This aptly-titled follow-up signals the end of British director Asif Kapadia’s five-year absence from our screens, following his BAFTA-winning debut, The Warrior. Regrettably, though, The Return is a derivative tale about restless spirits that sees a travelling sales rep plagued by visions while on a business trip to backwater Texas.
The whole affair is blighted by a reliance on cheap scare tactics, loud noises and sudden screams being deployed with unforgivable frequency. Whether due to studio fiddling or Kapadia’s lack of affinity with the genre, this clichéd mess is a large step backwards for a promising director, and far from the return we’d been hoping for.