On Returning From The Dead

The fascination with the dead returning is something that has permeated through almost every aspect of pop culture. One of the most popular shows on TV right now is of course The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is, as previously mentioned, not a great show but it's effective. People like zombies, or more accurately, people like seeing people kill zombies. But what if the dead rose and they looked...exactly like they did when they were alive? Not covered in gore, not missing limbs or vital organs, not groaning and biting their former loved ones, just simply their regular selves?

That concept is explored in the French television show The Returned or Les Revenants if you prefer. It is set in an idyllic small mountain town in France that sits at the foot of a lake. Four years previous, a bus carrying 38 schoolchildren plunged off a cliff, killing all of them. The accident cast a pall over the town, it's impact still felt years later as the town and the families struggle to move on. We see the stress of a grief counseling session and how it takes it's toll on the surviving parents. The group struggles to drum up enthusiasm as one woman announces that she is pregnant again, and the father of a girl named Camille, who we will meet, copes with his grief by sleeping with one of his young waitresses at the bar he owns and showing up late and scoffing his way through the meeting. He receives a call from his estranged wife requesting his presence at home and everything changes from there. A mysterious young boy follows the town doctor around, a handsome young man wanders around town looking for his wife, as she doesn't live or work where she used to, a young woman returns home and frightens her distraught grandfather. They all show up exactly as they were that day four years ago, not having aged, unaware of their death, even wearing the same clothes, as if nothing has happened, wondering why everyone around them is acting so strange. The question always posed by zombie fiction is, How will we as survivors cope with a world that has changed? This show asks the question, How will the returned cope with a world that has moved on? And that distinction is much more fascinating to watch.

The Returned is, simply put, a creepy show. The little boy known as Victor is about the most eerie child I've ever seen on screen. The band Mogwai does the music and creates a moody soundscape that works perfectly for the dark, chilly goings-on. The returned seem to be able to move about as they please, disappearing and reappearing at will. They also wreak havoc on the electricity grid of their small town, lights they pass under flicker and the entire town is plunged into a blackout apparently at the fateful moment of return. As the show progresses, we'll see how the interactions will affect everyone and if the first episode is any indication, how the returned are mysteriously, inextricably linked to some of their surviving counterparts. And how the schoolchildren aren't the only ones returning. The best story so far is the relationship between Camille and her sister, once twins whose actions on that day four years ago put this whole thing in motion who now have to live with each other again, as strangers. Throw in serial killings that evoke similar murders from the past, Twin Peaks-ian levels of the darkness and secrets that lie in a small town, and an ability to create a dialogue about just what the repercussions of a situation like this would really be and we have an extremely compelling, smart, interesting show.

Quite predictably, there is an American version of this show coming soon to ABC called Resurrection, that will almost definitely not be as well made. It apparently will focus more on the religious aspect of this phenomenon, something that is only very briefly touched on in this show in a scene of dialogue between Camille's parents. The Image Comics series Revival has a similar story, where the dead came back to life for one day in rural Wisconsin but they don't come back completely normal and with the revival comes all manner of darkness on the quarantined town, both human and supernatural. This is immensely more interesting than just the last bastion of humanity hacking at rotting corpses with shovels and samurai swords while also doing battle with each other. Having to adapt and live again with someone you had known to be dead and gone and the innate struggles and horror that will come from that makes for quality viewing.

On a quick side-note, The Returned is yet another in a long line of shows that have been imported from Europe for consumption by fans of quality, epic, cinematic television. Series like Luther, Sherlock, The Fall and Wallander have all been brought to American screens with great acclaim. Two shows, Jane Campion's Top Of The Lake on Sundance and BBC America's Broadchurch, both shows about small towns (near bodies of water, interestingly enough) in the midst of an out of the ordinary violent crisis are this shows most recent counterparts. The Returned aired on French television last year but will begin showing on Sundance Channel Thursday nights starting on Halloween.

