Streaming on Netflix-India, Bring Her Back does not do anything remarkably different or special. It tries the tried & tested route of opening up the plot slowly, revealing the real face of the sinister but emotionally-challenged caregiver who just cannot get over the death of her daughter. You really cannot compliment the Director for putting in jump scares or some shocking twists in Bring Her Back - streaming now on Netflix. At best, Bring Her Back is good for someone who has not seen a lot of horror flicks recently. In the last 5 years, there has been a surge in the number of horror genre movies that try to pique your curiosity with complicated storylines. If you have watched a handful, you have probably seen them all. You will certainly not find Bring Her Back a great watch. However, the occasional horror genre, someone getting started in this niche just might find Bring Her Back interesting. The blind Asian girl in the movie is not that convincing.
Strangely, she seems too comfortable with her condition. I am not imposing an opinion that anyone with visual impairment should feel like a victim all the time, but you are talking about Piper here, who loses her parents, has just lost her father, and is now living in some type of social foster care, but somehow, there is not much resentment or anger in her. The better storylines in this genre pan out a lot better when there is depth to every character. Has Piper been characterized well in Bring Her Back? No. This could have been done a lot better. For me, her brother, Andy, came close to being convincing, but then again, for the type of trauma that the story tries to portray, he could have been a lot better. But still, the guy playing Andy did a good job overall. And then, I recall one scene where he exits a temporary hospital stay, I think, and comes back with undereye shadows that resemble a malnourished peasant. How could the director of Bring Her Back miss something so obviously artificial and superficial when handling the final edits? What makes Bring Her Back a bit interesting is the first 10 minutes. The opening scenes are high on video footage [VHS tapes that have become rather common recently] playing on screen, where some type of sacrificial body offering is happening. This is done by folks speaking Russian, and there is some body nudity too. This is when the idea surfaces in your mind - the plot of Bring Her Back could be really twisted because it seems like videotaping of human sacrifice, and this is happening in a very crude, raw form.
You glance at the IMDb rating, and you believe that with these opening scenes and a score of more than 7, Bring Her Back is definitely going to make your stomach churn a bit. But none of this happens! The storyline moves smoothly. There are no issues with the background sound effects either. However, many things remain intentionally undercooked. Andy's childhood abuse is mentioned and handled quickly. There is no mention of how the brother-sister duo loses their mother. Their father's death seems unworthy of being mentioned more than thrice. Laura has worked in social services or social care for children more more than two decades, her own daughter dies in her backyard, she retires, starts volunteering for state-appointed foster parenting roles, lives in a massive but isolated home, and still, none of these things infuse any suspicion among the people around her.
Wait! There is more. For about 10 days or so, Laura has had a strange kid in her house. The soul-carrier or soul transferer medium of sorts, this kid, called Oliver, seems to eat nothing, hardly speaks, and never bathes. To say that Oliver looks spooky would be an understatement. There is something outright and astronomically wrong with the kid, and yet, while he is there at Laura's residence, it engages no attention whatsoever. What you are likely to remember as being somewhat different is the explanation of the process to bring back the dead, which includes eating the human body, purging the soul, and transferring the soul. There are some Satanically shot videos, some flesh-eating scenes, a bit of cannibalism in a horror genre benchmarked way, and some violence, but largely, Bring Her Back does not keep you hooked. I had a cup of coffee, broke away for lunch, took a couple of calls from the office, and yet, it seemed like I did not miss much despite not pausing the movie. Yes, Bring Her Back is not that special!