For my thirtieth birthday, I decided to treat myself to a visit to the movies. I was deciding between Thunderbolts or Bring Her Back. Judging by what I titled this article, it should be easy to guess which I picked, and let me say that the MCU is back! No, of course, I chose the horror movie. Before I get into it, when the hell did previews get so long?
My showtime was at 5:25 PM. I got there a few minutes prior and still had to sit through three or four trailers. I don’t see movies in theaters often, but is this just how it is now? My complaining about the movie-going experience aside, I went into this film with high expectations. I was told by a friend that another friend said it was the scariest or one of the scariest movies she’d ever seen.
While I can’t say the same thing for my viewing, it did disturb me. That’s why I am putting a warning here, because it gets into topics such as abuse and self-harm. The plot revolves around step-siblings Andy and Piper having to move in with a foster mom named Laura after their dad suddenly kicks the bucket. Since Andy is only three months from turning eighteen, he intends to become Piper’s legal guardian. Unfortunately, it becomes apparent that Laura isn’t wired quite right.
The events unfolding reveal how disturbed she is. By the way, the actress who plays her is Sally Hawkins, the mother from the Paddington series. Imagine watching them and Bring Her Back in sequence. The juxtaposition between those roles would be like whiplash. It would be hilarious in a morbid way if Bring Her Back was originally supposed to be a twisted Paddington sequel.
There has to be magic in the world of those films if bears can talk, which means there also has to be dark magic. I joke. However, if you think about it, her character in this horror movie is a warped version of the mother in the film that’s family-friendly. I have to say, with that comparison in mind, she does great as Sally. I’ve only ever seen her in those films and Godzilla 2014.
Although that movie left no impact on me, so I can’t give an opinion on Laura’s performance in it. As for how she is in Bring Her Back, holy hell. I’m going to focus on Andy and Piper. I think making them step-siblings works better because it makes the bond between them seem more genuine beyond blood relations. Piper is blind, not being able to perceive beyond colors and vague shapes.
Andy is protective of her, as indicated by his desire to be her guardian. I should mention another kid is living under Laura’s care, named Ollie, who she says is selectively mute. More on him later. Right off the bat, I knew Laura was crazy. She gives Annie Wilkes from Misery vibes.
At first, she seems nice, if not a little quirky. She has pets that are stuffed, but she’s also welcoming. Then it becomes apparent she is not stable. The stuff this woman does had my jaw on the floor. Even before that, she makes questionable decisions as a foster parent.
One of those is after Andy and Piper go to their father’s funeral, Laura flat-out encourages underage drinking. I’m no psychologist, but I’m pretty sure that’s a recipe for developing addiction. She also shows herself to be hypocritical by going through Andy’s phone. Then, when he does something along the same lines, except not on purpose, she freaks out on him. Don’t worry.
It gets worse. After the funeral, Andy begins waking up covered in urine. You assume this is simply a result of stress. Then it’s revealed Laura was pissing in a cup and pouring it on him when he slept to gaslight him. Seeing that was so fucked.
Not much is better when it comes to Piper. Laura straight up assaults her and gives her a black eye in an attempt to turn her against Andy by blaming it on him. This doesn’t work because they aren’t stupid. Andy flips it back on her to the point she freaks out so much it causes him to punch a hole in the wall right next to her head. Piper tells him to stop, and he does, which proves to her he wouldn’t be violent unless provoked.
It’s mentioned that Andy was troubled when he was younger. When he and Piper go to register to be in foster care, it’s used as the reason why he wouldn’t be suitable to be her caretaker. To prove this false, he has to live in Laura’s home without incident until he turns 18. Laura is determined to make sure this doesn’t happen. If you have seen this, you probably wondered the same thing I did.
Namely, how the hell did someone like her end up as a foster parent? It’s common knowledge this system is infamous for abuse, but there has to be some kind of vetting process. Andy asks the same thing when he drives to their registration office to report Laura. Turns out, she has been in this profession for over twenty years. Meaning, she got automatic trust.
