Bring Her Back

while this movie does focus on grief (and it does so beautifully btw), the possession can only work because of adults taking advantage of childrens' vulnerability. each child in this movie is taken advantage of in different ways, and this can only be done because laura understands how susceptible children are to manipulation in the face of an adult that's meant to act as their guardian. her plan can only work if she's presented as a reliable maternal figure, alleviating her grief by caring for more children in place of her daughter; while this is not wholly the case, it's reminiscent of many people that use children as a vehicle to cope w/ their own unresolved emotions. and because laura's violence extends largely to those dependent on her, it goes unnoticed - the foster system protects her rather than the children, the children are seen as unreliable, and connor is unable to speak. their autonomy is stripped of them in different ways w/ connor's being the most extreme end, literally having to become a vessel for her possession w/ no way to exercise autonomy outside of unchecked violence. so definitely not a coincidence that laura takes advantage of piper's blindness and connor's "selective mutism", and is free to do so in a system that praises her for her endless goodwill as it allows them to skirt their own responsibility of ensuring children are protected.