Village of the Damned (1995)

Good movie but grossly overrated

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned" is the second remake of a classic movie he's made after "The Thing" and in my opinion as great.I first watched the movie when i was still a little child close to my teenage years and had no idea what it was about, and it hooked me right from the start, because of the hypnotic soundtrack and the great sense of mystery. I recommend everyone who hasn't watched this film yet, to stop reading this, or any other information about it, and to watch it without knowing anything, it's perfect then.The movie is directed masterfully, every scene is well thought out and perfectly shot from director of photography Gary B. Kibbe. Most of the suspenseful scenes are incredibly subtle. Most of the time, it's just the way the scene is lit, or the camera moves, which gives you chills.The movie is also very atmospheric and it get's the right amount of juxtaposition between the village-folk, where everyone knows everyone and you care about all of them, and the terror which will take place through the only thing we thought might be innocent: Our children.The acting is also superb, everyone gives a fitting performance most of all Christopher Reeve and Linda Kozlowsky. But i also have to mention the children: The are fantastic, they act well along with the adult actors and seem very adult themselves. I'm also very impressed that they act flawlessly in long takes, and they never had to cut around their performances.This is also very important, because the actors are what holds the movie together, every scene is focused on them and it's the reason why it's such an intense and suspenseful experience.I also really love that all of the terrifying death scenes and the finale act, aren't just there to show brutal violence, they doesn't show the violence, but the reaction of the characters to it, and that's the reason why you feel the impact of it. The same with the scenes where they try to block the mind powers of the children, and most of all in the finale act, it's masterfully put together and you really feel the intensity, and helplessness of the characters.Lika all of Carpenter's movies, this one also has a double-edged- ending, which is great as always. The protagonist get what they wanted in the end, BUT there is no hope in the future, love it.All in all one of my favourite Mystery-Sci-Fi-Thrillers with great acting, direction, and soundtrack, all the more effective if you don 't know what it's about...

Don't get me wrong, the original is a great classic and noting can really top that. However the Carpenter remake does take interesting steps that even the writer of the book. For example the stillborn. While much like the first movie, it's no surprise that there have been other Damned kids, whom have been swiftly eliminated. Neither side anticipated the complications that are seen in everyday child-birthing. Not only that but it's handled pretty realistically on all sides. With the mother, she wanted to have the kid in spite of the implications of the conception and the consequences the other parents faced and her denial of that pushed her over the edge. With David whom the child was to be his partner, he is the only one of the Damned that learned about pain and loss and is able to empathize with Reeve's character, who also suffered loss. This in turn caused him to at least try to reach out to the kids in hopes they could feel the same way David feels, which would give both humanity and the Damned a chance to live in peace. I can't help but praise Carpenter for trying to find a grey area, in his remake of a black and white classic.

"Village of the Damned," an adaptation of the "Midwich Cuckoos" and remake of the 1960 film of the same name, chronicles mysterious occurrences in a small Northern California town where a miles-wide blackout occurs among all the residents; inexplicably, ten women in the town find themselves pregnant, and all give birth to children on the same date nine months later. The children exhibit mysterious as they age, and seem to possess a sinister plan.One of the lesser appreciated remakes, "Village of the Damned" had something of a lackluster production history, reportedly slapped together and ushered out by Universal Pictures after being severely edited. John Carpenter, in spite of penning and directing one of the most successful independent horror films of all time ("Halloween"), has been hit-and-miss for the majority of his post-"Halloween" career, and "Village of the Damned" is considered by most to be a definite miss. Fans and critics aren't incorrect in saying so either, because the film is far from a success; the main issue it has is that it feels remarkably streamlined and atonal. An example of this is that the narrative briskly and somewhat sloppily progresses from the pre-birth of the children to their elementary school ages, yet there is no sense of time having passed. The ostensible "main" characters, a doctor and a government scientist, played by Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley, respectively, slip in and out of the narrative carelessly, to the point that they almost seem ancillary. Meredith Salenger plays one of the town's pregnant young women, and the only one to birth a stillborn, while Mark Hamill is the town priest—these characters also seem to fall in and out of the narrative, and the result is that the film doesn't seem to be grounded in any one character. None of the performances are remarkable, though I'd chalk this up largely to the sloppy editing and narrative arrangement.All that said, the film is beautifully shot, and is extremely atmospheric. There are fantastic compositions of the children and moody meditations of the landscape. It's overall an aesthetically interesting film. The special effects feel like overkill at times, especially with the kids' eyes—granted, it was the early nineties when the film was made, so it's permissible, though it does age the film considerably. The extravagant sci-fi effects at the end are decent and more or less effective, though the conclusion feels just as disjointed as the rest of the film.At the end of the day, I can't help but feel like much of the faults in the "Village of the Damned" are a direct result of studio intervention that left it feeling like a disjointed hodgepodge of Carpenter's original intention. While it does feel confused, it is at least entertaining and cinematographically astute. Not one of Carpenter's best by any means, though it's difficult to tell how much its defects are a result of weak foundations or Universal's meddling. 6/10.

Not a bad remake of the 1960 classic film. Carpenter did add some violence to this remake... 1995 people are wanting more on-screen, more blood, guts and violence in their films - so Carpenter gave them some but it's not overly violent or bloody. I don't think this film is violent or bloody enough to satisfy most teens of the 1990s.The story is a pretty good alien story to begin with and I think the cast and crew did a good job on this remake. No, it is not the original but it's still a pretty good sci-fi horror movie to kick back and enjoy.As far as the children, I think both the 1960 and 1995 films are very creepy kids! I would be very nervous with them around - and the longer I was with them, the more I learned about them the more frightened I would become - if this was real! lol.7/10