The extension and split to the extreme of ‘The Walking Dead’ has made it extremely easy to end up calling it as undead as the monsters that appear in the series. However, her success has served to zombies have had a new wave of relevance that has allowed the existence of other productions of this theme, some more special than the adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comics.
This is somewhat the case with the cult series ‘Les Revenants’, an amazing French Canal+ production that we can enjoy through Amazon Prime Video. He only had two seasons, but in them he made a really different approach, more emotional and spookyfrom the figure of the living dead to whom he endowed with greater dignity and elegance than has ever been seen on screen.
They have returned
It is true that his proposal and his “returned” from death are shown in such a way that it completely departs from the conventional image we have of the zombie. Not for this reason does he stop using some codes typical of this class of “monsters”. And the quotation marks are key, because here they focus on these strange phenomena from a certain empathy and respect that is not so far from how George A. Romero, father of the zombie as we understand it, posed them.
The action takes place in the remote French town of Annecy, in the Alpine region, where the community lives peacefully until, suddenly, all their loved ones who had recently passed away return to their homes. No one understands why it happened, nor are those who have returned aware of their death, so the reactions to this phenomenon range from incomprehension to panic.
The way in which he approaches this return of loved ones plays with the spooky in such an elegant way that it is therefore difficult to talk about the living dead. But they are, and the consequences of his return are explored in great detail in addition to elegance, making one of the most suggestive proposals around this figure.
‘Les Revenants’: without outbursts but with emotion
Another great example showing the importance of how over what. ‘Les Revenants’ has an amazing idea, even though it doesn’t seem to keep so many surprises or compliments in its history. There are mysteries, but above all a lot of interest in the human drama that involves the unexpected return of someone you thought had disappeared forever. The kind of feelings that that arouses are fascinating, and the show pays close attention to them.
Perhaps there is no better way to explain the contrast that the series represents with respect to other zombie fiction than the soundtrack, composed by the Scottish band Mogwai. His sound work here is defined by restraint, by soft but beautiful melodies, creating atmospheres. A difference with his work on a record, which also works with atmospheres but tends to build towards an explosion of sound capable of combing your hair back. Here there are no explosions, as in ‘The Revenants’ itself, but what there is in exchange is beautiful and emotional.