This is especially frustrating for the fact this is one of those instances where a story is hitting a little too close to home. I’ve read an account from someone who went through horrible shit while in the system. The scum fuck responsible got by with it simply due to being in their position for a while. I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of other jobs. It’s also why it’s not a good argument to push adoption as an alternative to a certain autonomy choice.
I’m American, so I only know about our foster care. From what I read about Australia, theirs aren’t much better. Obviously, most foster parents don’t do all the things Laura does in Bring Her Back. At least, I hope not. It shows an accountability issue.
Was she always like this? It’s hard to say. We find out she lost her daughter, Cathy. This isn’t revealed later as a last-minute pity attempt. She tells Andy and Piper this early on. It plays into the main part of her obsession with Piper, who she says is similar to her deceased daughter.
Preceding the introduction of the main characters, we’re shown a ritual being recorded by a woman with a VHS camera. It shows a woman in a circle being hanged with a man in his underwear, chanting something. Maybe I missed it, but somehow Laura acquired the tapes showing these events. She wants to replicate these actions as a means to resurrect Cathy. This brings me back to Ollie.
It’s easy to dismiss his behaviors as being the result of disability, except, his would be mental as opposed to physical. He’s another example of how royally the foster system screwed the pooch. If they’d done a check on Laura’s home months ago, this kid would have been found much earlier. I phrase it this way because Ollie is actually a kid named Connor whom Laura kidnapped for her ritual attempt. For it to be enacted, a deal has to be made with some sort of entity.
Laura is under the impression that this is some sort of angel, which implies either a demon or maybe even the devil himself. She says something along the lines of it being the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. Whatever it may be, it uses Connor as a host, and it hungers for blood. This is where the most shocking parts of the movie occur. It causes him to do things like chewing on a knife until his mouth bleeds or even biting off chunks of his flesh.
The deal between it and Laura was if the proper offering was made, it would bring back her daughter. There are a lot of references to rain in this film, with multiple shots taking place in a downpour. The ghost of Andy and Piper’s dad even tells Andy, “She’ll die in the rain”. Something else I should mention is that a big theme of this movie is how someone can be an angel to some while being a demon to others. Their dad was good to Piper while being extremely abusive to Andy.
This may or may not have been sexual. Andy does mention it happening in the shower, but I’m not sure if this went beyond beatings. There’s a scene where Laura makes Andy kiss his dad’s corpse. Knowing the relationship between them makes this especially uncomfortable.
The other instance where this theme occurs is between Laura and the social worker who registered Andy and Piper.
She’s named Wendy. Laura and her have been friends for a while. They may have met at work since Laura says they’ve known each other for as many years as she’s been a foster parent. I imagine this is also why Laura wasn’t checked up on. This is the one instance where I took a bit of issue with the plot.
If they had been friends for that long, she must have also known about Cathy’s death and probably should’ve noticed that Laura wasn’t handling it well. Other than that, I think the storytelling is solid. It doesn’t matter all that much anyway because of what happens to her later. I saw it coming from a mile away. Without spoiling the major parts, it gives the movie another similarity to Misery.
Just because I knew what would happen didn’t make it any less gutwrenching. Two more things I’m going to go over before concluding this. I enjoyed the dynamic between Andy and Piper. She trusts him enough to know he wouldn’t hurt her. Andy’s need to protect her partially stems from guilt. When they were younger, he hit her.
This might be the reason she’s partially blind. It happened when he was eight and she was four. I don’t know if someone that age would be capable of causing an injury that severe to someone just four years younger. The other thing I want to touch on is the style of this film. Throughout it, clips of the ritual tape are shown. Whenever the entity in Connor gets out of line, she’ll take him to her room and play footage of it to make it make it calm down. I’m a big fan of analog horror and love it when movies incorporate it effectively. I thought Bring Her Back succeeded in this. Overall, I think it’s one of those, once is enough, kind of movies.
The cast is competent. No performance felt robotic or stiff. If you can handle the subject matter, I recommend it.
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