They Came Back (2004) User Reviews

Not you daddy's zombie movie

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 15 October 2008]

If you like zombies, then you must certainly find 70 million of them to be a real delight. In fact, in the town in this film, 13,000 returned from the dead.

But, you will be disappointed in the fact that there is no blood or gore, no eating of brains. This is just what the French do best - give us a film that makes us think for 103 minutes.

Yes, they have come back, but they marched peacefully into town. They looked as if they were just buried yesterday, even though some had bee gone for 10 years. Mostly old, there were some infants and in one of the three families featured, a six-year-old.

It is curious that the French do not get upset; they proceed to develop plans to temporarily resettle the zombies while they learn their identities and check them out medically. They, of course, make plans to repatriate them to their families and jobs and make provisions for assistance - most are over 60, as you would expect.

But, the film focuses on three families: one who lost a six-year-old four years ago, one whose wife lost her husband, and one elderly couple reunited. All those questions of how you deal with loved ones returning after you have already grieved keep popping through your mind. Sometimes, in the case of the parents and child, there are different responses.

The film does not explore why they came back, and why they suddenly leave again. It is more concerned with how people deal with death. It is a thoughtful film that really keeps your attention, even though some complain about its slowness. Well, of course it is slow, it is a film about zombies.

Forget those flesh-eating zombie movies, how much more scary would be for the world if the dead rose and wanted their old lives back!

[SONNYK_USA · 7/10 · 21 June 2005]

Well, anyone who's been to a 'zombie' movie knows that nothing good can come from bringing the dead back to life, but director Robin Campillo presents a more interesting dilemma. How would a society accommodate and re-integrate their loved ones and relatives if they suddenly came walking out of the cemetery with clean clothes, no illnesses, and energy to spare.

What director Campillo has done is replaced 'scary' with 'eerie' as a local government struggles to shelter and re-located hundreds of the town's former inhabitants. In addition, the town's mayor must decide whether people can return to their old jobs, their old lives, or whether they should be studied to determine how all this came about.

Film takes a very matter-of-fact approach to sifting through a population influx, much like having a large group of refugees arrive in your town. The local scientists do make some early discoveries involving reduced sleep patterns, lower body, temperature, and how these 'arrivals' may only be acting normal as memory response.

If you enjoyed last year's "Time Out" (which Campillo co-wrote), then you'll also appreciate this spooky, but 'non-flesh eating', dead people coming back to life cinema experience. In some ways having your ex-wife come back can be scarier than a zombie, eh guys?

If Tarkovsky Returned As A Zombie, He'd Go See This Film

[wkduffy · 5/10 · 1 August 2005]

I'll admit, Campillo's "Les Revenants" is several artistic steps below (and two hours shorter than) any Tarkovsky epic. But as I watched the film, I couldn't get Tarkovsky's original "Solaris" out of my mind. The two films share a kind of somnambulist's sadness, a lumbering quality of going nowhere slowly, a dreaminess that falls somewhere between irritating nightmare and ho-hum sexdream. Oh, and both movies are populated with previously dead people, of course.

"Solaris" and "Les Revenants" pose similar questions as well: Are we dealing with actual "returnees," or are we simply struggling with the very palpable memories of those who have passed on? (Think about how "empty" the zombies are in both films and how they just sort of fade away--physically or spiritually--in both films.) Are these returnees dangerous to us? Or are we simply harming ourselves? More poignant, are WE the actual zombies? Hmmmm, hard to say. The film doesn't offer up any easy answers either as we see the crypt-dwellers attempting to return to their lives in the little French village as if things were...just fine.

And regarding the lack of answers, we also never find out what it was like to actually be dead either. If anything annoyed me about Campillo's "avant zombie flick," it's that. I kept waiting, wondering, would someone finally ask their deceased relative or returnee-loved-one lounging in bed next to them: "So, what's the afterlife like exactly? I mean, did that coffin get cramped? Did lying in the ground for ten years get irritating? Did you ever get the urge to roll over but didn't have enough room to maneuver? Would you choose cremation next time around, or would you just take a battery-powered TV with you into your grave next time?" But none of those topics ever came up. Of course, such a conversation really wouldn't have fit the arty tenor of the movie anyway.

But COME ON! ADMIT IT! These are precisely the weighty issues we want to hear about from experienced dead folks, right? I mean if you are having a picnic with a zombie (and YOU aren't the picnic, that is) you're gonna ask. You know you would.

