PLOT: The last surviving member of a family returns to his childhood home, stirring up terrifying memories and the “naked murder ghost” that creeps around the place.
REVIEW: Given that The Return (watch it HERE) marks the feature directorial debut of stuntman BJ Verot, it’s kind of surprising that the movie doesn’t have much in the way of flashy stuntwork. Instead of making an action-packed spectacle like other stuntmen-turned-directors have done, Verot has made a very economical sci-fi horror movie as his first feature. The Return is largely a one location movie that centers on just three characters, occasionally widening the scope for a handful of dialogue scenes. But plenty of crazy things happen to those three characters in that one location.
The three people we spend the most time with are college students Rodger Emmerlich (Richard Harmon), his best friend Jordan (Echo Andersson), and his girlfriend Beth (Sara Thompson), who are having a somber spring break because Rodger’s father has just died unexpectedly. Rodger takes Jordan and Beth to his childhood home, the place his father died in, where they stay while preparing to attend the funeral. During their time there, they also start digging into Rodger’s past, stirring up repressed memories about his parents’ troubled marriage, the death of his sister, the disappearance of his mother, and an “imaginary friend” that was such a serious issue that young Rodger was sent to see a psychiatrist.
The viewer is tipped off that there’s something strange going on in the Emmerlich house well before the characters catch on, because we’re shown a shadowy creature lurking around the place. This digitally-enhanced “naked murder ghost” (as a character will call it later in the film) is one of the least effective elements of the movie, because it’s meant to be terrifying and yet comes off as being pretty silly. Scenes where this creature attacks characters should be a highlight, but they’re more likely to elicit chuckles.
Aside from the execution of the naked murder ghost, The Return does tell an intriguing story that was crafted by Verot and co-writer Ken Janssens. The film is labeled sci-fi horror because the mystery of Rodger’s past involves not only ghostly creatures and disturbing imaginary friends, but also experiments conducted by his scientist parents Oswald (Erik Athavale) and Esme (Gwendolyn Collins). It’s clear that something the parents did has caused all the spookiness in their home, but Verot makes sure we don’t have all the answers until the movie is closing in on the end, unraveling the mystery in an interesting way over the course of the running time.
The banter between the characters is well-written, and Harmon, Andersson, and Thompson did a good job delivering it. Andersson (who has been credited as Echo Porisky on previous projects) especially shines as the irreverent-but-caring Jordan. She’s the most entertaining and likeable character in the movie, and I hope to see this lead to more prominent roles for Andersson in future projects.
The Return is a middle-of-the-road sort of movie for most of its 90 minutes. Not too bad, not great, but watchable if you invest in seeing the story through and finding out the answers to its mysteries. It has some issues along the way, but no deal breakers… unless you have a stronger negative reaction to the naked murder ghost than I did. Then we reach the climax, where The Return goes in directions I did not expect at all. Things get really nuts in the final minutes of this movie, and I think there will be a divided response from viewers. Some will love how crazy it gets, while others will be completely put off by it, shaking their heads in disbelief. Which is cool. I like that Verot decided to do something different with the “haunted house” scenario. My only problem with the last 30 minutes or so comes from what I felt was a misstep in the writing of the characters, when the fate of one is sort of just shrugged off by the others. That bothered me, but the craziness around it didn’t.
Uncork’d Entertainment is giving The Return a digital and on demand release on August 10th.