Bring Her Back is the newest film from Danny and Michael Philippou, who brought us Talk to Me in 2023. It’s a dark, bleak horror movie that definitely doesn’t end on a positive note; there is no light at the end of that particular tunnel.
Bring Her Back is certainly not the first “feel bad” horror movie ever made, and you can be sure it won’t be the last. So, let’s take a look at some other films that will make you leave the theater feeling as if you have been hit over the head with a sledgehammer.
*Be aware that some spoilers lie ahead. While I will not give away all details of the films’ endings, some plot points will be revealed.
Talk to Me
We might as well start with the Philippou’s first film, which was, like Bring Her Back, what I consider grief-based horror. Grief is a powerful theme to explore in the genre, because most of us have experienced it at some level, and it’s so tough to deal with.
Talk to Me put its main focus on 17-year-old Mia, still struggling with the overdose death of her mother. Her father is still in the picture, but the trauma they have been through has caused Mia to pull away from him emotionally. She has a great, supportive friend in Jade, and is close to Jade’s younger brother Riley.
The script allows us to feel affection for these three characters, and that’s where the trouble begins. At a party, an unusual prop is introduced – it’s an embalmed hand and arm that is rumored to allow you to talk to the dead if you hold the hand and say, “Talk to me.” Following that up with “I let you in” allows the spirit to possess you.
Mia plays the game, and thinks she talks to her mother. But when young Riley plays, he exceeds to allowable 90 seconds, and the spirit doesn’t leave him. Riley’s possession scenes are brutal and so, so hard to watch. And we really want Mia to figure out how to save him, but it doesn’t look good.
Talk to Me affected me in a way few movies do, which is partially due to my own long-term grief over my 16-year-old nephew, who we lost to suicide several years ago. There was something about Riley that made me think of him, so watching this kid go through something so horrible was like watching my nephew go through it.
Talk to Me is available to stream on Netflix.
Speak No Evil – Just to be clear, we are talking about the original Danish version of this vicious little horror movie, not the American remake. As usual, American versions of foreign films tend to soften the content, particularly where children are involved. So, in the original, the children are younger, and in the remake, are closer to the pre-teen stage of life.
While on vacation in Italy, Bjorn, Louise and their daughter Agnes become friends with a Dutch couple (Patrick and Karin) and their son Abel, who they are told was born without a tongue.
Patrick and Karin invite the other family to visit them at their home in the Netherlands, but once there, it doesn’t take Louise very long to start feeling like something isn’t right. Patrick and Karin are borderline abusive to their son and Patrick is prone to delightful characteristics such as voyeurism, ridiculing Louise’s vegetarianism and bringing young Agnes to bed with him at night.
There is also a cabin in back of the house, and when Bjorn checks it out, he discovers evidence that several other families have been deceived by Patrick and Karin, and were most likely murdered.
Bjorn, Louise and Agnes mount an escape attempt, but remember, this is a list of feel bad movies, so it doesn’t go as planned. Speak No Evil is a solid example of how bleak and unsettling a horror movie can be.
Speak No Evil is available to stream on Tubi.
Hereditary – I have never fully understood how people who hate Hereditary will often claim that they found it “funny.” To me, there is absolutely nothing funny about the family tragedy that is portrayed in director Ari Aster’s first feature film. My theory is that the horrific events that occur, followed by the deep anguish felt by Annie just made some viewers uncomfortable to the point where they had to laugh it off to feel ok.
The Graham family consists of Annie, Steve, 16-year-old Peter and 13-year-old Charlie. When Annie’s mother dies, she is shocked at the vast number of funeral attendees. Dear old mom wasn’t a very nice person, despite the fact that she and Charlie were very close. Charlie has some medical issues, which include her severe allergy to nuts.
When Peter is forced by his mom to take Charlie with him to a party, he isn’t happy about it, and just wants her to go away. He suggests that she have some cake, but guess what is in the cake, and causes his sister to go into anaphylactic shock? Yup, nuts.
As he rushes her to the hospital, Charlie leans out of the car window, gasping for air, and when Peter swerves to avoid a dead deer in the road, he gets a little too close to a telephone pole. The result is disastrous to Charlie, and Peter goes into shock, driving home and leaving his sister’s body in the back seat, where Annie finds it the next morning.
What follows is a deep, dark spiral into grief, shock and some terrifying supernatural events. There is a lot going on in Hereditary, but what stuck with me for days was the realistic portrayal of grief. Annie in particular goes off the deep end, and everything is made worse when we discover her mother’s history in a demonic cult.
Based on what I had heard about Hereditary, I waited a long time before I finally watched it. I knew it was going to be a hard watch, and I had to be in the right frame of mind.
Hereditary is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Seven – Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow all give top notch performances in this feel bad horror/thriller. Set in an unnamed city overrun with crime, the atmosphere starts to get to us right away. It seems like it is perpetually dark and rainy here as we meet Detective William Somerset (Freeman) and his new partner David Mills (Pitt), who has just moved to this desolate place with his wife Tracy (Paltrow). She is the only ray of sunshine in this world, so you just know something is likely to happen to change that.
As the detectives investigate a series of serial murders, a pattern falls into place. Each of the victims is marked with one of the seven deadly sins, and the manner of death fits in with each sin. An overweight man is found dead after he was force fed to the point of his stomach exploding, and “gluttony” is penned on the wall. A murder scene labeled “greed” consists of a man who appears to have been made to slice a full pound of flesh from his own person. You get the picture.
As Somerset and Mills try to work together despite their hostility towards each other, Tracy pulls Somerset aside and tells him that she is concerned about their move, because she is pregnant.
When the detectives begin to hone in on “John Doe”, things take an unexpected turn. He shows up at the police station covered it blood and surrenders to the two detectives, imploring them to go with him to find the last two victims: envy and wrath.
On the off chance you haven’t seen Seven yet, I won’t give away the ending, but it is one of the most shocking horror movie experiences I have had in my life. “What’s in the box?” is a question that lives on in my nightmares.
Seven is available to rent on various platforms, including Amazon Prime.