The Return

A spiffy, satisfying supernatural thriller that is more ghost story than gorefest, Asif Kapadia's The Return revolves around a young woman named Joanna (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who returns to the Texas hometown she's long avoided, where she's beset by visions of what appear to be a car accident, a sexual assault, and a murder, while also being troubled by a stalker in overalls who may or may not be real. Joanna eventually comes into contact with a local man suspected of killing his wife years earlier, who is now treated as an outcast, and it turns out that our heroine's visions are related to that long-ago death, ultimately leading to the unraveling of the old crime and revelations about why Joanna is so intimately connected to the spirit of the murdered woman. The Return has an old-fashioned feel, but overall it's a compact, well-constructed, and quietly chilling film that never becomes repulsive like most modern horror pictures. A solid B-movie in every respect, this is recommended. [Note: DVD extras include 11 minutes of deleted scenes, a nine-minute “Creation of a Nightmare” making-of featurette, a six-minute alternate ending, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a solid thriller.] (F. Swietek)