I realize it is unlikely this movie would exist if it weren't for the wonderful Romero and his ilk. But overall, I offer a hearty kudos to Campillo for breathing life into the long-dead zombie subgenre. There are SO MANY zombie films out there (they seem to appear weekly), and I admit that I grew up digesting many of those Italian, German, and English delights. But with age and experience, you eventually tire of fast food, and you realize that the next "Zombie Intestine Massacre" flick is simply and mindlessly repeating itself so that every SPFX guy on the studio lot can keep his or her job. That's fine. But kiddies looking for gut-munching scenes will find none here--let them go elsewhere and leave the adults in peace.

Intense

[anomalousthomas · 26 August 2005]

I was stunned by this one - from the opening sequence on I was completed transfixed. The slow and melancholy pacing, the morose blue filters, the long silences and the fixed stares, all combined to create a spacious and powerfully - almost painfully - introspective viewing experience.

This is a remarkable meditation on the Zombie sub-genre as well, although clearly partaking of something quite well beyond that more limited scope. No corpse-eating ghouls here: just a fascinating "what if" that raises painful questions about what we do with death and the dead in our own collective imagination. In this particular return of the repressed, being forced to mull over the tedious, bureaucratic details of what would have to happen if hundreds of millions of dead people suddenly reappeared in our midst actually serves to engage the viewer in a very personal way. I found myself interrogating myself over and over about what kind of response I would have in a similar situation, and identifying with the film's protagonists on all sorts levels, and the experience was quite moving.

All the nuances of grief and mourning were shockingly subtle and well-conceived, as well as superbly acted.

The whole time I was watching I kept thinking: "Thank god for the French!" Such a movie could simply never arise from Hollywood.

The Dead walk slowly

[Thorsten_B · 7/10 · 12 August 2005]

This must be the least "effectful" of all zombie films - in a positive sense. Don't expect a visual gore feast, this one's far from it. And don't be impatient, the pace is incredibly slow and the mysteries the film sets up will not entirely be solved. Actually, rather than a mystery movie it's more a philosophical approach towards the question of mortality and the emotional bonds people still hold strong to their deceased loved ones. Like all fiction, it raises a big "What if?", this time even bigger than usual: What if the dead returned to live among us as if nothing - well, almost nothing, that is - happened? This very scenario brings the idea to life. When the finale is finally reached, more questions are opened than answered. It's up to the viewer what to make of the aesthetic experience. Without giving away too much, I personally would suggest it's a statement of how desperate longing for something impossible, if it suddenly seems to come into reach, can deceive one's sense for reality. But 'Les Revenants' is so cryptic that there will hardly ever be an explanation to fit all riddles.

Art house zombies, less bite more thoughtful

[trml1 · 7/10 · 21 November 2010]

I liked this film, but potential genre viewers beware, this is a subtitled French film, but since I enjoy both horror films and art house movies I had little problem with its leisurely pacing. Some reviewers have commented on a lack of horror, this is true, but there are plenty of unsettling scenes and the film has a genuine sense of unease hanging over it. It takes place in a high-rise suburb of the Ile-de-France, a region of Paris. There is something of a J.G. Ballard-like feel of dislocation to the urban surroundings that matches the inability of the returned dead to fit in with the lives of their previously grieving loved ones. Similarly, as in the short story The Monkey's Paw, it is perhaps better not to have your loved ones return from the dead because they may not be quite as you'd like them to be.

It's a fascinating premise and goes to show how the zombie genre can be tweaked in to interesting new shapes. However, writer and first time director Robin Compillo does not explore the full socio-economic possibilities of the situation, let alone the potential for horror. He instead considers some of the emotional implications involved in regard to loss and wish fulfilment in relation to the returned loved ones. It might be hoped that They Came Back could kick start a new direction in the zombie genre, as a global phenomenon there are thousands of potential scenarios. However, it is unlikely this modest and thoughtful little chiller (imagine M.Night Shyamalan when he was modest and thoughtful) will have the same impact as Night of the Living Dead.

That is an almost creative movie.

