This zombie flick begins with a young girl, Kate, witnessing her mother bitten by her now zombie father. She ends up shooting him in the head and running away. Years later the same girl has become a doctor who works in "The Returned" unit. There's now a cure for the zombie virus, a medication that has to be taken every day or else the victim will quickly become one of the undead. But there's a rumor that the vaccine is becoming hard to produce. In the 80's there were over a hundred million deaths worldwide--and they were able to save people in the second outbreak. The serum is made from a protein from the zombies--but there are fewer o them, so there's scarcity of the cure. And in the news, cases of protestors against The Returned are on the rise.
In a flashback we find out that her boyfriend, Alex, was infected. He was taken to a mobile hospital and given the serum years ago. It doesn't work on everyone--only those infected within the first thirty-six hours. Things get more desperate and Kate has to make a decision--will she have to repeat an incident from her past and kill someone she loves?
THE RETURNED is an interesting variation on the zombie movie, worth checking out. Not to be confused with the French television series about zombies released the same year.