IMDb > Village of the Damned (1995)
Village of the Damned
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Village of the Damned (1995) More at IMDbPro »

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Village of the Damned (1995) -- A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.
Village of the Damned (1995) -- A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.

Overview

User Rating:
5.3/10   7,749 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 41% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
John Wyndham (novel)
Stirling Silliphant (1960 screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Village of the Damned on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
28 April 1995 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Beware the Children
Plot:
A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(16 articles)
In the village of the damned
 (From The Guardian - Film News. 14 November 2009, 4:06 PM, PST)

The White Ribbon | Film review
 (From The Guardian - Film News. 12 November 2009, 3:00 PM, PST)

User Comments:
A Pointless Remake. more (93 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
John Carpenter's Village of the Damned (USA) (complete title)
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MPAA:
Rated R for some sci-fi terror and violence.
Runtime:
99 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
This was the final feature film completed by Christopher Reeve before a horse riding accident on 27 May 1995 left him paralyzed. more
Goofs:
Continuity: Mara's white tights become blue anklets during her first visit to the Midwich Clinic. more
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]
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Horror Business (2005) (V) more

FAQ

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful.
A Pointless Remake., 18 February 2008
2/10
Author: Fitz from United Kingdom

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.

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