Bring Her Back(2025)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
Although Laura kills Andy and Wendy during her plot to force Cathy’s soul into Piper’s body, Laura ultimately decides not to go through with the plan when she can’t bring herself to drown Piper. Piper manages to contact the police after Laura almost kills her, Connor/Ollie manages to expel the supernatural force from his body, and Laura is found by the police snuggling Cathy’s corpse.

Long Ending:
Andy (Billy Barratt) and his younger, blind, step-sister Piper (Sora Wong) come home one day to find their father dead in his shower. Neither has any remaining living relatives, so they are put in the foster care system. Social worker Wendy (Sally-Anne Upton) says the pair will be split up. Wendy found a foster parent for Piper, but due to a troubled past, Andy will stay in a group home for three months (at which point he’ll turn 18 and be considered a legal adult who can petition for guardianship of Piper). The siblings plead to remain together, and Wendy contacts the foster parent and gets her permission to foster them both.

Piper and Andy go to the home of Laura (Sally Hawkins), and Laura is particularly pleased to see Piper. Laura was a top-notch child therapist until suffering trauma when her own daughter, a blind girl named Cathy, accidentally drowned in their pool. Cathy’s death also traumatized Laura’s son Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips), who no longer speaks and is largely confined to his room. After settling in Piper and Andy, Laura is seen watching videotapes depicting a cult engaged in a secret ritual where they sacrifice a human being.

Laura helps Andy confront his issues pertaining to his dad (who used to abusively punish Andy by using shower steam to burn his skin) and rage (his jealousy of his dad’s good treatment of Piper, i.e. the child he wanted, caused Andy to punch her and for which he has great remorse). But she also is gaslighting him – tricking him into thinking he is wetting his pants at night, getting him drunk, and telling him he is physically abusive once passed out. One day, Laura takes Piper shopping. Andy breaks Ollie out of his room and asks Ollie to write to him in exchange for a snack. To Andy’s utter horror, Ollie begins eating a sharp knife (chipping his teeth and slitting his lip open) that Andy used to cut some fruit. Laura returns and screams as a shocked Andy sees Ollie has written the word “Bird.” on a pad. Terrified and remorseful, Andy runs to the bathroom and sees the ghost of his dad who warns that Piper will “die in the rain” (meanwhile, a torrential monsoon begins). Andy passes out and bangs his head, waking up in the hospital.

Andy is returned to Laura’s care where she accuses him of punching Piper in his sleep (in actuality, Laura punched Piper while wearing Andy’s cologne). Andy accuses Laura of manipulating them and punches a hole in the wall. This causes Laura to threaten to call the police, and Andy flees. Finally alone, Laura (who’s developed genuine maternal feelings for Piper) reluctantly proceeds with her plot that she learned of through the video tapes. The video tapes depicted a ceremony where (1) a possessed person (Laura claims the person is possessed by an angel) eats the corpse of someone who recently died; (2) a second person is murdered in the same way as the person who died and was eaten by the possessed person; and (3) the possessed person then pukes the soul of the corpse into the recently murdered body and revives it, thus bringing back the corpse’s soul in a new body. Ollie is clearly possessed, and Laura (who is storing Cathy’s corpse in a freezer) lets Ollie devour Cathy’s corpse in order to put it into Piper’s body that night.

Andy goes to Wendy’s office where he sees a poster for a missing child named Connor Bird, and realizes that Connor was abducted by Laura and is possessed. He convinces Wendy to accompany him to Laura’s house to check on Piper. Although Laura almost successfully deceives Wendy, Andy and Wendy eventually find Connor eating Cathy’s corpse and the pair attempt to flee for help. Laura runs them over with her car, killing Wendy. She gets out and then drowns a nearly unconscious and wounded Andy in a nearby puddle.

That night, Wendy picks Piper up from a nearby rec center. Piper hears the voice of Andy’s ghost and eventually finds his corpse (recognizing his body by his braces). She unsuccessfully tries to flee, but Laura catches her and drags her into the pool (filled with the monsoon rains) that Cathy drowned in. As Piper is being drowned (and a fully possessed Connor looks on), Piper pleads with Laura not to kill her and calls Laura “mom.” Realizing that she can’t go any further, Laura releases Piper (who runs off the property and manages to find nearby drivers who contact police). The authorities raid Laura’s property. They find Connor suffering from his injuries but no longer possessed (the force was expelled after Connor walked outside a ring of protection that Laura had made around her property to force the spirit into Connor’s body). They then find Laura weeping and embracing Cathy’s eaten remains.