[brricker · 5/10 · 26 December 2005]

After I realized this movie is not a horror or a trash one, just because it has zombies in its plot I thought it has a great creative mind behind the story; however, when the movie ended I felt there was something missing in the story. The movie does not care much about explaining its core issue that is about the coming of the dead people themselves. Why did they return to live if all they want is to go to the tunnels? It does not say where the tunnels will lead them. To heaven or to hell? to the Elygian fields? to Mars? or to some new dimension? I would not bother if the movie was longer just to explain this part carefully. If so,the movie would be brilliant. Unfortunately it is not a brilliant movie. It is only good to make us think about the crazy hypothesis that the movie is talking about, which is, at least, interesting. My note is to say that according to my own interpretations, the movie never tries to sound funny as some other critics say, but tragic and hypothetical. People are never prepared to welcome their dead relatives with eager if they knock at their door after some years of "absence", even if you love them so much.

Great concept, but shaky execution...

[judas_is_carrot · 6/10 · 18 April 2006]

"They Came Back" has some really neat things going on- the concept being presented is really interesting, and definitely worth watching. What happens when the dead come back? What happens when the dead come back, but they're not bloodthirsty monsters, but, rather, seem to be *fairly* close to "normal?" They can talk, and remember some of who they used to be. It's an interesting idea, and the movie starts off well enough, looking at how a town copes with the return of all of these people. The problem is that it never really gets going. There are scenes that seem designed to make you think that these beings *could* turn into the standard brain-eaters... but to what purpose? In the end, there are too many questions left unanswered for this to be really satisfying. I don't need everything spelled out on a billboard for me, but I expect the director to at least see the story through. I need something to work with- an explanation for what made them come back, or what their goals were, or where they were going. Shoot, I'd have settled for an explanation for why the explosions or for why the zombies felt drawn to a particular place. Still, it's worth watching for a different take on the "return from the dead" idea, and even if it's not ultimately satisfying, there's obviously a great concept there.

Perhaps the most excruciatingly boring movie I've ever seen

[ross-137 · 1/10 · 27 July 2005]

I liked the concept for this... I really did. It provided for some interesting possibilities, and a fresh take on a zombie movie. Unfortunately, it went nowhere, and did nothing interesting. Once the film has opened and we see the dead streaming into the town, and the town council discussing how it will be handled, all of the intriguing bits have occurred.

The movie is devoid of life, including the living characters. Every single character in the movie is simply "going through the motions". The characters appear to have all given up. Everyone speaks in low monotones or whispers.

The "eerie" atmosphere is mostly provided by the musical score, which is a constant synthesizer drone. The music was pretty decent, and could have contributed to the atmosphere if the movie was actually interesting, but unfortunately there was nothing good for it to contribute to.

This managed to be a poster child for the worst stereotypes of french films- boring and pretentious.

I can't really summarize the end without giving spoilers, but what I will say is that the end of the film provided no resolution, no revelations, and nothing interesting.

I recommend watching this if you're experiencing a bad case of insomnia- it would probably be more effective than sleeping pills.

Débutant director Robin Campillo makes a pleasant film about the status of dead people in a living society !!!!

[Film_critic_Lalit_Rao · 6/10 · 7 June 2010]

Everybody knows that unusual ideas are always welcomed in cinema.This is an observation which holds for French director Robin Campillo's film "Les Revenants"/"They came back".This is a socially relevant French film about old people who are given a new lease of life.Although this film talks about dead people,it cannot be classified as a zombie film. France is an economically strong European nation which is thinking hard about its old people."Les Revenants" is a socially relevant film which goads us to reflect on the plight of old people.It is not only France which has to think about aging population.Many economically developed nations would soon have large population of old people.It is for them to device strategies to make life worthwhile for their old age denizens. This is why "Les Revenants" is more a film about French society and its handling of issues related to old people's welfare and well being.Film director Robin Campillo and his screenwriter Brigitte Tijou have written a gripping scenario which continually asks what is to be done with dead people who have come to live with living people.This exceptionally sound narrative gives rise to a series of poignant observations about old people and their behavioral traits with surprisingly uncommon results.PS :Film critic Lalit Rao would like to thank a good friend Mr.Philippe Pham for having gifted a DVD of this film for detailed analysis.

Huh?

