{"id":78016,"date":"2026-03-26T10:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=78016"},"modified":"2026-03-26T10:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:09:08","slug":"bring-her-back-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/?p=78016","title":{"rendered":"Bring Her Back (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Coming from the same creative team behind Talk to Me<\/a><\/em>, this one bears many of the same hallmarks and lacks the unique imagery that defined the earlier film. Yet it fixes one of the most glaring flaws I complained about by developing the characters enough that I actually care about them and so I would consider it the better film. I am somewhat disgusted that much of the horror is achieved by victimizing children who have little ability to fight back or even understand what is going on. But I can’t deny how viscerally effective the technique is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Teenager Andy is fiercely protective of his stepsister Piper who is all but blind. When their father suddenly dies in the shower, both are sent to be temporarily fostered by Laura, a former counselor, while waiting for Andy to turn 18. When they arrive, they meet Oliver, a strange, mute boy that Laura is already fostering. They also learn that Laura had a daughter Cathy who was similarly blind and drowned in their pool. Laura warmly welcomes Piper into her home, giving her Cathy’s old bedroom, while Andy is put up in the attic and neglected. Meanwhile out of sight of the two, Laura repeatedly watches a creepy Russian film on a VHS tape with Oliver which appears to help calm him down and control him. One day when Laura is out shopping with Piper, Andy notices that Oliver has been locked in his room and so picks the lock to let him out. He tries to bond and communicate with him but is shocked when Oliver grabs a knife and tries to eat it, severely injuring himself. He tries to take Oliver to the hospital himself but when they cross the white border around Laura’s property, Oliver starts convulsing and asking for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an interesting case of the central mystery being so obvious that there is no mystery at all. Anyone who is paying attention will realize that Oliver is possessed and Laura intends to somehow bring Cathy back in Piper’s body. It’s in the film’s title itself! So what’s left is watching to see how it plays out and it very much is worth watching because the characters are real enough for us to care about what happens. The relationship between Andy and Piper is fleshed through many small details including the safety keyword that they share, Piper’s reluctance to use a cane, Andy working out to get over his personal demons and perhaps become more of a grown-up to better care for Piper and so on. The backstory that their father was abusive to Andy while hiding it from Piper explains Andy’s mixed feelings about the father. His protectiveness towards Piper then includes a measure of guilt. This is better character development and writing than can be found in most horror films. Even Laura is a good character with her motivation of bringing Cathy back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of old VHS imagery and the gore involved in Oliver attempting to eat anything even as the act destroys his teeth and mouth provide plentiful nightmare fuel. But what’s truly horrifying is the way that Laura systematically gaslights Andy to erode his mental state and weaken his status as Piper’s protector. She has to because even though she is the adult, she’s also a physically frail middle-aged woman. So she exploits the trust that children have in adults and her own position as an authority figure to control them. It’s insidious especially as she invites Andy to share his vulnerabilities with her in order to weaponize them. This makes her a far more believable and therefore scary villain than anything that is supernatural. The filmmakers here are also masterful enough not to over-explain the apparent demonic possession of Oliver. It’s enough to show that the supernatural is clearly involved and generate horror vibes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film still makes it easier on Laura by having Andy be so traumatized and easily manipulated while removing almost all agency from Piper until the very end. And as I noted, it feels bad to exploit children in this way. But it does work, making this a truly worthy horror film. To me, this is far superior to Weapons <\/a><\/em>which wasn’t believable in the least and I can’t believe it won an Oscar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming from the same creative team behind Talk to Me, this one bears many of the same hallmarks and lacks the unique imagery that defined the earlier film. Yet it fixes one of the most glaring flaws I complained about by developing the characters enough that I actually care about them and so I would … Continue reading Bring Her Back (2025)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78016"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78102,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78016\/revisions\/78102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calltoreason.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}