Please don't spend money on this.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

During the first zombie outbreak that we don't get to see, over 100 million people died. A drug was found to control the disease. There is a catch. The drug must be injected every 36 hours or the person reverts. There is a short supply of the drug as it is derived from the spinal column of dead zombies. Kate (Emily Hampshire) is a doctor who treats "the Returned" and has a boyfriend Alex ( Kris Holden-Ried) who is a music teacher and one of them.Kate buys treatments under the table. She has to battle against the societal prejudice against "zombies" which has become a politically incorrect word. It takes about 40 minutes to develop the plot and character.The film has parallels to homophobia and various prejudices, after all who wants their sister to marry a zombie? There are anti-return groups and killings.The main problem is when the movie picks up it still moves slow. I kept waiting for something to catch and hold my interest. The ending was a yawn in spite of the attempt at being a dramatic twist. Not exactly a zombie film.Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity

Filmax is a Spanish studio specialized in independent horror cinema, usually shot in English in order to increment the perspectives of international distribution. And even though I haven't always enjoyed Filmax movies, I have noticed a progressive increment in the quality of its productions. What takes me to The Returned, an entertaining zombie film which leaves aside the sub-genus clichés in order to explore the economical and cultural consequences of a "post-post-apocalyptic" world, in which society recovered itself from the crisis, even though the danger for it to happen again is there. And naturally, that threat promotes the prejudices and intolerance from some people who would prefer to isolate the "returned" ones in concentration camps... or even better, kill them before they spread their disease to other ones. That isn't a new idea; the films Les Revenants and American Zombie had employed a similar premise. But The Returned might be the one which has approached the metaphors about racism, paranoid analogies to AIDS and the references to the Holocaust with the most vehemence. Unfortunately, the second half of The Returned abandons the global approach in order to focus into the problems of a couple desperate to supply themselves of the anti-virus before the general population finds out about its impending shortage. The screenplay keeps being interesting, but it loses credibility due to two very forced twists (one of them is predictable, and the other one is absurd) and the hollow sentimentality of the conclusion, which feels absolutely artificial and prefabricated. Nevertheless, I think I can give a moderate recommendation to The Returned because of its unusual handling of the zombies, competent performances and Manuel Carballo's adequate direction. This isn't the best film produced by Filmax (I think that one would be REC so far), but I consider it a decent horror film.

This is a different breed of Zombie flick, one that's rather refreshing. I would like to preface that as long as you're not going into this movie expecting zombies in every scene followed by hollow points, you should be able to enjoy this.The main characters are acted very well and I must say the cinematography was par to big Hollywood too. And yes some of the twists did get me by surprise. Go into this movie wanting to enjoy it and don't look past the actors to figure out the next turn and I think you'll be happy you did. I haven't reviewed a title in awhile but was pleasantly surprised with this one and think it deserves a much better rating than 5.9.PS. and as another reviewer mentioned, I couldn't stop thinking the main character was Chris Martin the entire movie.

Twenty years after the zombie apocalypse, there is an edgy steady state. There is a treatment that holds the zombie virus in check, but it is not a cure. It needs to be taken everyday, roughly speaking. The inevitable question is, will the supply give out?So we have another film about the politics of scarcity. There are anti-zombie protesters, and pro-zombie protesters. There are political factions to go along with the protesters (or perhaps the other way around). Even worse, there are groups in the two factions willing to kill to achieve their goals.The mechanism for making the treatment comes from the bodies of recently deceased Returned individuals (those who got the virus, but got the treatment in time). Since the program became more successful, fewer deaths have occurred among the returned. Hence the success of the program undermines its continuance. In another thread, a fully synthetic alternate treatment is being developed. The problem is, it has not been developed quickly enough to take up the failure of the original program.The film follows Kate, a physician who helps the Returned, and her husband Alex, who is secretly one of the Returned. A group breaks into the hospital, kills many of the Returned, and steals the database of the names, addresses, and contact information of a large number of the Returned. This puts Alex in danger.As the supply of treatments fails, Kate and Alex face many challenges to preserve Alex's life and to stay out of military prison camps. Will they succeed? Will the new treatments be perfected in time?-----Scores-----Cinematography: 9/10 Very nice camera work.Sound: 8/10 No problems.Acting: 9/10 Good performances all around, especially from Kris Holden-Reid and Emily Hampshire.Screenplay: 8/10 Well-written, with good pacing for a thriller; both thoughtful and gut-wrenching. This is one of the best zombie films I have seen.