The following contains spoilers for Bring Her Back, now playing in theatersBring Her Back is A24’s latest horror film to cover the intersection of grief and the supernatural, but it does it a lot better than Hereditary​​​​​. The second feature film from Danny and Michael Philippou, following the success of Talk To Me, Bring Her Back is a painful exploration of grief in the face of death, filtered through an emotionally grounded and terrifying tale of resurrection and demonic forces. The ending of Bring Her Back visualizes grief in a beautifully tragic way, a strong finish for one of the year’s best horror films.

Bring Her Back is far from the first film to explore grief through a horror lens, but it’s one of the best. It actually has a lot thematically in common with a popular pick for one of the 21st century’s best horror movies, Ari Aster’s Hereditary. I’ve always felt that movie is one of the 21st century’s most overrated movies, a well-made film that nevertheless lacks the necessary humanity on a story level to make the bizarre horror swings land. Bring Her Back is a far more impressive film and should dethrone Hereditary as the gold standard for A24 horror.

Bring Her Back Is Really Similar To Hereditary

Bring Her Back And Hereditary Explore Similar Themes

Bring Her Back shares a lot of thematic focus with A24’s critically acclaimed 2018 horror film Hereditary — but does it all in a much more compelling and effective way. Released to rave reviews and an impressive 90% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, Hereditary focuses on a family falling apart and under a mystical influence after the death of a child. Bring Her Back is also about the nature of grief, focusing on a grieving mother Laura, as she takes in Piper and Andy, who’ve recently been orphaned. Both films explore similar themes and ideas.

Both also take a purposefully mysterious approach to the supernatural elements that pervade their world. Both films push their lead characters into dark directions, especially Laura and Hereditary‘s grieving mother, Annie. Both films are ultimately tragedies about the ways grief can transform people into their worst selves, although Bring Her Back‘s hauntingly bittersweet ending is slightly more positive than the bleak climax of Hereditary. Both movies are very much performance pieces, but the scripts give the stars of Bring Her Back better material to play with.

This is the biggest difference between Bring Her Back and Hereditary, and where the films separate in my eyes. The script for Bring Her Back is more grounded in character interactions and connections, which makes for a more engaging story than the relentlessly dour Hereditary​​​​​. There’s lots of impressive work going on in Hereditary, from a visual standpoint and in the performances. However, the script for Hereditary lacks the necessary levity and humanity to keep the story truly compelling, which Bring Her Back achieves much better.

I Like Sally Hawkins’ Laura Way More Than Toni Collette’s Annie

At the core of both films is an impressive and dark performance from a talented actress. Toni Collette is mesmerizing as Annie in Hereditary. For all my problems with the film, Annie’s character isn’t one of them. She’s a raw nerve, whose anger and sadness over the loss of her daughter push her into some very dark places. She’s a grim character who isn’t meant to be likable, even as her plight remains deeply tragic and heartbreaking. Collette is terrific in the role, but the character is purposefully one-note. She’s grief personified, unable to be anything else but in pain.

Laura is also grieving the accidental death of a daughter, but she responds to her pain in Bring Her Back in a more painfully human way. She’s charming at times, often to manipulate others around her. However, Hawkins finds these little moments of humanity that make the character fare more real. She seems to open up to Piper and Andy at times, and has real moments of hesitation and horror at what she is doing. This makes her willingness to do it all the scarier.

Their respective endings highlight why Laura is a better character than Annie. Annie is possessed and transformed as part of the demon king Paimon, claiming the body of her son. Annie spends the last stretch of the film transformed into a monster, a creepy concept that is thrown off by some special effects that I always found cheesy. In contrast, Laura’s turn in the third act of Bring Her Back is heartwrenching as she tries to reason with her victims and overcomes her own horror to commit atrocious acts — making her all the more human and horrifying.

Bring Her Back’s Supernatural Elements Are More Effective Than Hereditary

Bring Her Back’s More Understated Scares Are More Effective Than The Big Swing Of Hereditary

I appreciate how both Hereditary and Bring Her Back eschew going too into detail about the supernatural forces at play in their respective stories. This makes both of them more unsettling in the build-up to the climax, but Hereditary goes all out with the arrival of the cult surrounding Paimon. It’s a muted moment that uses a palpable sense of dread to ratchet up the tension. However, it’s so overwhelmingly idiosyncratic and purposefully strange, as is much of the third act of the film, that it stops feeling like a human story.

Bring Her Back keeps much of its supernatural horror focused on Ollie, who gradually becomes one of the film’s greatest scary ᴀssets. Laura never loses herself to a demonic presence, very much keeping her actions her own. The supernatural elements are scary and unnerving, but never take away from the human edge. The scariest part in Bring Her Back‘s ending is Laura, almost through tears, telling Piper she’s going to drown her as part of the resurrection ritual. It’s blunt, tragic, and absolutely terrifying in a way Hereditary never is.

Why I Love Bring Her Back (And Don’t Like Hereditary)

Bring Her Back Tells A Similar Story In A Better Way

When I first saw Hereditary, I was genuinely surprised. I could see Ar Aster’s skills as a director (which I think were far better utilized in his follow-up feature, Midsommar) and could acknowledge the strong performances by the cast. However, there are so many elements of Hereditary‘s story and characters that I just can’t stand. Their trauma and disconnect are the point, but the characters weren’t interesting enough before Charlie’s death to make them engaging, and their worst qualities only become more magnified by their grief. It’s purposefully painful in a way I can understand but don’t enjoy.

Everyone had been raving about the film, calling it a modern masterpiece of the genre. While I won’t deny the talent of the people who made it, I don’t understand why the one-note story and bleak characters connected so hard with audiences and critics. I much prefer the more three-dimensional approach to Andy, Piper, and Laura in Bring Her Back. Ollie gets to bring the unnatural vibes to the story, while the bizarre and cruel actions of Laura are never brushed away as mere acts of evil.

Laura is a far more compelling, tragic, and scary character than Annie, and that overall strength is something that makes Bring Her Back a more compelling character study than Hereditary. The actual scares of the Philippou film are more frightening, and the tragic elements are more powerful. While I can respect what Hereditary is going for, I don’t think it deserves all the praise it gets. Instead, I’d love to see that level of admiration pointed towards Bring Her Back.