Warning, this review does contain spoilers.
They Came Back/Les Revenants is an interesting French film from 2004 about zombies, but not in the typical fashion. The folks that rise from the grave in this picture aren't your stereotypical flesh eating ghouls. They are the people who they were before they died...sort of. You see, the zombies in this, usually referred to as "The Returned" (and before you ask, yes, the show is based on this movie) are seemly normal individuals who just so happened to have died within the past 10 years and are now wandering around again.
The film opens in a very old school zombie movie kind of way. We see a cemetery and a steady flow of people that are just shuffling out. The camera pulls back to show how massive the crowd is. A meeting is being held with the mayor and my other officials of the town. There we learn that an estimated 74 million people world wide have returned, with a few thousand in this town alone. The concern, of course, is trying to figure out what to do with them. A temporary shelter is created, housing individuals until their next of kin retrieves them. Some people, like the film's main character Rachel, can't bring themselves to accept that this is happening, all while her husband, Mathieu, doesn't seem to know that he's been dead for 2 years.
It quickly becomes apparent that something is up (well, aside from the obvious). The Returned are a bit slower than everyone else, acting like blunt force trauma victims. They stare out into nothing for long periods of time, seemly unable to concentrate on any complex task in front of them. There's nothing wrong with their speech and motor functions, in fact they can carry on normal conversations. Aside from zoning out, they're in excellent health and are able to resist most disease due to a lower body temperature. Oh, and they pretend to sleep so they can sneak out in the middle of the night to have secret meetings with each other. Other than that, they're completely normal.
While it sounds like the film builds toward some sort of sinister plot by The Returned, the bulk of the movie deals with many different characters coming to grips with the reality that their once departed loved ones are walking the Earth again. They almost have the reverse of the 5 stages of grief, inevitably becoming so happy that they just ignore the warning signs, holding on to the hope that this is really happening. Unfortunately, one doctor does finally figure out why they constantly zone out: The Returned are replying the events of the day they died in their head, stuck in a never ending loop. He says that they may never be who we want them to be again.
However, near the end of the film, it's revealed that those secret meetings they were having were about trying to access the tunnels that run under the city. Why? Who knows! This is undoubtedly the weakest part of this film. The Returned stage a series of synchronized bombings around the city so they can get to these tunnels (the bombings are purely for distraction as there are no casualties). The French government comes in with special coma-gas grenades to take out the unarmed and fleeing individuals. Of course "coma" for them must mean "dead" since the film ends with the soldiers taking the bodies of the re-departed and placing them on their graves, causing them to magically vanish.
Everything comes to a head in a climax where almost nothing happens. Sure Rachel has a tearful goodbye with Mathieu as he stares blankly at her while going into the tunnel, but that doesn't resolve on of the big issues here. This movie set up a major plot point with these secret meetings, and not once did we get a hint as to what was happening. I'm not asking for a story to be spoon fed to me, in fact I love those "ah-ha" moments when you figure something out that isn't explicitly stated, but you've gotta throw me a bone here. Were they trying to escape? Is there something special underground? Why were they able to work together on this plan when other tasks seemed just out of reach for them? A movie shouldn't necessarily wrap everything up in a nice bow, but this, I feel, was too big of a thing and had too much set up for them to not even drop a clue.
Don't judge the film too harshly, though. Overall, it's great. It'll suck you in and have you wondering what happens next. The down side is that it can be slow moving at times and there's that one major, unresolved plot thread. I still say, however, that it's worth giving it a shot.
Till Next Time, Space Monkeys!
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