Bring Them Down, the directorial debut of Christopher Andrews, begins with a scene of mindless brutality that is symbolic of the rest of the film. Michael (Christopher Abbott, however, we never see his face in the scene) is driving down an Irish road with his mother Peggy (Susan Lynch) in the passenger seat, and his girlfriend Caroline (Grace Daly) sitting in the back. Things are seemingly normal, until Michael’s mother breaks her news: she’s leaving Michael’s father Ray (Colm Meaney). Once we meet Ray, it quickly becomes apparent why she’d want to get out of this situation, confirmed by Peggy when she tells her son she’s leaving because Ray terrifies her. Instead of reacting to his mother’s news, Mikey hits the gas, despite the frantic pleas from his mother and girlfriend, until the car crashes—a moment of rage-induced action without consideration of the consequences.

Bring Them Down is full of these types of moments, where anger takes the wheel, without a thought given as to what the end result of this will be. Michael’s actions in those opening moments set off a chain reaction for those in his vicinity based on revenge, anger, and grief, as poor decisions beget poor decisions. Fury and vengeance are neither simple nor are they based on sound judgment, purely motivated by emotion. Andrews’ film, which he also wrote and based on a story he wrote with Jonathan Hourigan, narrows in on this type of furious revenge. However, the film reminds us that revenge is often only satisfying in the moment, leaving you feeling fairly empty in the long run.

What Is ‘Bring Them Down’ About?
Image via Mubi

After this accident, Bring Them Down jumps many years into the future to see the impact it has had on the community and those close to Michael. Caroline (who is now played by Nora-Jane Noone) has been left with a noticeable scar on her face, and she’s started a family with her sheep farmer husband Gary (Paul Ready) and their son Jack (Barry Keoghan). While Caroline still seems friendly with Michael, there’s clearly an animosity towards him from the rest of the family. Michael’s family sheep farm is right next to that of Caroline’s family, which Michael runs on his own. Michael’s father Ray has been mostly relegated to a chair he can’t leave on his own, leaving bottles of his own urine for his son to pick up at the end of a long day. When Michael is with his father, Ray usually yells at him and continues to mourn his wife, made all the worse by the fact that Ray is unaware of how Peggy died.

Michael mostly spends his days in solitude minding the sheep, but that all changes when one day, Gary and Jack call Michael and Ray to say that two of their rams ended up on their property and now they’re dead. With this revelation, long-buried anger between these two families starts to bubble up once more, as both seek revenge for what they’ve lost.

Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan’s Silent Fury Makes ‘Bring Them Down’ Work
Image via Mubi

Bring Them Down primarily works because of the two central characters, despite them being somewhat miscast. Abbott is quietly intimidating as Michael, who, if the opening scene is any indication, has always let his rage simmer until it’s about to burst. Abbott plays this sort of hushed protagonist well, which only makes the impact of his outbursts even more impactful. Keoghan also has always been great at roles where he’s unnerving, an unpredictable maniac who’s also a bit dim. Putting these two at odds with each other is a great setup since they’re both volatile and erratic in their own unsettling ways. However, Bring Them Down also wants us to believe that Abbott’s Michael is old enough to be Jack’s father, a sort of example of what he could’ve had if he hadn’t ruined his relationship with Caroline. However, the minimal age difference between the two actors makes this aspect get lost in the mix.

Andrews also nicely uses violence sparingly, but when he does, it almost is akin to Jeremy Saulnier’s use of brutality in films like Blue Ruin or Green Room in that it’s so jarring you’ll want the scene to end. The violence here is never simple or tidy, another example of acting in the moment without recognizing that actions have consequences. Andrews builds to these scenes but still shocks us within the moment, horrific acts amongst the beautiful landscapes he’s capturing along with cinematographer Nick Cooke.

‘Bring Them Down’ Never Quite Gets Beyond Its Central Premise
Image via TIFF

But despite its effective use of violence and its strong lead performances, Bring Them Down is never quite elevated beyond just a standard revenge thriller. There are smart choices made throughout, such as the decision to jump from Michael’s perspective to that of Jack late in the film which shows the other side of this story, but it all doesn’t add up to too much. Again, it’s exciting to watch in the moment, and it’s often gripping to watch these two families face off against each other, but it can’t quite take the step into greatness, despite occasionally circling something more. Like these characters, Bring Them Down keeps moving forward, putting new obstacles in the way and showing new opportunities to go further down this rabbit hole, but it’s all forward momentum without much of a purpose or effective payoff.

As with these characters, Bring Them Down feels content with sticking to the pain and the grief that comes with it, a bog of misery that is inescapable. Andrews and Hourigan’s script stays in that mire without a desire to move beyond this one emotion that wears down on us and their characters. Bring Them Down does a lot quite well, be it the performances by Abbott, Keoghan, and a bleak role for Meaney, or the way Andrews handles his use of building tension and rare moments of violence that shock like a shotgun blast to the face. For Andrews, Bring Them Down is a capable, intriguing debut, but it needs more depth than this revenge tale has to offer.

Bring Them Down had its World Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.