Bring Her Back (2025) Ending Explained - Explaining The Ritual and More

Welcome to Knockout Horror. If you are new here, we review horror movies, explain horror movie endings, and put out horror movie ranking lists. Today, we are explaining the ending to the psychological horror movie Bring Her Back from 2025.

This ending explained is another one requested by readers. Hence why I am doing this without having ever reviewed the actual movie. Believe it or not, it has been in the pipeline but I was really late on watching Bring Her Back. I am not as in love with Danny and Michael Philippou’s first film, Talk To Me, as a lot of people were so didn’t really think I would enjoy this movie all that much.

Well, surprise surprise, I ended up really liking it. I think it is a huge improvement and one of the better horror films of 2025 so lesson learned, I guess. Don’t sit on my hands when it comes to checking stuff out. This article, obviously, contains spoilers so be warned. You can request a horror movie ending explained using the form at the bottom of this article. Let’s take a look.

Bring Her Back – A Recap

As always, let’s recap the plot of Bring Her Back before we explain the ending. The film kicks off with footage of a ritual conducted by, what appears to be, a cult. We will learn a lot more about the purpose of this ritual later on.

After their father dies in the shower, 17 year old Andy and his partially sighted step-sister, Piper, find themselves in the foster care system. Andy isn’t old enough to apply for guardianship of Piper for another three months.

It seems as though the pair will be split up due to Andy having a violent incident involving Piper in his past but he asks for the case worker, Wendy, to give him a chance due to Piper’s blindness and their bond. Wendy agrees to ask the potential foster carer if she will be willing to take him on, as well, until he is old enough to apply for guardianship.

Naturally this puts Andy in a bit of a predicament. He has to behave himself which shouldn’t be too difficult were it not for the twisted intentions of his new foster carer Laura. Laura is a former counsellor who has worked with the foster care agency for a long time. She’s a bit eccentric (re completely mad!) and lives in an isolated rural house with a mute child called Oliver.

Foster Nightmare

Laura had a blind daughter named Cathy who passed away after drowning in the family pool. This is handy for Piper because it means Laura has experience with a vision-impaired child but not so good for Andy because Laura is bat-shit insane. Because Andy wants to apply for custody of his sister, Laura is supposed to be reporting on Andy’s safety and competency as a carer so she warns him to behave.

Andy isn’t overly happy about the arrangement as Piper is in a different room on the other side of the house. Piper is given Cathy’s room for reasons that will become obvious later on. Laura takes Andy’s phone while he isn’t looking and finds that he has been talking about Oliver in a negative way. Andy reacts by snatching his phone back, prompting Laura to flinch dramatically.

This is the first stage of Laura’s plan to undermine Andy as a carer. She will go much further than this later on even resorting to punching Piper while wearing Andy’s cologne. Him having a history of being violent is bad enough but when he is being aggressive with Laura it is going to look even worse. Late that night we see Laura watching videos of the cult ritual from the opening part of the film.

Naturally, Laura’s strange behaviour and how bizarrely Oliver is acting is disconcerting to Andy but he is stuck in between a rock and a hard place. He needs to be on his best behaviour, even when Laura is trying to make things difficult for him.

Andy Was Abused

While at the funeral of their father, Laura puts pressure on Andy to kiss his father on the lips, as per custom. Andy doesn’t want to do this as, though we don’t know this yet, he had a terrible relationship with his father who was abusing him. He does as she says to keep the peace. Before they leave, Laura discreetly steals a lock of their father’s hair.

Laura decides to spend the night drinking with the kids to celebrate their father’s life. After Piper falls asleep, she pressures Andy to talk to her about his problems by discussing her own grief. She tells him she never got over the loss of daughter and would do anything to get her back. Obviously, this is very key to the story because she literally is willing to do anything she can to get Cathy back. That’s the entire backbone of the story.

Andy, in turn, tells Laura of his father abusing him yet being kind to Piper which made him resent her. After Andy’s dad met Piper’s mum, it felt as though he had found the family he always wanted. Andy would act out at school to get his father’s attention. His father would then take him into the shower, turn on the water, and beat him until he passed out.

