They Came Back
| They Came Back | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Robin Campillo |
| Produced by |
Caroline Benjo Carole Scotta |
| Written by |
Robin Campillo Brigitte Tijou |
| Starring |
Géraldine Pailhas Jonathan Zaccaï Frédéric Pierrot |
| Music by |
Jocelyn Pook Martin Wheeler |
| Cinematography | Jeanne Lapoirie |
| Edited by | Robin Campillo |
| Distributed by | Haut et Court |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
They Came Back (French: Les Revenants), released in the UK as The Returned, is a French zombie film, released in 2004.[1] The film was screened at the Hamburg Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, the Venice Film Festival in Italy, and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada.
Unlike modern zombie films, in which the undead characters wish to digest or otherwise harm the human characters, the 70 million people who return from the dead in They Came Back are cognitively conscious and healthy, having not suffered any biological damage. They want simply to re-integrate themselves into society. In the French village where the film takes place, the town's population must cope with the social and emotional ramifications of the dead coming back to life.[2]
Plot
Without warning the dead begin to return to life, appearing near their burial sites alive and healthy, and heading en masse toward their home towns. The event lasts for roughly two hours, returning an estimated 70 million people to life, all having died within the previous 10 years; more than 13,000 return in the film's unnamed city alone. Taking cues from the rest of the country and the U.N., the city's council and mayor (Victor Garrivier) make plans to house the returned and gradually help reintroduce them to their lives.
Reintroduction of the returned poses both practical and emotional challenges. Additionally, the returned suffer from effects similar to those seen after a severe concussion, including lapses in awareness and connection with reality, further worsened by their universal inability to sleep and constant desire to wander. This causes them to perform sluggishly during their day jobs, but a small number of returned are observed having clandestine nighttime meetings with each other where their symptoms seem to vanish.
The returned begin reuniting with their loved ones, including the mayor with his returned wife Martha (Catherine Samie), married couple Isham (Djemel Barek) and Véronique (Marie Matheron) with their returned 6-year-old son Sylvain (Saady Delas), and Rachel (Géraldine Pailhas) with her returned husband Mathieu (Jonathan Zaccaï). Rachel is reluctant to see Mathieu at first, until one day he follows her home, acting as though he never left. After some trepidation Rachel accepts him, and the two make love. Rachel and Mathieu's reunion is witnessed by Gardet (Frédéric Pierrot), a doctor who has become suspicious of the returned and Mathieu in particular, after following the latter to a nighttime meeting. Gardet later attempts to tell Rachel of this, expressing concern, but is told to leave her alone.
Most of the returned are moved to more menial jobs when it becomes clear that, though they can perform memorized tasks and procedures, they cannot engage in problem solving or planning, and even their apparent consciousness may be an illusion. Their increasing need to leave their homes at night and wander only adds to the growing sentiment that they are less than human. Various people cope with this differently, and Rachel denies it entirely, despite Gardet's attempts to convince her.
One evening a series of explosions tears through the country, reportedly planted by the returned, sabotaging most city centers and other infrastructure but without inflicting a single casualty. In the chaos the returned in the city begin heading for a series of underground tunnels. The mayor attempts to stop his wife from leaving with the rest but begins to feel ill and, after Martha's urging him to "give in", apparently dies; he is later seen in the tunnels alongside the returned. The military begins retaliating against the returned, attacking groups of them with a gaseous toxin that induces a permanent coma.
After guiding many returned to the tunnels, Mathieu returns to Rachel, to whom he describes the events leading to his fatal car accident, revealing he crashed while trying to find her after the two had a fight. Rachel follows him into the tunnels, tearfully kissing him before he disappears into the darkness. She returns to the surface some time later, and observes the military gathering the comatose returned and taking them away. The bodies are laid atop their graves in the cemetery and slowly vanish.
Cast
- Géraldine Pailhas as Rachel
- Jonathan Zaccaï as Mathieu
- Frédéric Pierrot as Gardet
- Victor Garrivier as The mayor
- Catherine Samie as Martha
- Djemel Barek as Isham
- Marie Matheron as Véronique
- Saady Delas as Sylvain
Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 78%, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[3]
The Village Voice remarked, "They Came Back suffers from long-winded earnestness and, despite some poetic conceits, its allegory ultimately doesn't parse."[4]
Spin-offs
- Les Revenants (TV series), a French television series adaptation of the film
- The Returned (U.S. TV series), an American remake of the French TV series
References
- ↑ "They Came Back". The New York Times.
- ↑ Gonzalez, Ed (2005). "They Came Back". Slant Magazine.
- ↑ "They Came Back (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ Hoberman, J. (2005-03-15). "In This World". The Village Voice.