ALPINE HORROR! 'THE RETURNED' ARE HUNGRY FOR LIFE...

Reflections in terror for two of the living and dead stars of THE RETURNED. Images: CHANNEL 4.

They may have been pretty darned slow in the off-take - years, in fact - in acquiring the kind of continental and European dramas that have becomes so classy and addictive to UK TV viewers, like The Killing, Spiral, Borgen and Braquo have been for the BBC and FX channels, but CHANNEL FOUR have at least gone into different genre territory with their exclusive screening rights to the new French Alps set horror/drama THE RETURNED, based on a 2004 movie They Came Back, starting from next Sunday 9th June.

Some genuinely eerie and disturbing edge of your seat (and perhaps behind it!) moments linked to zombies and cannibalism are apparently promised here, as well as a lurking serial killer who makes his dread presence tragically felt, part of an intriguing plot about a group of people from past and present thought dead who return to their homes, and families- the mystery and ultimate point of their resurrection not yet revealed, and the consequences of their arrival to the general populace nothing less than emotionally and psychologically shattering...

Out of the mist, past lives reawakened...

The Returned | Coming Soon | Channel 4 - YouTube

Starring Céline Sallette (from the Marion Cotillard’s film RUST AND BONE) and Anne Consigny (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY), written and directed by Fabrice Gobert, and a huge hit in its home territory, THE RETURNED (aka Les Revenants), looking like a mix of early TRUE BLOOD with the spooky beginnings of THE 4400 (but without the aliens!), and perhaps even a bit of the grim black humour of our very own BBC THREE series wonder THE FADES, THE RETURNED, with its distinctly edgy environment of isolation and unease, certainly looks set to win over genre fans and audiences who something new and hopefully innovative added to FOUR's schedules beyond programmes about human sexual body parts, teen angst and the housing property market!