Andy began hating Piper due to jealousy and this lead to a dispute where he hit her. This is the act of violence that has been alluded to earlier in the film and the reason why Andy has to be on his best behaviour.

Things Get Absolutely Horrifying

As Andy drunkenly sleeps, Laura pees into a jug and then pours it on Andy’s crotch so he will wake up thinking he wet the bed. This is part of a plan to make him look as though he is becoming mentally unwell so, therefore, is not suitable for caring for Piper. Laura deliberately mentions this to Andy the next morning when he brings his clothes for washing which, obviously, embarrasses him. She does this to bring the issue to Piper’s attention, too.

Later that day, Andy is left home alone and notices that Oliver is locked in a room. Andy picks the lock and invites Oliver into the kitchen to share some food. He asks him to write on a notepad to communicate, seeing as he can’t speak, and offers him some melon as a reward.

Andy hands Oliver the melon, along with the knife. Oliver chews on the knife in one of the nastiest horror scenes I have watched in a long time. Panicked, Andy takes Oliver outside where he begins convulsing and screaming as they cross the boundary line around the property. Laura arrives back home and is, naturally, quite shocked. She picks Oliver up and takes him inside, refusing Andy’s offer to call an ambulance.

Andy is distraught but notices that Oliver wrote the word “Bird” on the paper. We will later learn that this is actually Oliver’s surname.

Oliver has, seemingly, become aware, all of a sudden and is no longer mute. Laura takes him to her room and puts the video of the cult ritual on. She does this so that she can follow the steps to place Oliver back into his mute state as he is cognisant now and wants to know who Laura is. She rubs his head which sends him back into the mute state before feeding him the lock of Andy’s father’s hair.

The Forbidden Popsicle

Andy, while showering, has a vision of his dad warning him that “she will die in the rain”. It could be inferred that this is actually Oliver entering the bathroom and showing Andy this vision. We will explain this a little later. Shocked, Andy slips and knocks himself unconscious. He is taken to hospital. Laura lies to Piper and tells her that Andy doesn’t want any visitors.

Laura goes to the hospital and gives Andy a can of Axe deodorant. This is going to become very important later on. Andy relates his fear regarding Piper due to the premonition of his father and tells Laura to not let her out while it is raining.

The next scene shows Laura dancing in the rain with Piper because, I guess, she is just a bit of a defiant dick. She takes Piper into the outhouse and gives her one of Cathy’s jumpers. She then takes Piper’s hand and rubs it along something contained within the freezer. Piper is confused and we briefly see Oliver who is looking a little on the creepy side.

Confused at what she is feeling, Laura tells Piper that it is just meat and, in a way, she is right. It is the frozen corpse of her daughter Cathy. Andy returns home having been released from the hospital. Laura isn’t pleased claiming it could be dangerous because he had a psychotic break.

When they get home, Andy visits Piper as she sleeps which Laura says is “creepy”. Any works out and fights back emotions as he sees the same thing happened here as happened with his father. Piper is the favourite and he feels unwanted.

Things Escalate

Later that night, Laura sprays herself with Andy’s body spray and punches Piper in an attempt to convince Piper that it was Andy who hit her. The next morning, Andy sees the bruise and a confrontation takes place where he becomes aggressive with Laura. Andy leaves the house and heads to the foster agency. While there, he spots a picture of a missing child that looks extremely familiar.

The missing child is Connor Bird. Remember Oliver writing “Bird” on the notepad. Oliver is, actually, the child and Andy does his best to convince Wendy that Laura has kidnapped Connor. He has a tough time, though, as Laura worked at the foster agency for twenty years.

Meanwhile, Laura takes Piper to Goalball practice so that she can be alone for awhile. When she gets back, Oliver is tearing up the house and eating everything in sight, including a chunk of Laura’s arm. Obviously, he has an insatiable appetite for something but the question is, what? Well, we will get to that shortly.

