In my career covering the entertainment industry, I can’t say that I’ve ever encountered an energy from filmmakers quite like the one shared by Danny and Michael Philippou. The twin directors from Australia, known for their breakout 2023 feature Talk To Me, have a tremendous passion for what they do, and it comes across clearly in their excited back-and-forth patter when they discuss the latest cinematic horror that they’ve been cooking up. Being siblings, they are also very close and obviously enjoy messing with each other – which I actually got to see translate into a literal impromptu wrestling bout a couple years ago on a press line at San Diego Comic-Con.
What I’ve seen from the Phillipous at press events has made me curious about their working relationship and how they solve creative differences, and I made a point of asking them about just that earlier this month during the Los Angeles press day for their upcoming horror film, Bring Her Back. As captured in the video above, I mentioned that I had previously seen them fight for fun, and they joked that the tussle was representational of how they solve issues behind the scenes:
Danny Philippou: We wrestle! And I’m the weak twin, so I always lose.
Michael Philippou: All the creative decisions go to me.
I’m willing to bet that those of you reading this who have a brother of their own (twin or not) can instantly relate to this.
More seriously, the twin filmmakers noted that there are efforts made on set to keep creative disagreements on the private side, messaging each other on their phones instead of having debates in front of their actors. Per Michael Philippou, however, more of those kinds of discussions are had during post-production… and he stands firm (with tongue clearly in cheek) that he is typically the one making the right calls:
Danny Philippou: If we have an argument about something, we always do it over text, so it’s not in front of the actors and stuff. Like, ‘Stop saying that in front of everyone.’ It’s sort of that, that’s our relationship.
Michael Philippou: I think it’s also a lot of the stuff we argue about is smaller things during the edit, like how loud a sound effect is or a music cue, things like that. Even if it’s like a couple frames on a shot, we’ll argue about frames in a shot. It’s too long or too short, and Danny’s usually wrong.
Danny and Michael Philippou may not be wholly in sync with every creative decision that is made in the making of their films, but they certainly do end up making a lot of brilliant choices together, as evidenced by the excellence of their movies. Talk To Me can be counted among one of the most exciting directorial debuts of the horror genre in the 21st century, and Bring Her Back is a much grimmer but ultimately just as impressive marvel.
Billy Barratt and Sora Wong co-star in Bring Her Back as Andy and Piper – step-siblings who find their lives drastically changed following the sudden death of their father (Stephen Phillips). Because Andy is a few months shy of being old enough to become Piper’s legal guardian, they are temporarily placed in a foster home, which is how they meet Laura (Sally Hawkins). At first, she seems like a normal-albeit-eccentric woman who wants what is best for the protagonist… but the reality is that she has some dark ulterior motives that involve her strange, voluntarily mute foster son Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips).
Bring Her Back, as I note in my four-and-a-half star CinemaBlend review, is a cinematic experience not for the faint of heart – and movie-goers everywhere will be able to experience the dark madness of Danny and Michael Philippou when the new A24 film arrives in theaters this Friday, May 30.
