Village of the Damned (1995)

The original 1960 version of Village of the Damned is regarded as a classic of science-fiction and horror, and it remains one of the creepiest movies of its kind. Directed with occasional flair by John Carpenter, this 1995 remake trades subtlety for more explicit chills and violence, but the basic premise remains effectively eerie. In the tiny, idyllic town of Midwich, a strange mist causes the entire population to fall asleep, and when everyone awakes the town physician (Christopher Reeve) discovers that 10 women--including his wife and a local teenaged virgin--have mysteriously become pregnant. Their children are all born on the same day, with matching white hair and strange, glowing eyes, growing at an accelerated rate and raising Reeve's suspicion that they're not of Earthly origin. These demonic brats can control minds and wreak havoc with the power of their thoughts--so of course, they must be destroyed! Only Reeve knows how to get the job done, and his performance (the actor's last big-screen role before his paralyzing accident in 1995) grounds this otherwise superfluous remake with enough credibility to hold the viewer's attention. But for the real chills, definitely check out the original version--it's 20 minutes shorter but twice as spooky. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Should have been deepr in emotions

A classic of science fiction by John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos. John Carpenter makes it into a film that is disquieting. The end of the world will never come of course but it is all already programmed within our own genetic heritage. Evil is in our genes in the possibility that is being developed and progressively monitored by the social system that our human nature is producing to see the end of emotions, of empathy and compassion, the end of any kind of emotion. It is all the more disquieting because this social system of ours is producing absolute individualism and yet it is this very absolute individualism, when becoming the common point of a certain group of people that will lead them to absolute and cold is not glacial power and destructivity in the sole name of survival. That sounds and is horrible but absolutely possible. There is no difference between these mutants and the posse that is going to lynch them. They only want to survive even if that means the destruction of the other antagonistic group. But the story has no way out, no smallest ounce of hope. The doctor whose wife produced one of the children who should have been ten and are nine because of a still born will eventually use dynamite to destroy them. Even if you want to go beyond the divide you will unavoidably be led to the conclusion this divide is an absolute barrier. You will be transformed into a monster yourself. There is no escape and it is not the fact that the David who lost his mate who was the still born is escaping with his mother that promises a better future that will bring us hope. Alone he might be nothing, his feelings for his lost and unknown mate might be movingly pathetic but he cannot go against his genetic nature and his genetic nature is to look for a mate, for a partner in survival. Yet I found Carpenter's characters slightly too superficial, not deep enough, too cold in one word, though Carpenter is simple and that is an asset in the genre, no baroque or even rococo over-killing. That's lucky because those kids are nothing but a new branch or brand of Nazi SS, and those new branches or brands are becoming by far too many and too common in our modern world though they are always isolated in one little section of the world and have not been able so far to go beyond two or three places at the same time. But they are mobile and that is the real danger because they can eventually build some kind of a network. This time it is becoming really scary.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
July 23, 2008

What movie has been able to bring together a Vulcan, Jedi Knight, and Man of Steel?

Question:

What movie has been able to bring together a Vulcan, Jedi Knight, and Man of Steel?

Answer:

John Carpenter's remake of the Village of the Damned.

Director John Carpenter's remake as well as the similarly titled 1960 film was based on John Wyndham's novel "The Midwich Cuckoos." Carpenter's science fiction/horror flick also brought together the talents of Mark Hamill (Star Wars: A New Hope; Empire Strikes Back; Return of the Jedi); Kirstie Alley (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan; Cheers); and Christopher Reeve (Superman, Superman II, Superman III, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) among others. Village of the Damned (1995) focuses on the mysterious birth of ten children (with one being stillborn) in the isolated town of Midwich. Dr. Alan Chaffee (Reeve) and Reverend George (Hamill) are among the parents of these seeming genetically linked children while Dr. Susan Verner (Alley) is a government sanctioned doctor whom observers the nine children from conception till their present age.

The children display potent intelligence, telepathic, and mind control abilities--which they use to sadistically eliminate those that they consider to be a threat to them--though the course of the film. In the end, after the children have killed most of the principal characters, Chaffer loads a time bomb into a briefcase and sacrifices himself in order to put an end to the children's evil campaign against humanity.

For Reeve, Carpenter's film as well as the 1995 suspense thriller "Above Suspicion" would be his last before a devastating horseback riding accident that left him paralyzed. September 20, 2007

Good movie

For some reason this movie seems to always get bad reviews from critics and viewers. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think that people expect something different from John Carpenter and this wasn't it. They compare it to his other movies rather than looking at it on it's own.

I think that the movie was great, very well done in the way that it was shot and the way that the actors portrayed each character. It's interesting to see the different twist that John Carpenter put on the original novel by John Wyndam, "The Midwich Cuckoos." The tone of the movie is very eerie, with everything shot in a sort of gray, monotone atmosphere. The leader of the children is absolutely chilling and gives a great performance. I think that she really makes the movie with how she speaks and acts throughout the film. People just aren't used to seeing some seven year old look as if she could snap you in half with a blink of an eye.. literally.

The visual affects are awesome. Who doesn't like to see crazy glowing eyes? It's just cool looking. I highly recommend this movie to anyone not looking to rip it apart just because it's not 'gory' or 'violent' enough for them. April 25, 2007

Village of the Darned

Although the most prolific of the 70s directors who worked their way up from superior exploitation to the mainstream, John Carpenter's flame may have burned the brightest but it also burned the most briefly before he descended into lifeless hackwork. Even the more promising projects floundered when confronted with his increasingly pedestrian handling. His 1995 remake of Village of the Damned is a classic example. Ill-advisedly relocated to a California coastal town inhabited by Superman, Luke Skywalker and Crocodile Dundee's girlfriend, the special effects are more prominent and the body count is multiplied more than ten times as villagers burn themselves to death, impale themselves, doctors blind or perform autopsies on themselves, all staged with remarkable flatness and a complete lack of atmosphere or foreboding. A few good ideas are thrown in, but aside from one schoolroom sequence and the foolproof "brick wall" ending, it's desperately dull and under characterised stuff that feels like it was made by a wage slave reluctantly punching a time clock every day. More like Village of the Darned, the most mysterious thing about it is just how Michael Pare managed to get such prominent billing when he doesn't even make it past the title sequence.

December 11, 2006

the morals issues and questions are still there

this remake of the 60's sci fi classic still poses the same questions of the movie viewer as the classic. issues like conformity of innocence, fascism,communism, and the like are still there but not as much. the creep factor comes from the stated elements above. thats why the two movies the original and the remake are good sc fi b-movies they ask you thoses hard questions and not a soap opera like new battlestar galactia. i use the title the village of the damned as a metaphor for chicago because it lose a certain something like new york and l.a. america becoming grey goo of mediocrity and conformity. enough of that but carpenter is underrated to me at least because he don't turned out tendy kiddyporn horror flicks. like scream or i know what you did last summer. its real horror like full moon movies. September 17, 2006

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