Movie Review: Escape From Tomorrow

  

The easiest way to describe Escape From Tomorrow would be: David Lynch does Disney World. There is all manner of evil and debauchery here behind the curtains at the happiest place on earth, problems that manifest as visions (or are they?) as well as physical ailments on one man having a very bad day in his already shitty life. He is married to a woman ("She's pretty in an Emily Dickinson sort of way") who barely tolerates him and his beer belly & Hawaiian shirts. He's the kind of guy who gets bullied by his kids. He's on vacation with his family in Florida when he gets a call from someone telling him he has been fired from his job doing who knows what. He leaves that information for a later time, wanting to let his kids enjoy one last day of vacation before they head back to who knows where. His wife nags and cuckolds him, not even giving up a kiss while enjoying a leisurely ride through the world of Winnie The Pooh. On the monorail into the park, the first hint of lechery seeps out of Jim (Roy Abramsohn), whose face devolves into a slimy grin when he sees two young, flirty Parisian teenage girls who giggle and flirt their way into the debauched mind of the bored, middle-aged, horny Jim, whose wife and kids are sitting right next to him. The strange journey that he goes on while not-too-stealthily following the two girls around the park ("Daddy, why are we following those two girls?") only begins on that monorail and doesn't end until Jim really sees what goes into making the happiest place on earth and what happens when you don't heed the warnings and blindly try to enjoy yourself.

Did I mention that this is for all intents and purposes a comedy? Writer/director Randy Moore gets plenty of shots of all the things that you see in a place like Disney World (Disney is only uttered one time in the film and it gets bleeped out); sneezing, coughing, hacking old men, obese Southerners in scooters eating chicken, lots of vomiting, lines that go for hours only to finally arrive at the cars and have the ride shut down. However, in this context, they're humorous, and watching our Jim try to navigate the sea of people and fake happiness lets us enjoy it instead of be victim to it. Moore and a small crew shot the film over a series of trips to Disney World and Disneyland and shooting among the crowds with no interruption from cast members. Abramsohn, on a recent episode of Doug Loves Movies, noted that that method was possible because the grounds are so hectic and there are already so many people with cameras that one or two cameras filming a family didn't raise any eyebrows. He noted that while Disney never gave permission to shoot there, they are aware of the film and are not going to plan any kind of interference upon its release. If they were remotely concerned about Escape From Tomorrow, the film would have never seen the light of day.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Tomorrow is the fun it has at the expense of Disney and its properties. Animatronic figures and beloved characters devolve into demonic creatures that start to unravel Jim's already fragile state of mind. A sultry woman sharing a bench in a playplace with Jim tells him over an oversized Emu drumstick as their kids play with each other that all the princesses are in fact high priced call girls and that Asian businessmen pay handsomely for private time with them. Jim witnesses this first hand and what starts out as a fun photo op for he and his son turns into a vulgar display that Jim can't believe what his eyes are seeing is actually happening. Another scene has fun showing us what really goes on inside that big Epcot globe ("It looks like a big testicle"). However, the more bizarre stuff is what really makes it interesting. A nurse clinging to the edge of her own fragile state of being, Jim's lust for the Parisians (as well as the effect they have on his young son) and their overt sexuality and infatuation with various phallic objects around the park, the threat of Cat Flu and a sinister plot involving naked women and the Siemens Corporation provide plenty to enjoy and ponder. The entire film is in black & white and it creates an eerie mood and even makes Disney janitors seem menacing. Having all the color and cheer taken out of the park makes it easier to see the weird and the creepy that is lurking in the shadows. At least for Jim. Everyone else seemed to be having a good time, and why wouldn't they, who doesn't love Disney World? Seeing Disney push a man to the brink of sanity is worth the price of admission alone. If David Lynch or David Cronenberg did tackle a project like this, it would be better and would bring the weirdness and quality to the next level but for now, we can enjoy this unique film and be glad that Disney is letting us.