The Returned (2013 Movie)
The Gist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6h5vtY5qZU
Zombies & Norms: Emily Hampshire (Kate); Kris Holden-Ried (Alex); Shawn Doyle (Jacob); Claudia Bassols (Amber); Melina Matthews (Eve); Barry Flatman (Hospital Chief)
My Take: Ok, so I may have confused this movie with the French TV series of the same name, which I have started to watch and that did make for a confusing conversation with a co-worker since we were talking about 2 different things. Anyway, this movie takes place several years following a zombie outbreak and after, not a cure but a suppressant type of drug has been created. It keeps the zombie inside the infected subdued or in torpor. It’s the perfect solution except the drug is running low and there are insurgents that want to kill the Returned because they can be dangerous especially if they miss taking their dose. So it’s like zombie rehab or thinking about it now, it’s quite similar to the brilliant BBC series ‘In The Flesh’ even down to the groups that will not suffer a zombie to live. One of different thing is that in this flick the people need to be dosed before they completely turn into flesh-eating zombies.
The acting is fine, however for some reason I didn’t care for the performance by Kris Holden-Reid (Dyson from Lost Girl). The overall story seemed a little a flat with a couple of moments that felt like it was going to pick up and become intriguing but it didn’t and remained mediocre. There were only a couple of scenes with full-blown zombies which looked really good but they were few and far between.
Final Thoughts: This movie was simply ok and didn’t really leave much of an impression other than it reminded me of ‘In the Flesh’ and it fell far below that series in storytelling, acting and overall engagement and interest in the characters following a zombie apocalypse and how the world tries to return to some semblance of the normality lost during the devastation. For this flick, I saw give it a pass (you won’t be missing much) and go watch the first 2 seasons of ‘In the Flesh’.
Dawning Creates 