{"id":137283,"date":"2025-05-28T00:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T00:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/137283\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T00:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T00:37:08","slug":"its-very-risky-the-philippou-brothers-on-horror-films-back-yard-wrestling-and-knocking-back-hollywood-australian-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/137283\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s very risky\u2019: the Philippou brothers on horror films, back yard wrestling and knocking back Hollywood | Australian film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back yard brotherly pranks, comedic violence and schlock horror morphed into psychological terror when the Australian YouTubers and twins Danny and Michael Philippou unleashed their debut feature Talk To Me<\/a> on the world two years ago.<\/p>\n

The supernatural thriller, about a group of Adelaide teens who get in over their heads while playing a twisted party game, was the surprise hit of 2023: made on a shoestring budget of just US$4.5m, it grossed almost US$100m at the global box office<\/a>. It became US indie film studio A24\u2019s most successful horror film and scooped up a swathe of Australian<\/a> and international awards, with the Hollywood Reporter praising the Philippous as a \u201cwelcome splash of new blood on the horror landscape\u201d.<\/p>\n

A sequel was inevitable, and sure enough, Talk To Me 2 \u2013 or Talk 2 Me \u2013 is currently under development. But first the brothers are following up their smash hit debut with Bring Her Back, opening in cinemas in Australia and the US this week.<\/p>\n

Bring Her Back follows newly orphaned teen siblings Andy and Piper as they enter the foster home of former social worker Laura, played by the British actor Sally Hawkins<\/a>. Things are weird from the get-go: Laura has a nervy, frayed energy, thinly papering over the grief of her own daughter\u2019s death; and there is the unsettling presence and disturbing behaviour of her other foster child, the mute 10-year-old Oliver. Things rapidly go from bad to worst-possible, with the Philippous upping the ante to deliver something even more disturbing than their debut.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Watching Bring Her Back, you can sense that the Philippou brothers, once known for DIY bodily carnage, irresponsible stunts and the occasional intervention of law enforcement, have finally grown up.<\/p>\n

Danny, the more exuberant and blonder of the brothers, clearly gets a kick out of the suggestion the pair have made a successful transition to \u201cintelligent gore\u201d. Their early days making viral homemade videos on their YouTube channel RackaRacka, he says, \u201cwas very specific content for a specific target audience \u2026 You outgrow that stuff. You\u2019re recording it, and I\u2019m like, I\u2019m not really feeling it any more. This isn\u2019t really who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalls reconnecting with Bill Hinzman, with whom he co-wrote Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, at a crucial moment when he felt he was outgrowing the online stunts. \u201cWe\u2019d written a short film back in the day, and then we just started writing together. And it felt really good, because it felt like it was time. We were ready to make the jump into feature films. I think that it was definitely a maturity thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver in Bring Her Back. Photograph: Ingvar Kenne\/A24<\/p>\n

Growing up in the working-class Adelaide suburb of Pooraka in South Australia, a career in film seemed like an impossible dream for both twins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t really know anyone that was in the film industry. We didn\u2019t know Adelaide had a film industry,\u201d Danny says. \u201cSo when we did find out there were actual film sets and film productions happening in Adelaide, we did anything just to be on them and be around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began volunteering to be on film sets, because no one is ever going to turn away a free pair of hands,\u201d Michael adds. \u201cWe put our hands up to do anything, and we worked with all different departments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny supported the two of them financially during this period by participating in paid clinical drug trials, earning $120 a day.<\/p>\n

The turning point was Michael\u2019s first paid gig, as a production runner on the Adelaide shoot for 2014\u2019s The Babadook<\/a>, now one of Australia\u2019s most acclaimed horror films.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around [actor] Essie Davis and [director] Jennifer Kent was the most amazing experience,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the first time I\u2019d seen a director truly care about what she was making. And it was inspiring to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although they have been based in Los Angeles since 2019 \u2013 the brothers recently bought a house together there (\u201cWe have separate floors \u2026 we do have our own lives,\u201d Danny insists) \u2013 they shot Bring Her Back in South Australia, and remain committed to keeping a production studio in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had so many opportunities,\u201d says Danny. \u201cWe\u2019ve been offered some really big overseas projects by big studio films, but it didn\u2019t feel right, it didn\u2019t feel comfortable. [In Adelaide], it feels right, it feels comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Saved for Later<\/p>\n

Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Sally Hawkins plays Laura in Bring Her Back. Photograph: Ingvar Kenne\/A24<\/p>\n

A clash of filming schedules with Bring Her Back was initially blamed for the brothers\u2019 sudden withdrawal last year from directing a Hollywood adaptation of the video game Street Fighter, but Danny now admits it was also one of those big opportunities that just didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought, \u2018Hell yeah, we\u2019ll do that.\u2019 And you sign all these things, and then it\u2019s like, wait, how the hell do we realistically do this properly, make sure it\u2019s not just a cash grab and put our hearts into it? Which is what it deserves. It just wouldn\u2019t have worked. So we had to separate from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to Talk To Me, the Philippous\u2019 attempt at a prequel got off to a rocky start: they put preliminary footage online in an effort to return to their YouTube roots, but it was pulled down almost as fast as the brothers were loading it; it was too graphic and they had their account temporarily blocked. There are some things you can show on the big screen that you can\u2019t on the internet, they learned.<\/p>\n

Michael and Danny Philippou goof around with Talk To Me star Sophie Wilde at the Sydney premiere of Bring Her Back. Photograph: Don Arnold\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Talk 2 Me, the sequel, is currently in an embryonic state and something of a twin: there are two different versions of the same script, with two different sets of characters based in two different places. Decisions need to be made.<\/p>\n

The brothers are now in post-production for a documentary on deathmatch wrestling<\/a> \u2013 discussion of which prompts much adolescent enthusiasm and nostalgia in the twins, remembering times in their Pooraka back yard. \u201cImagine professional wrestling like WWE, but with real blood, real weapons. It\u2019s extreme performance art,\u201d Michael says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople die,\u201d Danny interjects, with delight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very risky subgenre of wrestling, very underground,\u201d Michael continues. \u201cIt\u2019s a world we\u2019ve been fascinated with since we were kids. We used to do two things when we were little \u2013 make movies and do back yard wrestling \u2013 which quickly turned into deathmatch wrestling. We used to cut barbed wire off of construction sites and throw each other into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try and finish it by the end of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there is another horror film in the early stages of development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if we\u2019re supposed to be saying this, but yeah, we\u2019re developing another one \u2026 I always get into trouble for saying these sorts of things,\u201d says Danny.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get back to comedy and action, but I\u2019m still not done with the horror genre yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back yard brotherly pranks, comedic violence and schlock horror morphed into psychological terror when the Australian YouTubers and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-137283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}