Wendy relents and agrees to go and see Laura. As they head there, Andy phones Piper and leaves a message to tell her that Laura is a bad person and kidnapped Oliver. The only problem is that Laura has Piper’s phone and is now well aware that Wendy and Andy are on the way.

Shit Really Hits The Fan

Laura rushes to clean the house before Wendy gets there. I am sure we have all been in this situation before a short notice visit. The visit seems to be going swimmingly until Andy finds Oliver chomping on Cathy’s corpse in the outhouse. He runs to find Wendy who has suddenly spotted blood coming from Laura’s arm. Laura reveals her plan to try and resurrect Cathy to Wendy in the hope that Wendy will sympathise and help her.

Naturally, she doesn’t and runs off back to the car with Andy. Laura gets in her car and crashes into them, killing Wendy before drowning Andy in a puddle. Laura retrieves Piper from the Goalball practice and returns her home. Piper, after searching the house believing she heard Andy finds Oliver in her room. Oliver was imitating Andy’s voice, having eaten one of his fingers. Feeling his head, she asks Laura who it is. She relates that it is Oliver before offering to take Piper to see Andy.

Piper suddenly realises that the way Oliver’s head felt didn’t match the long curly haired description that Laura gave her when they first moved in and Laura has been lying to her. She runs away to the bathroom before finding Andy’s dead body on the floor. Laura breaks in and tries to explain what she is planning to her. Piper attempts to escape but inadvertently knocks herself out.

The End Comes

Laura carries Piper to the pool that Cathy drowns in where she attempts to drown her. Oliver begins to walk over before Piper screams “mum” to Laura. Laura, in a sudden moment of clarity as she thinks of her daughter, allows Piper to breathe. Piper escapes to the road where she is picked up by a random couple.

Oliver, while pursuing Piper, notices the “missing person” flyer that Andy brought to the house. Seemingly realising that the child on the photo is him, he walks over the boundary line before collapsing. Laura retrieves Cathy’s remains and sits in the pool with her. As Piper sits in the car, she notices a plane in the sky, something we will get to in a little. Okay, let’s do some explaining.

The Resurrection Ritual

So, you have probably realised what is happening in Bring Her Back but let’s break it down, a little. Laura planned to conduct a resurrection ritual to bring her deceased daughter, Cathy, back to life. That is why she has been watching the Russian VHS tapes. They depict the entire process but how does it work? Well, Laura needs three things:

• The dead body of the person she wants to bring back to life.
• A living person’s body to be possessed by a demon.
• A donor body for the resurrected person’s soul to live inside of.

The idea behind the ritual is that the person’s soul stays inside of the body for a certain amount of time after death. Remember how Laura said this to Andy during his father’s funeral? All you need to do is to take the soul out of the body and transfer it to a new body.

So, Laura has the dead body of Cathy stored in her freezer. We can assume that she believes that Cathy’s soul is still in the body.

She now needs a living person to become possessed by a demon called Tari that she can then use to conduct the soul transfer. This person will be possessed by Tari and then consume the body of Cathy, thus capturing her soul. This is Oliver, or as he was originally known, Connor Bird.

Laura then needs a donor body that she can place the soul of Cathy into. This is Piper. Piper will need to die before Cathy’s soul can be transferred into her. When Cathy’s soul is transferred into her, Cathy will live on inside Piper’s body but how does it work?

How Does The Ritual Work?

For the ritual to work, we need all the elements we mentioned above, but we also need to meet a few specific conditions:

• The donor body needs to be similar to the person you are resurrecting.
• The donor body needs to die in the same way as the person you are resurrecting.

Laura had that first part covered because Piper was blind just like Cathy was. They were also a similar age so it was a perfect like for like swap… Well, except for the completely different race, and all.

So you would take the living person who is possessed by the demon Tari, in this case Oliver. They would consume the body of the person you want to resurrect, in this case Cathy. As Oliver eats Cathy’s body, her soul will stay inside his stomach.

