Village of the Damned (1995)

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

John Wyndham (novel)
Stirling Silliphant (1960 screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 April 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Beware the Children

Plot:

A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Small Town | Birth | Alien | Children

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Christopher Reeve	...	Dr. Alan Chaffee
Kirstie Alley	...	Dr. Susan Verner
Linda Kozlowski	...	Jill McGowan
Michael Paré	...	Frank McGowan
Meredith Salenger	...	Melanie Roberts
Mark Hamill	...	Reverend George
Pippa Pearthree	...	Sarah, George's Wife
Peter Jason	...	Ben Blum
Constance Forslund	...	Callie Blum
Karen Kahn	...	Barbara Chaffee
Thomas Dekker	...	David McGowan
Lindsey Haun	...	Mara Chaffee
Cody Dorkin	...	Robert
Trishalee Hardy	...	Julie
Jessye Quarry	...	Dorothy

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's Village of the Damned (USA) (complete title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sci-fi terror and violence.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo | DTS

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Italy:VM18 | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (2000) (DVD) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1995) (VHS) | Philippines:R-18 | Australia:M | Germany:16 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:13 | UK:15 (video premiere) | USA:R | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Inverness, California, USA

Company:

Alphaville Films

Trivia:

This was the final feature film completed by Christopher Reeve before a horse riding accident on 27 May 1995 left him paralyzed.

Goofs:

Continuity: Mara's white tights become blue anklets during her first visit to the Midwich Clinic.

Quotes:

Dr. Alan Chaffee: [walks into the barn where the children are] Another man is dead. Why do you hate us so much, Mara?
Mara Chaffee: It isn't a matter of hate. It is a biological obligation.
[short pause]
Mara Chaffee: You are thinking of what happened to the others. Then our actions shouldn't surprise you. We have to survive no matter what the cost; we are the only ones left now.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: I don't see why we can't reach an understanding. Why can't we just live together?
Mara Chaffee: If we coexist, we shall dominate you. That is inevitable. Eventually you will try to eliminate us. We are all creatures of the life force. Now it was set us at one another to see who will survive.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: That's a cruel sport.
Mara Chaffee: Life is cruelty. We all feed on each other, exploit each other in some way to survive.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [shakes his head] I don't agree with you.
[walks over to where Mara is sitting]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Horror Business (2005) (V)

A Pointless Remake.

If you haven't seen the original 1960 film, or read Whyndham's 'The Midwhich Cuckoos', then you might possibly like Carpenter's remake. It has degrees of suspense, and passable acting (perhaps most surprisingly by Christopher Reeve in his last performance prior to his paralysis), but these qualities are inconsistent throughout the film and it frequently falls flat.

If you've seen the original film then avoid this one, especially if you have read Whyndam's novel too, you will only come away from the experience with a sense of disappointment and feel cheated of the time you invested in watching it. This film lacks many things that the original had - great and consistent acting, tension, and suspense to name but three.

There seems to have been a conscious effort to add gore and violence, and that decision is perhaps the main reason this film fails so miserably compared to the original. The gratuitously graphic nature of the violence directly detracts from the suspense and tension so evident in the original. Whereas in another carpenter remake 'The Thing' the effects and violence enhanced the sense of dread, here they are responsible for destroying it.

There are other reasons that this film is quite dire, one of them being the narrative compromises made to attempt a recreation of the visual style of the original film e.g. the children all wear matching clothes which, in the original, was logical since in England children do indeed wear school uniforms. However Carpenter's US town sees the children uniformly garbed with no reason, other than to draw attention to their uniformity in a massively clumsy and illogical visual device.

Take my advice, watch the original and avoid this. It's one strictly for carpenter fanatics, not people who are simply fans of his work.