[electronsexparty · 5/10 · 12 July 2005]

Les Revenantes (They Came Back) is an artsy French film in which they, the recently deceased, come back. Recently in this film spans ten years and 75% of the dead are over 60. Why? How? They are dressed in pastel tourist clothes and "are in perfect health." Then... nothing happens. At all. No. Nothing. The movie slides from mundane frame to mundane frame with a severe lack of dialogue and soundtrack. The non-dead wander around and stare off into space and have a slightly lower body temperature than not-non-dead people. They go home to their families and wander around and stare some more. The dead somehow organize some bombs to go off, not killing anyone, then retreat to the sewers to become mole people or Morlocks or something. Some are gassed into comas on the way. Then the gassed ones disappear the next day. Then a woman wipes steam off her mirror.

Have questions about the plot? Well the screen writer sure as hell isn't going to answer them. I wanted to bash my head against something but opted to sing the subtitles instead.

An interesting concept is ruined by an insanely slow pace and a minimal plot. Five out of ten because the film looked good and the acting seemed fine.

the touching dilemma of the dead

[matthew_leet · 8/10 · 27 September 2005]

This film stirs a few emotional quandaries, many of which a viewer may choose not to explore. If the purpose of film is to generate thought and reflection as much as to entertain, 'Les Revenants' succeeds by virtue of it's creepy essence and the personal and social problems we'd encounter as individuals if faced with the reality of having our dead loved ones come back to us. The subject is handled cleverly and touchingly by the director who never attempts to drive our view but allows the characters to help us define our feelings. Particularly perplexing for a parent who might give just about anything to see their fallen child again. The misty night scenes, serene almost drugged manner with which the dead carry themselves and the evolution of divided feelings regarding their return by the living give the film an ethereal pace which may disappoint flesh hungry zombie fans.

The dear departed return.

[Someguysomwhere · 6/10 · 22 April 2007]

There are 2 questions that frustrated me with this movie but I'm not going to tell you what they are because it might spoil it for you and they may not ever occur or matter to you. That said, it was an interesting movie conceptually.

As you well know, the dead returning in movies is nothing new. But the approach in Revenants is uncommon in that it does not use a lot of special effects or make up. Hopefully this bit of news will not turn you off if you love effects (as I do), but instead, will intrigue you into checking it out. The principal focus of the movie is how to re-integrate the "dearly returned" back into society and the effect on family and friends. Give this some thought. Who knows, a similar situation may occur in real life one day (heh! heh! heh!).

Despite my 2 unanswered questions, the idea and focus of the movie was intriguing enough to keep me interested from beginning to end. Ironically, in it's simplistic delivery (not exploring this captivating idea in more depth; my 2 questions included) it is also clever -I think- in that it does MORE with LESS. For example, in this movie the undead are subtly creepy rather than outright frightening or threatening like most movies of this genre. They don't make you want to run away, just "a little uneasy".

Bottom line folks, is that Les Revenants is worth seeing even if 2 or 3 questions nag at you. I give it 6 stars out of 10 for an "above average". And now it's time for ME to depart -UNTIL I RETURN, of course. Love, Boloxxxi.

Zomnambulists - and you'll be one too if you watch this film

[Jerry-Kurjian · 2/10 · 30 July 2005]

This is what happens when silly sociology meets insipid film making. The dead don't rise so much as roll over, yawn, stretch, and, after turning off the clock radio, get up and head for a quick pee. These pinot thirsty ghouls shamble into town with their hair nicely coiffed (not stringy, or matted with leaves and dirt like the EC comics creepy creatures), their clothes clean and bright (how many funerals have people buried in colorful summer clothes?), and their bodies unperturbed by the embalming process. This pic is a testament to a certain parochial bourgeois view - the locals are not unnerved or surprised, just concerned about the social-economic ramifications of an influx of undead. How are we going to find them jobs? While one women can barely manage as a 'lunch lady,' another guy is re-installed in his former position as - huh? - an architect. This film is perversely un-gritty. It's too willing to overlook so many obvious questions while determined to doggedly 'probe' a set of issues that oddly don't seem very pressing, to wit, "what would we do if dead people came back to life, wouldn't eat our flesh but couldn't work either, were boring to be around, and wished they were dead?" Duh! Put 'em in prisons, institutions, and old folks homes.

The first date I ever had I took to see Dawn of the Dead. They Came Back, I might take my ex to see - then skip out after a couple minutes. This is one humorless melodrama. I think she'd like it.

PS: 'Grapes of Death,' which sounds like a title a francophobe humorist would come up with but is a real French zombie pic, is also available for your 'enjoyment.' Definitely more blood-n-gore, somewhat less philosophical (but only somewhat), but still a b-movie that is neither good enough nor bad enough to be good.

