Village of the Damned
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Movie Reviews of Village of the Damned
Movie Review: What Are They Gonna Do To Us?
Summary: 3 Stars
Village Of The Damned is probably my least favorite Carpenter film, though I don't hate it. First, it's a remake, and I'm pretty outspoken when it comes to remakes. Granted, Carpenter made The Thing, but that film didn't seem so much of a remake of the 50s film as it did a more true to form version of the original story. This is basically just an updated reworking of the original film . If you haven't seen the original Village Of The Damned, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Second, Village seemed a little rushed, coming out only a few months after Carpenter's superior In The Mouth Of Madness. For those unaware, here's the lowdown: One day in the small town of Midwich, every man, woman and child falls unconscious for six hours, resulting in a few deaths(one poor sap passes out on the barbecue grill) and a buttload of confusion. Shortly after, the women all find out they're pregnant, and they all give birth at the same time. The kids are intelligent, white-haired killing machines determined to kick everyone's butt. The sudden jump from toddlers to ten year olds isn't really explained. Do they grow at a terribly fast rate or did ten years pass? I guess it's really not important, but I couldn't help wondering. Actually the first 40 minutes of this movie are quite good and quite promising. Unfortunately after that, it just doesn't know what it wants to do. It's not particulalry scary, suspenseful or all that interesting. You can only see those glowing eyes so many times before it loses it's punch, and this effect is way overused. The latter half of the movie consists mainly of the kids wandering around and occasionally killing someone while the adults eventually get fed up and take action-action in the form of a Frankenstein-style mob complete with torches. I do get a little sad watching this and seeing Christopher Reeve only about a year away from his accident. He does the best job one could do with his role. Michael(Eddie and the Cruisers)Pare is given way too brief an appearance, and Mark Hamill even has a role as a priest, and also has the best lines in the film("What are they gonna do to us?", "We NEED fingerpaints"). All in all, Village Of The Damned is harmless to watch coz it still retains the Carpenter style, and the first half is actually quite good. Just don't be expecting The Thing.Movie Review: The Kids Aren't Alright
Summary: 3 Stars
The 90's weren't too kind to writer/director John Carpenter. After pioneering the slasher genre in the late 70's and redefining the marriage of sci-fi and horror in the 80's, he was met with flop after flop, with each successive film receiving a smaller budget than the last. Enter "Village of the Damned," a little-seen remake of the 1960 film based on the novel by John Wyndham. While Carpenter's mark is clearly made, the director's frustrations can't help but ooze through in this serviceable yet underwhelming thriller.
A sleepy small town is knocked out only to find its female residents (apparently all 10 of them) inexplicably knocked up. To terminate or not to terminate, that is the question. When a chain-smoking scientist (a pre-weight gain Kirstie Alley) offers the women a cash bonus in exchange for seeing their pregnancies through, they ignorantly accept. Unfortunately, the little tykes grow up to be little Hellraisers in need of a good spanking. They are mean to their parents, they defy anyone who gets in their way and worst of all, they manage to look sort of cute in doing so. Even Superman himself (Christopher Reeve in his final film role) proves to be no match for the toxic tots, as the film caps off with a match of wits that is, well, child's play.
In spite of his low budget, Carpenter makes the best of things. Quite possibly the director who is best at making something out of nothing, our hero replaces heavy gore with carefully placed sound effects, effective musical cues and other things best left to the imagination. In one scene, a woman's hand is forced into a boiling pot of water to the point where her arm looks like a giant hot dog. Although we never see it really happen, it's one of many moments in the film that will have you squirming in your seat, imagining things far worse than what's onscreen. That's the brilliance of John Carpenter, and why "Village of the Damned" isn't quite the dud it's been made out to be all these years. Sure, it's got hammy performances all around (Mark Hamill in particular plays it up as the town priest) but it's still an interesting little film that goes to show that even at his lowest point, John Carpenter can run circles around everyone else.
Movie Review: Enjoyable enough!
Summary: 3 Stars
Being that I am not familiar with the story behind Village Of The Damned, or the John Wyndham novel (The Midwich Cuckoos) upon which it is based, I will try to keep my overview of the plot brief.
The story begins with a strange mist floating over a coastal town in the USA, and ten women suddenly find themselves pregnant with children that turn out to be alien creatures in humanoid form with immense powers of mind control. One specific fault I found with the plot is that, for supposedly "emotionless" creatures, these children sure get upset pretty easily. From what I could ascertain, much of the original idea of the story was to raise questions about mankind's inability to accept the unknown, and Reverend George (Mark Hamill) keeps the film consistent with this idea. The heroes, such as they are, consist of Allen Chaffee (Christopher Reeve), Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski), Frank McGowan (Michael Paré), and Doctor Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley). The last of these characters is a modern addition to the story that holds little rhyme nor reason except to modernize the script a touch, much like the more explicit violence and speech of this 1995 production. The bad guys are a group of white-haired children who sit around doing nothing a lot on a farmhouse for years until someone finally decides that there's something not quite normal about them and that they Must Be Stopped.
Not having seen the original 1960 production of this film, I cannot really comment on whether this is the best version of the film that one can lay out their thirty dollars for. However, if there is one thing that director John Carpenter does well, it is to take old horror stories and bring them into the modern age, albeit with variable results. Much of this film is unintentionally funny, and much of it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, but the whole sense of this on-screen town being doomed is carried well enough to make for an entertaining film. It is also worth noting that this is the last film Christopher Reeve appeared in before he was paralysed from the neck down in a horse-riding accident, a truly sad situation given his commanding presence as an actor. I personally liked Village Of The Damned according to John Carpenter. Many others don't, but I found it enjoyable enough to warrant repeated viewings.
Movie Review: What movie has been able to bring together a Vulcan, Jedi Knight, and Man of Steel?
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Movie Review: 9 Eerie children.
Summary: 3 Stars
John Carpenter directed movie based on John Wyndham's novel `The Midwich Cuckoos'. After an entire small town blacks out 10 women give birth to gifted children. Only 9 live. As the children get older people seem to be very accident prone in their presence.
Lindsey Haun as the children's leader Mara is just creepy. The one scene to best sum up the movie has Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) talking to Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski). She's trying to convince him to teach the children separately from the normal children. Dr. Chaffee; "What could I possibly teach them?" Jill answers, "Humanity." It should've been a great movie. Unfortunately Christopher Reeve's excellent acting was overpowered by Kirstie Alley's incredibly horrible acting. Why any director would use her to play a hard shell government doctor is beyond me. This movie had four things going for it; 1. It was based on Wyndham's classic novel. 2. John Carpenter directed it. 3. Christopher Reeve stars in it. And 4. The children were just plain creepy. So why didn't it work? Kirstie Alley is one of the worst actresses ever and just ruined the Dr. Susan Verner character. Carpenter never really pushed for any suspense. More of A Sci-Fi B-movie then a Horror. Worth catching on AMC or TCM but not worthy for my collection, which is unfortunate when you consider that Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980) and The Thing (1982) along with a few others have made the list. Watch for Mark Hamill as Reverend George.
Beware the Children.