Michael Philippou, the co-director of Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, has been slammed through glass and barbed wire at a wrestling show in Mexico.
The Australian filmmaker has made the two breakout independent horror films alongside his twin brother Danny, and earlier this year it was reported that the pair are now working on a new documentary film that will explore the phenomenon of deathmatch wrestling.
The subculture is known for its ultra-hardcore style and routinely includes participants competing in wrestling rings where barbed wire is used instead of ropes and items such as light tubes, thumbtacks, panes of glass and barbed wire baseball bats are used as weapons.
As part of their immersion into the deathmatch world, it appears that Michael Philippou has got himself involved in a match in Mexico. Posting a clip on Instagram on Sunday (September 21), he appears to have been slammed by his opponent off a high platform above the ring, smashing through a pane of glass and a bed of barbed wire as he fell.
“Yes that net is made of barbed wire,” he wrote in a caption to the post, which you can watch below.
The “exploding barbed wire rope deathmatch” took place on Saturday (September 20) in Pachuca, Mexico at a show promoted by independent groups GCW and Vanguardia. In a separate post, Philippou shared a photo of himself bloody and scarred after the match. “I’m cleaned up and ok everyone,” he wrote. “I love you Mexico.”
In an interview with DiscussingFilm earlier this year, the Philippous spoke about the documentary. “It’s extreme performance art with glass, barbed wire, thumbtacks,” they explained. “We had been shooting it between Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, hopefully, that’ll premiere early next year.”
NME spoke to the Philippous earlier this year, and they warned readers that their wrestling documentary “might be really hard for people to watch”.
Bring Her Back was released in July, a psychological horror that followed two step-siblings who witness a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother, played by Sally Hawkins. Despite earning rave reviews for her performance, Hawkins has said she would “give anything” not to be nominated for an Oscar for the film, describing the experience as “overwhelming for an introvert in a very loud world”.