~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.
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.