Featured Image Credit: Sony Pictures
Topics: Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin
One of the directors of a disturbing new horror film has revealed that he went ‘undercover’ to meet satanic necromancers.
These necromancers believed that they could bring dead people back to life and put curses on others.
This was just some of the bizarre research that Michael and Danny Philippou have done for their follow up to the shock hidden gem horror Talk to Me.
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Whilst Talk to Me led to the twin brother directing duo receiving numerous plaudits, their newest film is even better, and more importantly, even more f**ked up.
Their second feature film outing is called Bring Her Back, and stars Sally Hawkins alongside newcomers Billy Barratt, Sora Wong and Jonah Wren Phillips.
The film follows Barratt and Wong as a pair of siblings taken in by Hawkins’ character, Laura, following a tragedy.
Laura however is a tad more bizarre than she seems on the surface and is even secretly working on a terrifying ritual.
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In an exclusive interview with LADbible, the Philippou brothers revealed that in order to research satanic rituals for the film, Danny actually went undercover.
Danny said: “In terms of research, it's so fun to go down that rabbit hole and start talking to people that are actual Satanists or actual ‘experts’ in terms of necromancy.
“You could like, talk to people that have made spell books for real, and then believe that they can summon people from the dead, or believe that they can put curses on people.”
He went on to say he would ‘dress up as a character named Trevor’, saying: “I would Zoom with these people and talk to them in character, pretending that I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, I'm gonna bring someone back from the dead’ and then just talk to them about how they would do it.”
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This research inspired an aspect of the film involving a VHS tape instructing you how to carry out a satanic ritual.
The brothers also revealed that one part of this VHS scene, in which a woman is hung in graphic detail, was actually filmed practically, describing how they used a wire and harness to do so safely.
Many fans of the Phillippou brothers, a pair of Australian filmmakers who got their start on YouTube as RackaRacka, will know them best for their previous film Talk to Me (currently available to stream on Netflix) which was confirmed to be getting a sequel.
When asked about what stage that sequel, called Talk 2 Me, was in, Danny said: “I’m writing right now with my co-writer, Bill Hinzman, and we have two drafts of two different versions of the film, and are following two different sets of characters in two different places.
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“But it was sort of like what's the most exciting story to tell, and you know, what’s the best thing to follow?
“But I know that I probably still don't want to step into the world just yet. There's another horror film that we're developing right now that I think I'd like to be next and then Talk to Me 2.
“There's drafts being written, but it's not ready yet. I'm so behind and very slow, I apologize, but we're getting there.”
Bring Her Back releases in the US on May 30, and in the United Kingdom on August 1.