The Return (1980)

Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children, one of whom is now the local sheriff, are reunited as adults in the ... See full summary »

Director:

Greydon Clark

Writers:

Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat

Stars:

Jan-Michael Vincent, Cybill Shepherd, Martin Landau

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jan-Michael Vincent	...	Wayne
Cybill Shepherd	...	Jennifer
Martin Landau	...	Niles Buchanan
Raymond Burr	...	Dr. Kramer
Neville Brand	...	Walt
Brad Rearden	...	Eddie
Vincent Schiavelli	...	Prospector
Ernest Anderson	...	Dr. Mortorff
Darby Hinton	...	Darren
Steven Hirsch	...	Dr. Parkfield
Susan Kiger	...	Joyce
Ken Minyard	...	Federal Agent #1
Roger Hampton	...	Homer
Hilary Farr	...	Lee Ann (as Hilary Labow)
Candy Castillo	...	Federal Agent #2

Storyline

Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children, one of whom is now the local sheriff, are reunited as adults in the same town which is now beset by strange cattle mutilations. Matters become worse when the cattle mutilations are joined by human murders and mutilations.

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Plot Keywords:

bare chested male | unbuttoned jeans | one night stand | implied sex | viscious dog | 

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Genres:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Greydon Clark named the Martin Landau character after two towns from the Midwest that he grew up in.

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Connections

Featured in The Return: An Interview with Greydon Clark (2017)

User Reviews

At least Cybill Shepherd looked good

Jennifer has come to a small New Mexico town to set up geological monitoring equipment for her father's organization. Some of the townspeople find her behavior suspicious. And she gets attacked several times by a vicious but mysterious dog. Several ranchers have lost cattle that were not only killed but mutilated, and cults or perhaps aliens are blamed because there are no flies or anything.

Dr. Kramer, Jennifer's father, comes to the town wanting to know more about what is going on. The ranchers, including the independent and stubborn Walt, resent people who know nothing about cattle butting into the situation. Meanwhile, Deputy Wayne seems to like Jennifer.

Later, people are found mutilated as well as cattle. The first time it happens, a weird looking man shows up carrying what looks like the light sabers from the 'Star Wars' movies, only it is held in the middle.

Shepherd did a good job as an actress here, but mostly she just looked beautiful. I'm used to seeing her look like, say, Martha Stewart these days. Raymond Burr seemed like Perry Mason at times, but in other scenes he and all the other actors seemed like they were reading their lines. I'm thinking particularly of a scene back at his headquarters where the scientists were explaining their theories.

I didn't find this movie particularly scary, except when the dog was on screen, and in scenes close to the end. That's okay because I don't like scary. The violence was not all that bad, though we did see blood. The special effects were not that great, though we got to see what looked like a portal into another dimension several times. It looked like the kind of modern art people often hate if they want realism. It was pretty to look at, anyway--sort of like a purple 'black hole'.

The ending was weird but satisfying in a way, though I couldn't help but feel someone cheated because they couldn't find their way out of the mess they had gotten into.

I've seen better mysteries.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 July 1982 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Die Rückkehr der Ausserirdischen

Filming Locations:

Piru, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$750,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1