The Returned

This is a serious, austere film that feels as if it's barely restraining the B-movie within. In the end, it fights itself to a draw.

Carballo also fails to capitalize on the climate of paranoia the script attempts to engender throughout.

Carballo offsets the lack of surprise with such efficient suspense builders as propulsive music, ambient noise, realistic lighting and judicious handheld camerawork while efficiently explaining the science and politics behind what is happening.

Director Manuel Carballo seems to be trying for the psychological unease of Blindness, or perhaps of something by Cronenberg, but it's never more than artificial terror wrapped in bland social commentary.