"Why have the dead suddenly returned..."

[Backlash007 · 3 July 2005]

~Spoiler~

They Came Back is to zombie flicks what Unbreakable is to comic book movies. What if the dead returned to life and walked right out of the local cemetery? But instead of being the shambling, flesh-hungry walking corpses that George A. Romero created, they just want to reintegrate into society. Basically, they want their lives back; their jobs, their families. That premise just really grabbed me. No one had ever handled it this way before. With its deliberate pacing and stellar photography and acting, I was ready to be blown away. It features some truly creepy scenes and we don't know how we feel about the returnees (at least I didn't). Do I take their side or not? It's an issue I was surprised to be facing in Romero's latest opus as well, Land of the Dead. I really dug the issues the film was dealing with (treating them as realistically as possible I might add) but I thought there could have been more. I wanted to see a returnee come back and find his wife had remarried. How strange would that be? Or maybe a murder victim confronts their killer. I can only imagine the strength of these scenes when handled by writer/director Robin Campillo. I have to say that I was upset by the end of the film. Or the lack of an ending in my opinion. You're taking me on a journey. Don't push me out of the car before we get there. I want a better ending. I don't want answers for why or how they came back, but what they wanted in the end and where they were going. I hate being left in the dark. Especially if I am moved by the film. The plot was so good and original, which is an odd commodity these days. It's the type of plot you won't find in Hollywood, so maybe I was expecting too much to get a Hollywood ending. But this anti-zombie, zombie movie could have been a GREAT film.

Débutant director Robin Campillo has made a pleasant film about the status of dead people in a living society

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 7/10 · 7 August 2014]

Everybody knows that unusual ideas are always welcomed in cinema.This is an observation which holds for French director Robin Campillo's film "Les Revenants"/"They came back".This is a socially relevant French film about old people who are given a new lease of life.Although this film talks about dead people,it cannot be classified as a zombie film. France is an economically strong European nation which is thinking hard about its old people."Les Revenants" is a socially relevant film which goads us to reflect on the plight of old people.It is not only France which has to think about aging population.Many economically developed nations would soon have large population of old people.It is for them to device strategies to make life worthwhile for their old age denizens. This is why "Les Revenants" is more a film about French society and its handling of issues related to old people's welfare and well being.Film director Robin Campillo and his screenwriter Brigitte Tijou have written a gripping scenario which continually asks what is to be done with dead people who have come to live with living people.This exceptionally sound narrative gives rise to a series of poignant observations about old people and their behavioral traits with surprisingly uncommon results.PS :Film critic Lalit Rao would like to thank a good friend Mr.Philippe Pham for having gifted a DVD of this film for detailed analysis.

I am truly shocked...

[Mac Styran · 1/10 · 16 August 2005]

I can not believe that ANYONE can even remotely like this film. Two excruciating hours of boredom and pointlessness.

It's not even art.

I was actually interested when I read the premise of this flick, but having seen what became of that initial gripping idea ... it's simply a crime. When other reviewers say that the plot goes nowhere ... they are right in the purest sense. NO setup culminated in ANY kind of payoff. In a nutshell: Dead come back out of nowhere, Living try to re-integrate them, Dead bomb something and seem to gather in the sewers. Well, SOME. The others are put in an "irreversible coma" (sounds like DEATH to me...), put ONTO their graves (by the military ... brilliant plan...) and DISAPPEAR.

Yup, you should be thinking the same thing as the audience in the cinema where I was in thought: "WHAT?????"

Every time I thought the "plot" was going SOMEWHERE ... it ... simply didn't. The doctor that *supposedly* found out about the Returners ... dead end. The husband that was *supposedly* different ... dead end. The camera trick to reveal if someone is dead or not ... DEAD END.

I actually couldn't go on and on, because there just isn't that much material there.

To call this film a disappointment is an understatement par excellence. French films can be good; I know a couple. Art films can be good and an interesting experience.

THIS ... was plain and simple rubbish. A colossal waste of time, money and manpower.

What.A.Shame.

A Nutshell Review: They Came Back

[DICK STEEL · 1/10 · 13 October 2006]

The horror... the horror!

