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EP 504 - Faça ela voltar (Bring her back)

·40 min·3 clips

The hosts debate the new horror film 'Bring Her Back' while joking about a co-host who skipped it, promising a heated discussion.

1. Senta Que Lá Vem Spoiler EP 504 reviews 'Bring Her Back' (Faça Ela Voltar), the second feature from Australian twin directors Danny and Michael Philippou. 2. Hosts are Sansa (main host), Thaís, and JP Carvalho, a self-described poetry and horror enthusiast from Paraíba whose voice is compromised but present; regular panellist Maria Paula skipped the episode, having 'used up her horror quota for the year.' 3. The episode's central question is whether this follow-up to 'Talk To Me' delivers on its reputation as the horror film of 2025, and whether grief handled from the perpetrator's perspective is more disturbing than from the victim's. 4. The Philippou brothers began with the YouTube channel Raka Raka, enrolled in and abandoned film school, then apprenticed on sets including 'Babadook' before their 2022 debut 'Talk To Me' (covered in episode 327) cost $4.5 million and grossed over $90 million globally. 5. 'Bring Her Back' cost approximately $15 million and had earned over $36 million at the time of recording, already recouping production costs; a sequel to 'Talk To Me' is in pre-production with a projected late-2026 release. 6. The film follows half-siblings Andy and Piper, who discover their father dead and are adopted by Laura, a former social worker living in a remote house, played by Sally Hawkins. 7. Sora Wong, who plays Piper and has near-total blindness in one eye and minimal vision in the other, was discovered via a Facebook advertisement with no prior acting experience; JP calls her performance 'spectacular.' 8. Child actor Jonah Ray Phillips (Oliver) performs much of his role physically with minimal dialogue, and Thaís notes the drowning scenes required the young actors to convey drowning convincingly, which the directors described as the most difficult sequences to film. 9. Sally Hawkins, known for Jane Austen and Charles Dickens adaptations on BBC/PBS Masterpiece, had never previously appeared in a horror film; she performed her own stunts, which is unusual for an actor of her profile due to insurance concerns. 10. JP draws a direct parallel between the Philippou brothers and filmmaker Zack Krieger: both made an energetic, faster first film (Talk To Me / Barbarian) and a slower, more emotionally oppressive second film (Bring Her Back / Weapons). 11. The film's production began during a period of personal grief for the directors: they had recently lost a close friend, and during filming, a relative lost a two-year-old child — both losses fed directly into the story's central question of what a person would do to bring back someone they loved. 12. JP argues that Bring Her Back is 'more visceral' than Talk To Me: where the first film used grief as a metaphor for adolescent addiction and escapism, the second uses it to examine how far a person can justify monstrous acts in the name of love. 13. Thaís notes that the film's tactile direction, emphasising touch over sight, was a deliberate choice by the directors to ground the audience in Piper's sensory world as a visually impaired character. 14. In the spoiler section, the panel reveals that Laura's apparent warmth was always calculated: from the moment of adoption she showed overt hostility toward Andy and warmth toward Piper, signalling her true target. 15. Laura systematically exploited Andy's alcoholism — drinking with him, humiliating him by urinating on him while he slept, and engineering incidents designed to destroy his credibility with social services so that Piper could be isolated for the ritual. 16. The panel identifies the most disturbing scene as the one involving Oliver and a knife: director Danny Philippou bit a real knife to create the authentic tooth-cracking sound effect while the child actor used a foam prop, and the child also bit a kitchen counter for a separate sound. 17. Sansa highlights the moment Piper, while being drowned in the pool, calls out 'mãe!' (mom!) as the film's most intelligent single beat — a blind, drowning child locating the exact psychological lever of her abuser. 18. The episode's tone is enthusiastic and analytical, with the three hosts frequently interrupting one another to add observations; there is no comedic relief section, reflecting the panel's view that the film itself offers none. 19. Horror fans who found Talk To Me too fast-paced or shallow on character would most enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners who prefer horror with comedic relief or who are averse to scenes of child peril should skip this episode.

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