They Came Back (2004)

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I bought this on a whim because it was super cheap, because the plot seemed interesting and because there was a blurb from Ain't It Cool News referring to Shaun of the Dead. Well, I regret my naivety and impulsive buy. All over the world, but in this film a small french town, the people who died over the last 10 years come back. They don't look decomposed, they're not hungry for human flesh, they just walk slowly and are pretty much dazed and emotionless. The box cover and the intro basically have the most memorable and "scariest" sequence of the story: a bunch of mostly old people walking in the streets. Do not expect horror, fun or suspense. OK, perhaps a little suspense/mystery that will unnecessarily frustrate you as too often, there are cuts away from impactful dramatic moments (ex: reunions of living and previously dead), but most importantly because nothing is explained or revealed. There's not much happening in terms of events and virtually no pay-offs watching this semblance of a story so very slowly unfold, either for the small things or the big overall mystery.Just so we're clear, this is nothing at all like Shaun of the Dead; this is a serious artsy drama, void of special effects, with a great concept (returning dead that are not zombies) that is totally and shamefully wasted. I found this movie didn't really have much emotionality to it, that it was really cold and lifeless. Some might consider it melancholy, but to me it would be an insult to that beautiful yet sometimes painful feeling. To finish, all the big questions you think living people would ask their formerly defunct loved ones? None of that here. Perhaps somewhere it was said the dead don't remember, but in any case, it was an easy cop-out, rendered all the more cheap by the cheap ending.Rating: 2 out of 10 (terrible)

It was the first time a director had tackled the "living dead" subject in a realistic way,without falling into the routine of the fantasy and horror treatment.One has never got the feeling of watching another "night of the living dead" rip off.The problem of this ambitious movie is that it is too ambitious.Instead of focusing on ONE character ,it tries to tell us the story of several characters who rose from the dead and the treatment is too superficial and too diffuse to involve us.Who ,after all ,has never dreamed he meets again one of his faithful departed alive as you or me?I had never asked myself this question when I saw all those story like movies involving people risen from the dead.The writers often boils down such an extraordinary thing to problems of employment or of temperature (about 32°C,if we believe them).Absorbing subject but the movie is not up to scratch.Too bad.Worth a look ,if only for its originality.

This is a sci-fi/drama where the recently deceased all over the world return from the grave. The film focuses on a French town and how the authorities work to integrate the "returners," most of whom are elderly, back into society. While the "returners" seem to be sedated versions of their former selves, they also seem to be healthier than they were before they died. Central to the story is Rachel, whose is in denial of her husband's return. The acting and camera-work are both very stellar in this artsy film. At times, an eerie atmosphere is successfully created. There is something inherently creepy about a bunch of older people walking slowly together as if on a mission. The bird's eye "body temp" shots are also very unsettling. Unfortunately, that's really all there is to this excruciatingly boring movie. It took me two days to get through it because I kept falling asleep. Nobody in the film asks any of the most intriguing questions. What about people who were cremated or whose bodies were missing? Did they return? The returners' bodies apparently just appeared in-tact one day above their graves and then they were claimed by relatives or sent to special housing units. When the movie ended I had no idea what happened throughout any of the movie, so thumbs down on this one. It had so much potential but didn't do anything with it.

When I give "1" to a movie, it means it's an execrable one and I have no intention to waste any more time with it! Just know that the dead are coming back. The action is originally located in a small French town. Thus, leaving the "horror" side, it concentrates on the psychological & social effects on the alive! Problem: when the alive lack even more emotions than the dead, you simply got nothing: no dialogues, no interaction, no story.... Geraldine Pailhas confesses it on the making-of: " If I live this situation for real, I would laugh, cry, speak, stay silent, be happy & be terrified, but HERE, the director wanted no feelings".So, as I said in another review, sometimes the dead should never come back !!!!