Bring Her Back is the second film from Talk to Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou and is another original and visceral excursion into supernatural horror. Bring Her Back is a slow burn, tinged with a thoughtful sadness that ultimately unravels into chaos.

Following the death of their father, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) are put into foster care and sent to live with Laura (Sally Hawkins) and her other foster child Olly (Jonah Wren Phillips). Laura is grieving the loss of her own daughter, and the emotional scars remain raw. She immediately takes Piper under her wing and into her heart.

But perhaps things are not quite all they seem. Laura does very little to make Andy feel welcome, barely caring enough to get his name correct, while her outgoing, exuberant energy hides a very present pain. Foster child Olly is deeply traumatised and mute, and somebody keeps watching a grainy Russian VHS tape featuring a grisly and disturbing cult ritual.

Make no mistake, Bring Her Back is as gleefully bloody as Talk to Me. But if Talk to Me felt like the best Evil Dead movie since Army of Darkness, then Bring Her Back feels like it could sit comfortably alongside the likes of High Tension, Inside or Martyrs, as part of the New French Extremity.

Bring Her Back has a vicious, uncompromising approach to gore, but in the service of making you think and feel profoundly uncomfortable, rather than having you jumping from your seat. Instead of going for big scares, there’s an underlying menace to the proceedings and a trepidatious, creeping dread that escalates slowly until, suddenly, everything is at one hundred miles per hour.

There’s also something inherently unsettling about bringing horror into an everyday environment – a normal house or a normal suburb. Not only is it readily identifiable, but the contrast of explosive violence with a sleepily mundane setting is always jarring.

Characters are more nuanced than just evil or malevolent. They are instead driven by pain and desperation, and the performances are terrific across the board. From Barratt and Wong’s touching and realistic family bond, to Jonah Wren Phillips’ creepy intensity, and of course, the eternally fantastic Sally Hawkins going through the full pendulum swing of emotion.

Bring Her Back is essential horror filmmaking — a ferocious, fascinating fusion of blood-soaked brutality and aching sorrow. It’s as wince-inducing as it is unexpectedly poignant, lingering long after the credits roll. This is one horror film you won’t be shaking off anytime soon.