No, the movie's nothing frightening, but in fact, it bored me to tears. You can literally take a leak, go to the snack bar, have a smoke, and return to the theatre, missing absolutely nothing. Half the time I was wondering whether something remotely interesting will crop up midway to quicken the pace, but I was dead wrong. The movie is meant to be painfully and excruciatingly slow, for it to bring forth its philosophy about life and death, and its abstract ideas about existentialism.

The big question presented, though it is hardly ever gonna come true anyway, is how will society react if the dead suddenly became alive again? The issues that are posed, from housing to employment to health care and even human rights (!), are those that are any government's nightmare. The movie begins with stoned elderly folks walking, and walking, and walking some more when the opening credits rolled, until it is said that the dead are walking the earth, and are quickly scrambled to makeshift holding areas while awaiting the relatives to come claim them, and for everyone else to try and make sense of this phenomenon.

Perhaps Heaven is getting crowded, or Hell has frozen over, that the departed need to return to the land of the living. They do not crave the blood of man, but rather, are finding ways to integrate back into society. Herein lies the opportunity for philosophy that is unappreciated by myself. There are different viewpoints presented via various characters, but all that is worth recalling, is that the dead are not pleased to be alive, and those alive are absolutely clueless as to what to do next. Bottom line is, let sleeping dogs lie.

One thing's for sure, I don't really like abstract zombies. Give me those that crave for flesh and blood anytime!

Deadly slow even on fast-forward ! (dvd)

[leplatypus · 4/10 · 16 September 2006]

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 !!!!

Interesting parable

[thither · 8/10 · 20 July 2005]

I liked this movie. It had a dreamy, parable-like quality to it that reminded me of films like Man Facing Southeast (1986) and The Rapture (1991). The focus is not really on the plot, so if you are annoyed with movies that don't explain a lot of the action, this is probably not the movie for you. Some would probably find it a little pretentious too; personally, it was well within my own threshold.

The cinematography is really good throughout, and the acting is well-done. The director is very successful in evoking a strange, off-kilter feeling, which predominates and occasionally escalates into eeriness and even a little dread. The newly returned dead are enigmas to their living relations and the audience both.

I felt somewhat let down by the ending, but not as much as I would have thought if I'd known the plot of the movie beforehand. Although some things in the movie (mostly plot elements) were not resolved to my satisfaction, I did feel like the character development was complete by the end. That focus is fairly typical of the movie as a whole.

Don't waste time or money

[sincityhero · 1/10 · 19 February 2009]

Let me save everyone 2 hours of their life. So, "zombies", i use that term loosely, come back from the dead. Why? you don't know and you wont find out either. They are integrated back into society....cue the hour and a half of nothingness. Talking, talking, and more talking........OK, some bombs go off and a kid jumps off a balcony, sounds cool right? things are picking up right? wrong. The end. So my review doesn't make sense, exactly, neither does this piece of crap movie. Why are there zombies, how are there zombies, what are they doing, and where are they going....you'll never find out. The only good IMDb scores come from people who wanna pretend they're artsy and "get it". They don't get it and they know this movie blows. Spend your 2 hours trying to bite your own ear, at least it's entertaining to someone, unlike this crap.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

[proficy · 1/10 · 4 September 2005]

I like "art house" movies. I like zombie movies. I like French cinema. In theory, I would like this movie. Sadly, this was one of the worst 2 hours I've ever spent.

The movie kept asking questions, (maybe most importantly) like "Why did the dead return?" Not a single question was answered!!!! I sat through the first hour and a half on the assumption that I'd get some resolution. But NOTHING.

The (little bit of) plot was excruciatingly slow, the cinematography was average, and the dialog was non-existent.

I can safely say that this movie has nothing going for it. Don't bother.

The day of the living dead

[dbdumonteil · 18 November 2009]

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.

They shouldn't have come

[Quebec_Dragon · 2/10 · 9 April 2012]

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)

they came back... who cares?

[theresa-54 · 1/10 · 10 August 2005]

2 Hours with disorientated slightly unaware, irritated, boring, silent and absolutely UNINTERESTING "zombies"... (sorry I had to click the spoiler button because that's all the movies's containing)...

They came back, stole two hours of my lifetime and disappeared ...yehaaaa!!!

this line is as unnecessary as the film was.

this line as well

and this one...

-- this line was inserted on absolute purpose ---

.. at least it didn't take you two hours to read them ;)