOE: But it is a scary movie. Like, I have to say, this movie is skin-crawling at points, and I mean that in the best way. There are scenes in this movie where you - I was screaming at the screen, please, don't do it. Ah. You know, I did. That was me. But there's also this deep sadness. I mean, I've seen online, some people say that they end up crying at the end of the movie. How does that make you feel, to have people saying, well, I was crying because I was so touched by this?
D PHILIPPOU: I love that there's - that it's scaring people, as well as touching them. Like, that feels so incredible. And, yeah, as you said, the scares are definitely there, and, you know, it's pretty gnarly at times.
RASCOE: Yes. Yes. Gnarly is the word. Gnarly is a good word.
(LAUGHTER)
M PHILIPPOU: If it is - yeah. And it's so, so incredible that you can do this imagery or, like, talk about these subjects, and I feel like it feels really raw, which is - it can be rare sometimes in a horror film.
RASCOE: I was also fascinated by this movie 'cause, of course, like, in scary movies, you often have this lore, this backstory, right? And with this one, it was very interesting because you guys don't delve too much into the backstory and the lore and the ritual. I mean, I think I can say that. Usually, like, somebody, like, finds a book or something, and it's like, oh, this is what they're doing...
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: ...You know?
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: They find...
D PHILIPPOU: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...The newspaper, right?
M PHILIPPOU: Under the floorboards of the house.
D PHILIPPOU: No, it's the library. They go to the library.
RASCOE: Exactly.
D PHILIPPOU: Yeah, it's - I always find it scarier when a character is out of their depth. And we're sort of dropped into this story after Laura has got ahold of this ritual. So for where we are at the story, I like that there's this wider world that's outside of it, and we're getting a glimpse into it. And I really wanted to tie into those weird lost media clips that you stumbled across on the internet, you know, those violent images and these things that are so terrifying because they don't have a context. But the - like, it's all there. Like, we've written out this entire lore, this entire backstory. We're about to launch...
RASCOE: So you have it. You have the lore. You have the book (laughter).
D PHILIPPOU: Absolutely...
M PHILIPPOU: Yeah.
D PHILIPPOU: ...I have the book.
(LAUGHTER)
M PHILIPPOU: We got that newspaper we'll - that you need.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah, the newspaper, yeah, with the - what was under the house? OK, yeah (laughter).
D PHILIPPOU: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: I think this has been...
D PHILIPPOU: But the - well, this has given literally every answer ever. This is convenient.
RASCOE: Yeah.
M PHILIPPOU: You know, it's that thing of, when you - it's the same as a character. You need - when you're writing a character, you need to know everything that happened in that character's life and their personality and outside factors that led them to the point in the movie. And so even though that stuff will never be on screen, it's the same with this. You know, that whole wide world needs to be real. Like, it needs to be thought up and written out, but it doesn't necessarily need to be in the movie. But it's there, and we hint to it in different ways.
RASCOE: You guys started out, you know, making YouTube videos and doing, like, comedy and stuff, and now you've done these two feature-length films. I mean, both of them are critically acclaimed. "Talk To Me" was a big success. Why make the jump from YouTube to movie-aking, and what has this journey been like so far?
M PHILIPPOU: Our goal has always been film and television. Like, we always wanted to make movies. We didn't go into YouTube wanting to be YouTubers. We kind of just fell into it. It was a way to kind of carve our own path and not go the traditional route. Especially in Australia, there's a ladder to climb. You got to do this to get to this, to meet this person. We were able to bypass that. And we met so many amazing and talented people - stunt performers, makeup artists, actors - that we, you know, were able to gain so much experience and learn from them. And a lot of those people helped with this movie, as well. So, yeah, it was kind of like just making our own way to eventually getting to making a film when we're ready.
RASCOE: So I'm totally down, stamp of approval from me. I really love the movie. That's Danny and Michael Philippou. Their new film, "Bring Her Back," is in theaters now. Thanks to both of you.
D PHILIPPOU: Thank you. Thank you for having us. And I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
M PHILIPPOU: Thank you so much for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAX ARUJ & ALFIE GODFREY'S "MAIN TITLES (FROM MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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