Bring Them Down 2025 Movie Review Trailer

 Writer-director Christopher Andrews’ feature directorial debut, “Bring Them Down,” certainly lives up to its title, as it does nothing to lift the spirits. The film centers on feuding Irish shepherds whose shared pastoral environment sinks into desolation. A disagreement between neighboring families escalates into a bloodbath, and they wage war that destroys the innocent and hunts down the guilty. 

Andrews tells the story through a lens so relentlessly bitter and grim that his direction begins to bleed vanity. He pushes his characters into a hole of violence where moments of levity are rarely found. While the outward brutality wears thin and becomes repetitive, the characters’ inner conflict maintains intrigue. Their journeys become more complex as the film shifts between perspectives of toxic masculinity. The lush rolling hills of rural Ireland are punctuated with generational rage.

Director: Chris Andrews
Writers: Chris Andrews, Jonathan Hourigan
Stars: Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Colm Meaney

The film opens in the tense moments leading up to a fatal car crash. Two passengers frantically plead with the driver to slow down. The camera focuses on their faces without cutting to the person behind the wheel. The driver’s hidden identity sets a sombre tone, in which tragedy often claims the lives of those who had nothing to do with it. If they have a conscience, those responsible are left with the burden of carrying their guilt uphill. Through the film’s introduction, Andrews and co-writer Jonathan Hourigan establish why “Bring Them Down” is so unsparingly bleak. The story lives on in the aftermath of that accident, a tragic decision that spared no one from its impact.

The central story follows Michael (Christopher Abbott), an isolated shepherd who lives on a sheep farm with his father, Ray (Colm Meaney). They take on a relatively quiet life until Michael notices that the front gate to his land is smashed. Two of his rams have been stolen. Rival neighboring farmer Gary (Paul Ready) and his son Jack (Barry Keoghan) lead Michael to believe the rams are dead and buried. When a skeptical Michael investigates further, he discovers his rams are alive and for sale. One decision after another, driven by anger, leaves both families in circles until the conflict escalates into a horrific act of violence against the most innocent living species on this earth. The victims of this pastoral war have nothing to do with it, making the film viscerally difficult to watch.

“Bring Them Down” initially tells its story from the perspective of Michael (Abbott). Burdened by internal conflict, he traverses the Irish countryside almost invisibly. His brooding aggression and minimal dialogue draw you into his world. Michael’s quiet fury is far more fascinating and impactful than the noise of his neighbors’ threats. He has a quiet but menacing approach to how events escalate, and his quest for vengeance sets the stage for a revelatory second act.

Just when the straightforward narrative of a shepherd in search of his rams feels tedious, the film flips its script. Jack’s (Keoghan) perspective takes center stage, adding fuel to the fire. His parents, Gary (Ready) and Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), have a strained relationship. Violent arguments permeate the household. While Caroline finds a possible way out through a job offer in Cork, Jack struggles to carve out a separate path. He follows in his father’s footsteps and eventually becomes a traumatized version of himself, where expression is realized through acts of violence.

Both characters’ perspectives intertwine to create a layered story about generational violence and the manifestations of toxic masculinity. Michael and Jack are men of few words; their lack of dialogue speaks to the challenges of expressing their emotions. Instead of communicating their feelings, they use aggression to assert their power over the other in a grim war against themselves. Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan are no strangers to grim stories. Here, they exert animalistic qualities in their performances and use remarkable physicality to evoke tension. Michael moves with a sense of assurance, his feet firmly planted on the ground. Jack is flighty in comparison; he struggles to hold his ground and is easily swayed by his surroundings. Inner angst has a way of shaping the way you behave, something Abbott and Keoghan convey with incredible humanity. Abbott also shines with some impressive accent work, especially in his scenes with the character's father, played by a great Colm Meaney.

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