Village of the Damned (1995)

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

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

John Wyndham (book), Stirling Silliphant,

Stars:

Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

An American village is visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long to realize that the kids are not human or humane.

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Plot Keywords:

children | birth | alien | small town | baby | 

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Taglines:

Beware the Children

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sci-fi terror and violence

Details

Official Sites:

JohnCarpenter - movie site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 April 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's Village of the Damned

Filming Locations:

Inverness, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$9,417,567 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Alphaville Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the few films in which both leading men appear bare-chested during the opening credits.

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Goofs

During the Janitor death scene, it is clearly a dummy which lands on the car.

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Quotes

[About the baby girl who died]
David McGowan: She was to be with me. We were to be together.

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Crazy Credits

Man at Gas Station Phone : RIP Haight RIP Haight is really John Carpenter, the film's director.

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Connections

Referenced in Horror Business (2005)

User Reviews

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.