The Return

I had actually never heard about this sci-fi thriller titled "The Return" from 1980. I stumbled upon the movie by random chance here in 2023, and while I am not overly keen on sci-fi movies in general, then I still opted to watch "The Return", as I sat it had Cybill Shepherd and Jan-Michael Vincent on the cast list.

Writers Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat and Curtis Burch didn't exactly manage to put together an overwhelmingly interesting or entertaining script for the movie. I was rather bored throughout the 91 minutes that the movie trotted on for; especially since everything felt random and didn't have much of any red thread to.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough. Nothing grand, though.

The special effects in "The Return" were nothing spectacular. There were some effects, and some actually played out well enough, while others were dubious at best.

I am sure that die-hard sci-fi fans could get a kick out of watching "The Return". But me, as a casual viewer, didn't find much enjoyment in director Greydon Clark's 1980 movie.

My rating of "The Return" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The Return (1982)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Jennifer (Cybill Shepherd) is a scientist who goes to a small New Mexico town after seeing some bizarre images. Once there she begins to notice that a few things aren't quite right and she teams up with the Deputy Wayne (Jan-Michael Vincent). At first some strange cattle mutilations are happening but before long humans are being killed and it all might be connected to something Jennifer and Wayne witnessed as children.

Despite a terrific cast, Greydon Clark's THE RETURN has pretty much been forgotten and overlooked. It was certainly an attempt to try and cash-in on the sci-fi boom that took off after the success of Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and I think this film was meant to try and be in the same league. With that said, there's no question that they were dealing with a very small budget here that prevented that but on the whole THE RETURN was more entertaining than I thought it would be.

The film certainly has some flaws and I will start with them. This includes the ending, which I won't spoil here but I think it fell well short of the emotional punch that the director was going for. I'd also argue that the film started to drag during the final twenty-minutes, which was another problem. The special effects certainly aren't as good as one would hope for but considering the budget this here can be forgiven. With all of that being said, the film does start off pretty strong and hold your attention throughout most of it.

I thought the cattle mutilation sub-plot was actually interesting and it was done in a good manor. I liked how the townspeople, backwards rednecks, were more worried about the scientist and their dumb fears that she was the ones killing the cows. We get some very familiar faces here so this also helps hold your attention throughout. Vincent and Shepherd make for a good team but we also get veteran actors like Martin Landau, Raymond Burr and Neville Brand. Vincent Schiavelli, the one and only, also appears in a good role.

I'm sure a higher budget would have allowed the film to do a bit more but if you look at THE RETURN the same way you would the "B" sci-fi movies of the 1950s then you should find enough to keep you entertained.

Twenty-five years ago three people in a small town had an encounter with a UFO.Today all three people find themselves back in a small rural town.A local cop.A female scientist.A hermit who enjoys mutilating and killing cows."The Return" by Greydon Clark is nowhere nearly as suspenseful and memorable as "Without Warning".The plot often doesn't make sense and there are some dull sequences.The cast is pretty familiar with Martin Landau,Vincent Schiavelli,Jan Michael Vincent and Raymond Burr to boost.Unfortunately their performances are mostly weak and forgettable.The cattle mutilation sub-plot is a nice touch,though.Overall,"The Return" is watchable but generally speaking I personally think there are much better sci-fi horror films out there.6 cattle mutilations out of 10.

In fact, the cheesiness of the whole thing lends itself quite well to the overall alien encounter stuff.

Nothing is really explained. Some odd things happen. It never really drags.

And it is not the low point in the career of any of the cast. So it has that going for it.

Jennifer has come to a small New Mexico town to set up geological monitoring equipment for her father's organization. Some of the townspeople find her behavior suspicious. And she gets attacked several times by a vicious but mysterious dog. Several ranchers have lost cattle that were not only killed but mutilated, and cults or perhaps aliens are blamed because there are no flies or anything.

Dr. Kramer, Jennifer's father, comes to the town wanting to know more about what is going on. The ranchers, including the independent and stubborn Walt, resent people who know nothing about cattle butting into the situation. Meanwhile, Deputy Wayne seems to like Jennifer.

Later, people are found mutilated as well as cattle. The first time it happens, a weird looking man shows up carrying what looks like the light sabers from the 'Star Wars' movies, only it is held in the middle.

Shepherd did a good job as an actress here, but mostly she just looked beautiful. I'm used to seeing her look like, say, Martha Stewart these days. Raymond Burr seemed like Perry Mason at times, but in other scenes he and all the other actors seemed like they were reading their lines. I'm thinking particularly of a scene back at his headquarters where the scientists were explaining their theories.

I didn't find this movie particularly scary, except when the dog was on screen, and in scenes close to the end. That's okay because I don't like scary. The violence was not all that bad, though we did see blood. The special effects were not that great, though we got to see what looked like a portal into another dimension several times. It looked like the kind of modern art people often hate if they want realism. It was pretty to look at, anyway--sort of like a purple 'black hole'.

The ending was weird but satisfying in a way, though I couldn't help but feel someone cheated because they couldn't find their way out of the mess they had gotten into.

I've seen better mysteries.