The Return

PG-13

Released Nov 10, 2006

1 hr. 25 min.

Mystery & Thriller

List

16%

56 Reviews

Tomatometer

32%

100,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Joanna Mills (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father (Sam Shepard), and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.

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Critics Consensus

Unoriginality may be an acceptable risk in the Horror genre, but boredom is never okay.

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Ari

I was listening to Patsy Cline and remembered this movie. I found it to be very intriguing and was thoroughly creeped out. I had to find the movie by looking up SMG, it's sad, scary and wraps up quite nicely. Honestly, if rotten tomatoes says it's bad it's probably good. It tugs at your heartstrings and makes you want to walk around with a knife at the same time. 16%? Really RT?

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

11/25/23

Full Review

Justin T

The first part of this movie is moody and sparse on dialogue. Very little seems to be happy but I didn't care too much as it looked fantastic. The colours look subdued and gorgeous. The camera moves and shot choices are all stunning. The problem is that there isn't any story and not a lot of atmosphere. One bit made me jump but for the rest of the time I was unmoved. If you are looking for a similar outing to The Grudge (2004), like I was, then you will be a bit disappointed. Beautiful cinematography and palate cannot totally excuse a lack of content.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/10/23

Full Review

joe m

"The Return" trots out a few of the standard movie tropes - woman in distress, a lot of flashback sequences, woman in danger, paranormal connection to past, woman meets hunky man. Yet, it does it better than average, keeping me engaged throughout. Gellar in the starring role of Joanna carries the movie, which is good and bad since she's likable yet does come off as kind of wooden in a lot of scenes. Not great, but "The Return" is suspenseful enough to keep you watching.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

robert p

A fairly original horror movie, The Return stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, has some original ideas, that hold up through the movie! I rate this movie at *2 and 1/2* stars!!!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Gianmarco R

Ugly horror film, not scary and with a stupidly and unnecessarily intricate plot where you get lost because probably not even the writers knew where to go. The film is not entertaining and bored and fails to give anything that one should finish it for

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

04/24/22

Full Review

Liam D

Apart from a decent score from Dario Marianelli (Third Person, The Brothers Grimm) and direction from Asif Kapadia (Mindhunter, Laika) it's a typical Sarah Michelle Gellar (Small Soldiers, Simply Irresistible) Thriller

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/22

Full Review

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Asif Kapadia

Director

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Joanna Mills

Peter O'Brien

Terry Stahl

Adam Scott

Kurt Setzer

Kate Beahan

Michelle

J.C. MacKenzie

Griff

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Brian Tallerico

UGO

The Return is a slow burn that's often way too slow, feeling stretched to meet a running time that's still under 90 minutes.

Mar 24, 2007

Full Review

Jamie Russell

BBC.com

It proves what many people have been suspecting for a while now: SMG is a scream queen for audiences who don't like horror movies.

Rated: 2/5

Jan 16, 2007

Full Review

Nigel Floyd

Time Out

Adam Sussman's script is so thin you can see right through it.

Jan 16, 2007

Full Review

Steve Newton

Georgia Straight

This low-key supernatural thriller, illogical as it is, offers a brief respite from the gruelling Saws and Hostels of the world.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 6, 2010

Full Review

Kit Bowen

Hollywood.com

Rated: 2/5

Nov 20, 2008

Full Review

Brian Holcomb

Beyond Hollywood

Built from spare parts left over by American remakes of Japanese copies of "Ringu", "The Return" is at least two steps removed from the first generation copy.

Apr 18, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

Joanna Mills (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has a successful career but feels her personal life is spinning out of control. She has few friends, an estranged father (Sam Shepard), and a crazy ex-boyfriend who is stalking her. Joanna begins having terrifying visions of a woman's murder, and it seems that she is the killer's next target. Determined to solve the mystery and escape her apparent fate, Joanna follows her visions to the victim's hometown and finds that some secrets just do not stay buried.

Director: Asif Kapadia
Screenwriter: Adam Sussman
Distributor: Focus Features
Production Co: Rogue Pictures, Raygun Productions, EuropaCorp
Rating: PG-13 (Terror|Disturbing Images|Violence)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 10, 2006, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 22, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.7M
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby SRD
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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