2025 has been a great year for horror movies from Sinners to Weapons and one of the smaller horror films to gain major traction is Bring Her Back. The film comes from Danny and Michael Philippou and, after a solid run at the box office, it has become one of the top trending movies on HBO Max.

Danny and Michael Philippou are new names in the world of horror, joining the likes of Zach Cregger, Ari Aster, and Julia Ducournau among the best new horror directors. While Bring Her Back has rightfully gained the Philippous notoriety, it’s actually not their first foray into the genre.

After getting their start directing YouTube videos in the horror comedy genre, Danny and Michael Philippou made their feature film debut in 2022. That horror movie was also a surprise hit and might actually be even scarier than Bring Her Back.

Talk To Me Was Danny & Michael Philippou’s First Film

The first feature film directed by Danny and Michael Philippou was Talk to Me. The movie had its premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2022 before getting a wider release the following summer. Talk to Me went on to become a surprise hit for A24.

On a budget of a mere $4.5 million, Talk to Me went on to gross $92 million and became the highest-grossing horror film in the history of A24. Along the same lines as Bring Her Back, this movie went on to become a solid success on streaming as well, showing that the Philippous are filmmakers to be watched.

The premise of Talk to Me centers on Mia, a girl grieving the loss of her mother. She attends a party where a group brings a severed embalmed hand that allows them to communicate with the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ for a short time. The party trick goes wrong when Mia’s little brother stays connected for too long, with harrowing results.

Talk To Me Is One Of The Best Modern Horror Movies

The setup of Talk to Me makes for an intriguing story on its own, but it takes more than a good plot to make a great horror movie. The Philippous knew just how to inject everything that a horror film needs to be great, and Talk to Me ended up as one of the best horror movies of the 2020s.

Talk to Me sits at a very impressive 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is slightly above the 89% rating that Bring Her Back has. That puts Talk to Me in elite company with the likes of A Quiet Place Part II, X, Get Out, and Hereditary among the best modern horror films.

Critics appreciated the gripping story at the center of Talk to Me, while also praising the use of practical effects. Everything looks great in this film, whether it’s the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ or Mia’s younger brother banging his head against a wall in brutal fashion.

Talk to Me was met with widespread acclaim and its success has led to plans for more. The Philippous have already completed work on a prequel short film, while a feature-length sequel is in development, with Danny and Michael returning as directors.

The Scares In Talk To Me Are More Harrowing Than In Bring Her Back

It’s impressive how Danny and Michael Philippous have started their career with two fantastic horror films, but the first is just a bit scarier than the latter. Talk to Me has some truly terrifying sequences. For starters, Sophie Wilde’s performance as she becomes possessed is genuinely unsettling.

The sounds that come out of her mouth are one thing, but the way her body contorts and her eyes go black as she shouts, “RUN, RUN, RUN,” is the kind of scene that sticks with you long after the credits run. Wilde does a lot of heavy lifting to make every scene with her into something captivating.

The aforementioned scene where Mia’s brother harms himself is hard to watch, while the jump scare of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ woman in Mia’s bedroom is nightmare fuel. Bring Her Back has some scenes that are along those lines but not quite as many.

The biggest scares in Bring Her Back both involve Oliver and are more along the lines of body horror than anything else. It’s still incredibly effective but it’s more the kind of thing you look away from than anything else. In fact, Bring Her Back is actually a bit sadder than it is terrifying.

Bring Her Back & Talk To Me Have A Lot In Common

The sad aspects of Bring Her Back are its driving force but that’s actually something it has in common with Talk to Me. Both movies deal heavily with the theme of grief as the main characters in both have lost family members.

In Talk to Me, the protagonist Mia is driven by the loss of her mother and tries to reconnect with her, to disastrous results. In Bring Her Back, it’s the antagonist, Laura, who is a grieving mother who wants to find a way to reunite with her ᴅᴇᴀᴅ daughter, again, to poor results.

It’s interesting to see similar concepts used in different ways. You’re rooting for one character while rooting against the other because of how they handle things. Both films also see young kids pay the price for these ideas.

Mia’s brother, Riley, gets possessed and nearly dies several times due to Mia’s obsession with communicating with her mother, while Oliver is put through hell because Laura is trying to bring her daughter back by using him. In the end, both Mia and Laura pay the price for what they did and let go, while freeing those they hurt.