The person conducting the ritual would then have to murder the donor body in the exact same way that the person you want to resurrect died. In Cathy’s case, by drowning. So Laura would need to drown Piper so that Oliver, still possessed by the demon Tari, could then transfer Cathy’s soul into Piper’s body.

A Big Delay to the Ritual & Hungry Oliver

This is where a bit of a problem occurs, however. Cathy died in a pool that was filled by rainwater and this is what causes a big delay to the plan. Well, that and needing Andy out of the picture. Laura needs the pool to be completely filled by rainwater, she can’t just fill it with a hose. When the movie starts, the pool is completely empty.

Laura believes that Piper has to die in exactly the same way as Cathy did so rainwater is essential. You may have noticed Andy looking at his weather app early in the film and it noting heavy rain for days on end. This tied in nicely as the pool did start to fill up with rainwater.

There were a couple of roadblocks in her plan here, though. The pool wasn’t completely full, due to lack of rain Andy was onto her, and Oliver (well, the demon Tari possessing him) was insatiably hungry because he had been waiting so long. After all, the demon needs to consume to conduct the ritual hence why it is always hungry.

Andy turning up at the house with Wendy and Oliver chewing the furniture and attacking Laura made her accelerate the plan. She knew the police would be coming over when they noticed Wendy and Andy were missing so she tried to push things forward. Laura took Piper into the pool and began to drown her as per the ritual’s instructions.

She was still concerned about the lack of rainwater, though and this gave Piper a fighting chance. Oliver had already consumed much of Cathy’s body so was waiting to transfer the soul into Piper’s body. Laura just couldn’t go through with it.

Did Andy Die and Why Did Laura Need Andy Gone?

You may be wondering why Laura just didn’t go ahead with her plan and went to so much effort to get rid of Andy. Well, the answer is that Andy simply wouldn’t have given up on Piper. As long as Andy was around and in the picture, he would always be a thorn in Laura’s side.

If Laura had completed the resurrection ritual while Andy was still around, he would have still tried to take Piper with him when he was old enough to have custody. Laura needed to do everything she could to prevent that from happening.

Her initial plan was to make him seem mentally unstable and unfit to care for Piper. This would have, effectively, kept him at arm’s length. When this plan was spoiled by him informing Wendy of Laura’s kidnapping of Oliver, however, she ended up killing Andy in a panic.

Andy does die in Bring Her Back, as well. This is made very apparent and is rather unfortunate but the Philippou brothers are, obviously, keen to emphasise the unfair nature of life and death, in general. At least he dies fighting for his sister’s life, though. Proving that his relationship with her had come full circle since they initially met and he was jealous of her.

Why Did Laura Let Piper Go?

Quite simply, in the moment that Piper screamed “Mum” to Laura. Laura remembered Cathy shouting the exact same thing and she realised the gravity of what she was doing. She realised that she was murdering a young girl for the sake of her own daughter. Her daughter would not want her to do that and how would she be able to live with herself afterwards?

It became all too apparent that she had lost her mind and that Piper has every right to live. Laura retrieving Cathy’s corpse and taking it into the pool with her is an indication of her accepting that she has gone. The ending acts as sort of an acceptance that death is cruel, unfair, and, ultimately, final. Laura realised that and accepted it.

She squeezes the wound on her arm as, in my opinion, a coping mechanism like self harm. A nice little touch by the directors to illustrate that tremendous physical pain is nowhere near as bad as losing someone you love to a cruel and untimely death.

Who Was Oliver?

Oliver was, actually, a young boy named Connor Bird who was kidnapped from his home by Laura on May 19th. She kidnapped him with the intention of using him as the intermediary for the resurrection ritual. Oliver was to be possessed by the demon Tari who would then consume Cathy’s corpse and soul before transferring it into Piper’s body.

Laura pretended that Connor was Oliver, her real life nephew. We do see a picture of actual Oliver at some point and he did have red hair. Connor had blonde hair but it was shaved off by Laura. Laura made a big mistake telling Piper that Oliver had curly hair as she noticed it was clearly not curly when she touched his head.

