"The Return" is an excellent, suspenseful film that is easily one of my favorite supernatural thrillers. The plot follows Joanna Mills (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young executive who receives a promotion and is sent to a small town named La Salle, Texas to do business. After arriving in the town and meeting up with an old friend, Joanna begins experiencing strange nightmares and visions about a murder that occurred 15 years ago in the town. After meeting a man named Terry, the husband of the woman who was murdered, Joanna begins having more intense hallucinations and is chased by a strange man who keeps on referring to her as "sunshine". Joanna becomes determined to solve the mystery behind Terry's wife's murder, and discovers that it may be linked to a past event that occurred in her life.
I was really shocked to see how many negative reviews there were for this film on IMDb, and how many people rated it one star out of ten. Are you joking? This is one of the most intelligent supernatural thrillers I've seen in years. Sure, it's a bit of a thinker, but what's wrong with that? It seems like people have become so lazy with films that they want everything spoon-fed to them or otherwise don't even want to bother. "The Return" boasts a very smart and nicely woven story that was interesting and never 'dull', as some have described it. It's very intricate, but it makes sense. I can understand a little confusion with what is going on at the early and mid stages of the movie, because if you don't pay attention you may find yourself lost - but as long as you're paying attention to what's happening on screen, the plot is actually pretty easy to follow.
The cast is led by Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has already earned her place in the horror/suspense genres for her roles in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "The Grudge", and again proves her acting skills with this film. The supporting cast includes Peter O'Brien as the mysterious Terry, and Kate Beahan (of "The Wicker Man" remake) as one of Joanna's old hometown friends. No problem with any of the acting here, everyone did a good job. The film is set in a rundown Texas town, and the country backdrop was a spooky place to set the story, and it is made good use of. There's nice cinematography and some rather shaky camera-work used, but it is appropriate and sets a certain tone to the film. While this movie isn't exactly a 'horror' film per se, it does have some very scary moments (or at least I thought so). The scenes where Joanna was being chased by the "sunshine" man were actually very terrifying and had me on the edge of my seat. His character was menacing and just downright creepy and gave me shudders on more than one occasion - probably one of the scariest things about this film.
One problem that may have caused the large amount of dislike towards this film was the marketing, which made it out to be something along the lines of "The Grudge", and it is absolutely nothing like that. This was a very subtle, atmospheric, and smart supernatural mystery. There's no shaky-moving monsters or an over use of cheap "jump" scares here. This movie garners it's spookiness with a very subtle tone and a spooky story to boot (the suspense factor being of significance too). The conclusion is appropriate and ties everything together very neatly, leaving no loose ends whatsoever. I've read complaints about how the ending made no sense, but it is also very simple. I won't explain it here because I want to avoid spoilers with my review, but think about it a little bit and it should make perfect sense pretty easily.
Overall, "The Return" is a superior supernatural mystery/thriller that is severely underrated. I'd say it's the best supernatural thriller of 2006, and is a new favorite of mine. It's the type of film that takes a little thought to fully understand - not everything is spoon fed to you, but it's not rocket science either. I'd strongly recommend this for people who like subtle, creepy films. It's not a gory slash fest and I'm not even really sure if it can be considered horror - but it's a creepy film nonetheless with an excellently written story. 10/10.
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