Separation (2021)

Maggie, a lawyer who works long hours, is divorcing Jeff, who was once a rather successful comic book writer but is now viewed as irresponsible, immature, and unmotivated (having been unemployed for three years due to "creative differences"). Caught in the middle is eight-year-old daughter Jennifer (Jenny). Complicating matters is Maggie's wealthy lawyer father Paul, who thinks poorly of Jeff because of his failure to work and financially support his family. Maggie supposedly makes up for her lack of time (quantity) with Jennifer by providing a quality lifestyle and good mothering when she is home.

The family has recently hired a babysitter, twenty-year-old Samantha, to help care for Jenny during Maggie's late days at the office. The divorcing couple, who frequently argue in front of Jennifer and upset her, go to a divorce negotiator to settle the terms. Maggie's father Paul goes along and does most of the talking and influencing for Maggie. Maggie is seeking sole custody of Jennifer by offering slacker Jeff a monetary settlement to "start a new life" away from her and Jennifer. Maggie does not request alimony or child support (which unemployed Jeff could not provide, anyway). Jeff says the money isn't what he wants and initially rejects the check. Marion (whose identification is not specified, but probably Jeff's lawyer or representative of some kind), encourages Jeff to take the settlement, saying it is a good offer, she's almost certain Maggie will get full custody, and challenging Maggie could result in Jeff "losing everything", including visitation with Jennifer.

Jeff is about to sign the contract, but asks Maggie about visitation. Maggie tells him he must not have read the contract because she is seeking sole custody and Jeff would not have any visitation with Jennifer - his parental rights would be terminated. This sets off another argument over the phone while Maggie is walking home. Maggie never makes it home - she is run over and mangled by a hit-and-run driver. Jeff, who was supposedly about to lose everything that mattered (Jennifer), now almost had everything... that is, until nasty father-in-law Paul serves papers seeking custody of Jennifer (who is, once again, caught in the middle). Babysitter Samantha sees her chance to take Maggie's place and tells Jeff they could be a family. Jeff is distraught over Samantha's warped thinking and does not show any romantic or other interest in her.

Samantha tells Jeff there is "something dark in the house." Jeff starts having bizarre nightmares that include some of his dark comic book characters visiting and scaring him. He also sees puppets in the home moving and "coming alive." Meanwhile, Jennifer has been aware of the "presence" and talking to it - her mother's ghost in the firm of Jeff's dark comic book character. Strange things happen in the house, such as a creepy contortionist clown coming out of the attic and freaking out Jeff but not actually harming him. Jeff eventually gets informed by the police that Samantha is an alias for Jane Silvermore - the person responsible for the hit-and-run that killed Maggie. Samantha also tried to poison Jennifer by getting Chinese food with peanuts - Jennifer is allergic to peanuts. After Samantha realises she was discovered trying to poison Jennifer, she tells Jeff it was a mistake and she knows that Samantha should be with them. Maggie's ghost kills Samantha and then tries to take Jennifer out the window using altered tree branches that "came alive" and grabbed her. Jennifer starts falling out the window and Jeff takes a dive out to latch onto Jennifer and save her.

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