Oliver was insatiably hungry because Laura had delayed the ritual for so long due to the lack of rainfall. The demon possessing Oliver must be kept with the grounds of the home. This is why when Oliver is taken outside of the line early in the film he screams and convulses. This was the demon temporarily escaping, allowing Connor to return momentarily.

Oliver’s Mimicry and Does Oliver Survive?

Laura brings Oliver inside and pacifies him by rubbing in circles on his forehead. This allows the demon to take control back and returns Oliver to his mute state. She feeds him the lock of Andy’s father’s hair here which leads us onto an interesting point.

It seems as though Oliver is capable of mimicry. Well, I say Oliver but it is more the demon inside of Oliver, Tari. After eating the hair, Oliver appears in the bathroom with Andy taking the form of Andy’s father. Oliver is also able to mimic Andy’s voice after eating Andy’s finger. Oliver even manages to mimic the cat’s calls earlier in the film when he is in the bath after biting the cat’s tail.

So, does Oliver survive? Well, he follows Piper at the end of the film because the demon needs to transfer the soul. This takes him outside of the boundary line where Oliver passes out and convulses. The demon leaves his body and Oliver is then found by police where he tells them he is Connor Bird. Obviously, he has survived but those mouth wounds look pretty gnarly.

Did The Ritual Work and Could It Have Worked?

This is a really good question. The ritual did not work and all of the conditions to conduct the ritual were never met. With this being said, I would assume that it would not have worked even if Laura went through with it and drowned Piper.

The pool wasn’t full so the conditions of the ritual weren’t met. In fact, it wasn’t even half full, even being completely empty right at the start of the film. Not to mention, Oliver had been munching on everything and everyone in the vicinity. He had eaten some of Andy’s dad’s hair, some of the cat’s tail, some of Laura’s arm, some of the worktop.

I don’t know what would have happened had Laura gone through with it but something surely would have gone wrong.

What Was Piper Looking Up At During The End?

This seems a bit vague at the time but it makes sense if you think about it. Piper, while in the car having escaped, seems to look up to the sky at the end of the film. The reason for this is pretty simple. She hears the sound of an airplane in the sky.

Earlier in Bring Her Back, Andy told Piper that the sound of an airplane is their father’s soul being taken to heaven. In the moment that Piper hears the airplane at the end, she believes that it is Andy’s soul being taken to heaven. She can’t suddenly see as some people may think, she just hears the airplane. Quite a tender moment, really.

Where The Hell Did Laura Get The Tapes?

This is a pretty big question, right? I mean, you don’t just stumble on random resurrection rituals at your local charity shop. Well, actually, perhaps you might. Laura actually got these tapes from an online black market. This isn’t well documented in the film and is, actually a bit of viral lore building.

Much like the crew of The Blair Witch Project did back in the late 90s. The crew here put a little bit of effort into some retro web-based world building. The website www.blackangeltapes.net acts as something of a replica Dark-Web like market place for buying forbidden media.

It is set up to look like a bidding site where you view screenshots of tapes containing troubling material and can purchase them anonymously. Laura bought the ritual tapes on this marketplace. Pretty cool little detail.

Thanks for Reading

In summary, Bring Her Back is, basically, a tale about the grieving process. Death is sudden, cruel, and massively unfair but it is also final. Accepting that can be an incredibly difficult thing to do because it is just so brutal. Laura was willing to do whatever she could to bring her daughter back, even turn herself into a monster.

There’s some cool little connections to the Talk to Me universe in this film and on the blackangeltapes website. You even see Sophie Wilde, who played Mia in that film, briefly.. Well, her arm anyways which is plenty for me as Mia sucked ass. The brothers say they are going to tie it altogether more in the future. Thanks for reading and spending your time at Knockout Horror.

Disclaimer: Images, posters, and video stills used in this horror ending explained article are the property of their respective copyright holders. They are included here for the purposes of commentary, criticism, and review under fair use. Knockout Horror makes no claim of ownership and encourages readers to support the official release of all films discussed.