The Return isn't the worst movie of the year -- or even in the top 10. But it's hard to imagine anyone seeing this movie and thinking they got their money's worth.
The Return (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:8
Rotten:45
Average Rating:4/10
Consensus: Unoriginality may be an acceptable risk in the Horror genre, but boredom is never okay.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Nov 10, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $7,712,009
Synopsis: In 2001 British director Asif Kapadia's debut feature, THE WARRIOR, a lyrical, beautiful movie set in the Himalayas, was named Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards. For his second film, Kapadia... In 2001 British director Asif Kapadia's debut feature, THE WARRIOR, a lyrical, beautiful movie set in the Himalayas, was named Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards. For his second film, Kapadia headed to Hollywood for the suspenseful horror flick THE RETURN, written by first-time screenwriter Adam Sussman. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Joanna Mills, an aggressive young woman who works as a successful saleswoman in the trucking industry. She pushes hard to go after a big deal in Texas, even though she had previously deemed the state off limits--something that happened to her when she was a little girl has kept her away from her hometown for many years. Filled with fear, trepidation, and determination, she goes back to Texas, even visiting her estranged father (Sam Shepard). As she sees familiar places, she has frightening flashes of deja vu, remembering bits and pieces of a tragic incident involving an ex-con (Peter O'Brien), an unseen man, and a bad traffic accident. The visions haunt her dreams, sending her back to her childhood (where she's played by Darrian McClanahan). Reunited with an old friend (Kate Beahan), Joanna tries to move forward, but her unfinished past keeps dragging her back. Kapadia keeps things at a slow, suspenseful pace, every scene adding another piece of the plot--as well as a touch more mystery. Gellar, who has also starred in such horror films as THE GRUDGE, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, and SCREAM 2, plays Joanna with an involving sense of dread that is echoed by Dario Marianelli's score. [More]
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter O'Brien, Sam Shepard, Kate Beahan
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter O'Brien, Sam Shepard, Kate Beahan, Adam Scott, Darrian McClanahan, Erinn Allison, J.C. MacKenzie
Director: Asif Kapadia
Director: Asif Kapadia
Screenwriter: Adam Sussman
Producer: Aaron Ryder, Jeffrey Silver
Composer: Dario Marinelli
Studio: Rogue Pictures
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Reviews for The Return
Many elements of The Return are quite sophisticated as past and present converge and Joanna's pursuer catches her scent. It's too bad that the plot takes us into irrationality, past the point of no return.
Gellar's thousand-yard stare and somnambulant screen presence have become a serious drag.
Director Asif Kapadia has a penchant for overused neo-horror film conventions (he's in love with harshly lit dream sequences that look like the video scenes in The Ring).
A bleak, listless horror film that hews so closely in plot and tone to Gellar's The Grudge that it might as well be a sequel
Director Asif Kapadia and screenwriter Adam Sussman reach into the grab bag of horror movie clichés and pull out fistfuls for The Return.
Sarah Michelle Gellar may have ditched the Grudge franchise, but her predilection for illogical horror continues with The Return.
Asif Kapadia's The Return is a visually sumptuous but emotionally stillborn thriller that may be a bit too modest for its own good.
I've not witnessed a more torturously boring, convoluted, and eye-wateringly moronic chiller this year.
A halfway decent editor could easily chop this down to 30 minutes without losing any plot points, but it would still be a tedious slog.
Sarah Michelle Gellar battled countless monsters as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her biggest challenge in The Return is to keep from yawning.
Although it's being advertised as a horror movie, The Return actually invents a new genre: the bore-or movie.
The Return doesn't have enough scares to be a good thriller, and it doesn't have the depth to work on an arty level. This isn't a bad movie; it's just painfully thin.
A simple ghost story that is, for all its faults, elegantly told, and compellingly acted.
A spiffy, satisfyingly old-fashioned thriller with supernatural overtones that hangs together and, at barely eighty minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome.
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