THE
RETURN (1980) Blu-ray
Director: Greydon Clark
Scorpion Releasing
Cybill Shepard is a genius scientist in Scorpion Releasing's
THE RETURN, from the people who brought you WITHOUT WARNING and PITCH BLACK!
Twenty five years ago, Jennifer – traveling with her scientist father
Dr. Kramer (Raymond Burr, REAR WINDOW) – experienced a close encounter
in a New Mexico town. The event is also experienced by local boy Wayne, as well
as a prospector (Vincent Schiavelli, AMADEUS) who – along with his dog
– is taken over by an alien force. Having followed in her father's footsteps,
scientist Jennifer (MOONLIGHTING's Cybill Shepard) returns to the town to investigate
the source of fogging that has only recently appeared in satellite images of
the area. Jennifer's arrival unfortunately coincides with a series of cattle
mutilations and she becomes the subject of aggression from rancher Walt (Neville
Brand, EATEN ALIVE) and his spoiled, unstable son Eddie (Brad Reardon, THE TERMINATOR).
As Jennifer and Wayne (AIRWOLF's Jan-Michael Vincent), now a deputy, investigate
the strange occurrences (including attacks by the prospector's dog), their lives
may be in danger when the cattle mutilator switches to humans (including director
Greydon Clark as a city slicker).
Scripted by Jim and Ken Wheat (PITCH BLACK) – who had just rewrote and
reshot Denny Harris' SILENT SCREAM (also with Rearden) – THE RETURN is
a slick low-budget science fiction film with better than decent visual effects
for the time (albeit more along the lines of the light shows from THE VISITOR
than STAR WARS). Unfortunately, whether due to the script, the budget, or the
scheduling, the end result is senseless. On the commentary track, Clark claims
to have left the film ambiguous (although the ending would have been less infuriating
had he dropped just one shot), but the plot isn't so much open-ended as full
of holes with no answer at all as to the intent of the aliens or even if they
were really evil as they seemed or benevolent as Sheppard's scientist claims.
It is harder to buy Sheppard as a scientist than Vincent as a small town deputy,
but they make for a pair of likable leads and characters that are deserving
of more substantive interaction in place of sinister incidents, including appearances
late in the film by a pair of FBI agents – Candy Castillo and Ken Minyard,
who had both played background toughs in Clark's ANGELS BRIGADE – who
only add some gunplay to the third act. A surprise here is Burr going on location
in an 1980s science fiction film, although he figures only briefly into the
climax as do a couple other characters introduced with some seeming importance
including ORDINARY PEOPLE's Steven Hirsch as a seeming romantic rival, and a
sober Brand has more than one cranky mode here. Martin Landau is a welcome presence
as the town's sheriff, but he fares no better here fate-wise than he did in
another low budget alien-on-the-rampage film: Jackie Kong's THE BEING. Darby
Hinton (FIRECRACKER) and Susan Kiger (GALAXINA), who play Eddie's backwater
friends, also appeared in ANGELS BRIGADE with Brand, while Vincent's nephew
Zachary plans Wayne as a child and young Jennifer was played by Farah Bunch,
daughter of the film's make-up artist Patricia Bunch (PINK MOTEL) and later
herself a make-up artist on several network TV shows. Dan Wyman – John
Carpenter's arranger on HALLOWEEN and THE FOG – provides a score with
appropriately reverential synth notes for the effects scenes, and the cinematography
of Daniel Pearl (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) also contributes the low budget film's
production value. The make-up effects were created by Ken Horn (DEMONOID) and
Tom Schwartz (HELL NIGHT). While not as entertaining as Clark's other alien
horror film WITHOUT WARNING, THE RETURN remains a diversion more entertaining
for its potential than what it achieves.
Released on VHS by Thorn/EMI, THE RETURN did not make its digital debut until
Scorpion Releasing's 2012 DVD, and their 2017 Blu-ray is presumably from the
same high definition master from the original negative since the back cover
does not boast of being a new scan. The
1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer is immaculate apart from some
black spots during a couple of the visual effects opticals as well as a few
radically mismatching shots during the fight scene between Vincent and Schiavelli
that were presumably retimed in intermediate elements for the release prints.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is in fine condition. Clark appears in
an audio commentary track in which he discusses substituting California and
Paramount Ranch for New Mexico, the long hours required of his cast, and speaks
appreciatively of Sheppard, Burr, Brand, and cinematographer Pearl. Clark does
reluctantly mention Vincent's substance abuse problems on the set and having
to work around it by rescheduling scenes (thanking Shepard and Landau for adapting).
He also recalls that Burr wanted to use a teleprompter, and that he assumed
that it was due to the technical jargon, but that Burr revealed that he had
used a teleprompter and even had his own operator going all the way back to
his days on PERRY MASON because of the volume of dialogue (more troublesome
was the wardrobe truck accidentally driving off with Burr's costume jacket and
delaying filming for an hour). He also identifies Vincent's stunt double as
Mike Tilman – who worked with him again on UNINVITED – and Diane
Carter (BLADE RUNNER) taking Kiger's rough tumble down a hillside. Clark mentions
a closing biblical quote that does not appear here, so there may be more than
one version (or it may have been added to theatrical prints but not part of
the original assembly). Of the optical visual effects, he said that he did not
want the alien ship to look threatening, but the ambiguity may be an extension
of the script's underdevelopment. The track has some rough edges such as when
Clark asks the engineer to cut when he makes a mistake.
Clark also appears in a video interview (12:44) in which he discusses his beginnings
under Al Adamson (having accompanied an actress auditioning for Adamson) with
a small part in THE FAKERS before becoming his assistant and then the scripter
of SATAN'S SADISTS and DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. He then discusses his first
films as director TOM and THE BAD BUNCH, and generally wanting only to be successful
enough to make the next picture. Of THE RETURN, there is some overlap with the
commentary as he discusses the cast and Vincent's on-set behavior and Burr's
insistence on using a teleprompter. Up until he started doing commentaries,
he reveals that he did not look back at his old films because of the mistakes
he had made on them (he also talks about the MST3K takes on some of his films).
The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (3:03) which seems longer
than it really is because of the narration of the amateurish voice actor, as
well as trailers for HUMONGOUS, SILENT SCREAM, ALOHA BOBBY AND ROSE, CITY ON
FIRE, and KILLER FISH. As with the DVD, the film can be watched in "Katarina's
Nightmare Theater" mode with hostess Katarina Leigh Waters contributing
an introduction and post-script in which she highlights the careers of the stars,
and also voices some of the nagging questions left in the film's aftermath.
The disc is available from Ronin
Flix. (Eric
Cotenas)
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