Not to be confused with the fantastic French television series, The Returned, directed by Laura Casabé, is an Argentinian supernatural period piece. Set in the year 1919, it seeks to explain a strange phenomena that sees multiple people believed to be dead, brought back to life. The returned aren’t quite how they used to be; all are eerily silent, have eyes the colour of darkness, and have a sinister plan for the living.
Told through three overlapping and intertwined segments, at times, The Returned feels almost as though it could be supernatural Pulp Fiction. Within each section we learn more about everyone involved, and as the full truth is revealed during the final story, the film has a very different reading to that of its start. It’s a delicate, quiet, and sombre story that entices the viewer with its enigmatic nature. Having all components of the story revolve around one incident does occasionally cause the pace to drag. Even with some chapters moving around in time and merely framing the main plot point, repetition sets in and the viewer’s investment is challenged.
As the narrative unfolds, the film gets progressively quieter. We begin with the story of Julia (María Soldi), a woman desperate to have a baby of her own, but has been victim to a series of tragic miscarriages and still-births. Believing to have no other option, she decides to make a deal with a mythic deity hoping to save her latest child. It is this deal that sets off the cataclysmic events that follow, and is filled with sounds of anguished screams, sobbing, and a particularly ferocious waterfall. This noise relents slightly for the second chapter, told from the point of view of Julia’s aide, Kerana (Lali Gonzalez), with the focus more on whispered conversations. Then we shift into the final part for which we join the returned, and is almost completely silent. This ever decreasing amount of sound means that the film relies heavily on its score to convey the story, and Leonardo Martinelli’s score is an evocative and eerie accompaniment.
Visually, The Returned is appropriately unsettling in its appearance. Set deep within the woods, Casabé generates plenty of atmosphere and manages to pull off the period setting quite believably. The remote location surely helps with this, but there’s an authentic feeling to the costumes and sets that really sell it. It’s a dark and drearily lit film, the lighting reinforcing the unease, and there’s an interesting use of pull focus shots that serve to keep the viewer from seeing more than they should.
Atmospheric and aesthetically authentic, The Returned utilises a storytelling technique made most famous by Quentin Taratino, with varying success. Although it is the intriguing use of ever decreasing sound that really sets itself apart from the pack.
The Returned was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest Halloween.
The Returned
Summary
An atmospheric period piece that offers chills and some thrills with its different approaches to storytelling.
