The Big Picture

They Came Back
subverts traditional zombie movie tropes, focusing on psychological horror rather than physical threats.
The film uses infrared cameras to show that the returned have a lower body temperature, adding a unique element to the story.
The tension in the film is fueled by the uncertainty surrounding the returned, who may have come back “wrong” in some way.

Zombie flicks are a unique kind of survivalist horror. They usually feature rotting flesh, chase scenes, headshots, and a lot of biting. Robin Campillo’s 2004 directorial debut, They Came Back (Les Revenants in French), refuses to humor these genre staples. This French film favors a slow-burn, psychological angle to scare its audience. They Came Back follows three families in a provincial French town after 13,000 dead people suddenly reappear over the course of two hours. The mayor’s wife, Martha (Catherine Samie), a couple’s six-year-old son, Sylvain (Saady Delas), and young widow Rachel’s (Géraldine Pailhas) husband, Mathieu (Jonathan Zaccaï), are the primary focuses of the film. A nationwide phenomenon, the town hesitantly releases the returned to their families and allows for reintegration into the workforce. Rather than cloaking the film in darkness, Campillo purposefully keeps most of his horror in the daylight. There, he forces the audience and the characters to confront the surreal grief of having a loved one randomly return from the dead. This is the ultimate anti-zombie zombie movie.

They Came Back Release Date October 27, 2004 Director Robin Campillo Cast Géraldine Pailhas , Jonathan Zaccaï , Frédéric Pierrot , Victor Garrivier , Catherine Samie , Djemel Barek , Marie Matheron , Saady Delas Writers Robin Campillo , Brigitte Tijou

The opening two-minute shot distinguishes They Came Back from nearly any other zombie movie or series. On paper, a horde of blank-faced, slow-moving people emerging from a cemetery sounds like a classic, right? But in They Came Back’s opening scene, the screen is brightly lit, with the ambling group pristine without any dirt or decay. They are dressed in billowing white and blue fabric. When people on the street see the returned, they smile and rush forward to grab their hands and embrace them. Anyone expecting a traditional zombie flick will be shocked to watch this opening sequence. Rather than creating the typical wasteland environment, the returned go straight from the cemetery to strolling the lush outdoors and minimalist apartments. Everything in town looks natural, but well-maintained, as opposed to the overgrown look common in sets like The Last of Us. As the audience learns more about the returned, these sets act as a thin veneer over the growing sense of unease.

Related ‘Handling the Undead’ Review: This Emotional Zombie Horror Movie Isn’t as Unique as It Thinks Thea Hvistendahl’s quiet zombie film is beautifully shot, but doesn’t have the time to do its concept justice.

Early on, the use of infrared cameras is established. It is revealed that the returned have a body temperature four to five degrees lower than a regular human’s. The cameras are attached to large white balloons and float in the sky all over town. Infrared footage and shots of the cameras in the sky are then frequently incorporated into the movie. Up until the introduction of the cameras, the film has maintained a strident dismissal of most zombie motifs. The cameras and their recordings layer back in some familiar iconography while keeping the distance from the genre Campillo favors.

‘They Came Back’ Uses a Popular Zombie Trope in a Unique Way
Image Via Haut et Court

Lately, a popular trope across all horror mediums has been the “came back wrong” motif. This is the idea that a resurrected character has been so marred by death that they are fundamentally changed. Pet Sematary is just one example. They Came Back relies heavily on this trope to generate significant tension. From the opening scene, the returned are not the blessing the town wants them to be. There is a lack of overtly aggressive behavior, yet a sinking suspicion that something is still wrong. This feeling creates a slow-simmering tension that will boil over by the film’s end. The returned have something of an uncanny valley effect. While usually reserved for creepy dolls and puppets, the returned trigger an adverse reaction in all who spend time with them. A soldier charged with nocturnal monitoring of the returned watches them through the scope of his gun. When questioned why he’s so jumpy, he reveals the returned don’t sleep, and often sneak out of their beds to roam the town.

Unlike Chucky or an AI robot, the returned look perfectly human. Nothing about their physical appearance should tick any hindbrains. Instead, it is their demeanor and behavior that sets everyone’s teeth on edge. Never explicitly stated, it is clear the returned operate under a hivemind effect. At one point, a light is shone on several of the returned who have gathered in a field. Hit by the light, they all crouch down and freeze like a pack of raccoons. It is one of the more viscerally unsettling shots in the film. They look undeniably human, dressed in khaki pants and tiered dresses, but the way they move screams “other.”

A town council to help monitor and reintegrate the returned was formed before the start of the movie. Often, this council functions as a source of exposition, with scientists and experts frequently revealing a new factoid about the returned. And yet, despite being the primary source of concrete information, the council only confirms what the audience and other characters already fear. Before it is stated outright in a town meeting that the returned all seem to be suffering symptoms of aphasia, the viewers witness for themselves the blank stares, the mindless wandering, and the slow speech. While the audience might accept the new information on the returned, several characters push back. Rachel and Sylvain’s father, Isham (Djemel Barek), can’t stand to confront the possibility that anything could be wrong with their returned loved one. If Mathieu and Sylvain came back wrong, that means Rachel and Isham could lose them again. It is unbearable to entertain, and so they resist the reality in front of them every time. When the audience meets Rachel, Isham, and Sylvain’s mother, Véronique (Marie Matheron), they are all reeling from their losses. Even if the returned are fundamentally different people from who they were before, Rachel and Isham cannot bear to go through the grief again.

‘They Came Back’ Is an Anti-Zombie Zombie Movie

Modern zombies often serve as an expression of anxiety over illness. World War Z, The Walking Dead, and The Last of Us all use zombies as a short-hand for outbreak and spread. They Came Back is not interested in this fear. It is never discussed whether the newly dead will rise again, and the returned show no interest in biting or “infecting” others. The only overt stressor from the beginning to the end of the film is the question of what to do with the returned. One of the earliest examples of “zombies” is in West African and Haitian folklore. The zombies in question were dead slaves, reanimated and forced to continue working. The anxiety here, and in They Came Back, is centered around the idea of peace. Where They Came Back differentiates itself again is that no one forces the returned to work. Instead, the returned seem trapped in a loop, echoing what they did in life.

At the first town council meeting, no one asks obvious questions like how this phenomenon could happen, or if the returned are dangerous. They ask about how long it will take to redo the census. At the next meeting, the members worry about the returned taking jobs away from the living, and the strain on pension funding since most of the returned are over 65. No returned characters are ever present at the council meetings, so the uncanny valley effect is not in action. These scenes unnerve because of how close to reality they are. Millions of dead people have reappeared with no rhyme or reason, but all anyone seems to care about is pension payment plans and getting enough monetary support from the government.

For the majority of the movie, several characters believe the returned are sneaking out at night for the sole purpose of going to their jobs. “Management told me not to interfere,” a security guard tells a doctor when asked about the returned congregating for midnight work meetings. The tension during these specific scenes is astronomical. The citizens of this town are so dismissive of this behavior. A subtle critique of work culture, apart from the blank faces of the returned, their assistance in “working” is the film’s longest-running red flag that something is off.

Robin Campillo took a creative risk by making an art-house zombie movie for his debut. The creeping tension fueled not only by how unsettling the returned are, but by how unusual this film is within the genre, keeps the viewer on their toes. Not well known by American audiences, They Came Back, deserves far more love than it has received. Canceled after only one season, The Returned was the American spin-off show by Carlton Cuse back in 2015. While it would seem American audiences are just not that interested in this idea, They Came Back and The Returned could easily experience a renaissance in today’s horror climate of “elevated horror.”

They Came Back is available to rent on Amazon.

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