A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.A small town's women give birth to unfriendly alien children posing as humans.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
- Director
- Writers
- John Wyndham
- Stirling Silliphant(1960 screenplay)
- Wolf Rilla(1960 screenplay)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the final feature film completed by Christopher Reeve before a horse riding accident on May 27, 1995 which left him paralyzed.
- GoofsBaby Mara, has dark brown eyes, older Mara has light blue eyes.
- 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]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: I think that adaptation is the key to survival. Cooperation and symbiosis...
[kneels by Mara's desk]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: and compassion.
Mara Chaffee: Why do you think your own survival depends upon emotion from us? Shoul we pity you? Empathize with your plight?
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [bangs his fist on Mara's desk]
[shouting]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: You should feel! You should feel something!
[stands up]
Dr. Alan Chaffee: Without feelings, you're nothing. You're just second-rate mimics of a higher organism. That's right, higher organisms. We're your superiors in our capacity to love. Without compassion you're a doomed species.
Mara Chaffee: Emotion is irrelevant. It is not our nature.
Dr. Alan Chaffee: [looks back at David] Well, I'm not so sure you're right about that, Mara.
A year before Scream gave new life to the genre, this movie told the story of a small village lost in the rural areas of the U.S. where something strange happened one afternoon when the entire town fell unconscious. By strange circumstances 10 women got pregnant that day, but only 9 children survived. The remaining children look all the same and behave in strange ways, creating horror in town. All this while a government team studies them.
Christopher Reeve stars as the father of the leader of the children, Mara. Co-star Kirstie Alley as the government scientific in charge of the study. To be fair, the acting of the children was superb, while the acting of the adult characters was somewhat weak. Reeve steals the show, and Alley just seems out of place.
As I wrote before, the whole movie has that early 80's feeling, and I would dare to say that it feels as something made for TV. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's probably the main reason this movie is not very popular. This old school style maybe was not very attractive for 95's audience, Carpenter would go in a better direction once reunited with Kurt Russell in 96's Escape From L.A.
I have not seen the original movie yet, so I came to it without any expectation, I can't say I ended pleased, but I found it entertaining, although quite slow at times.
It's worth to notice that it has beautiful cinematography, and even when it may be a flawed effort, it's worth a rent. It's one of those movies that takes it's time to grow on you.
7/10
- jluis1984
- Nov 16, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- John Carpenter's Village of the Damned
- Filming locations
- 11 Church St, Tomales, California, USA(church and cemetery)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $22,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $9,418,365
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,222,450
- Apr 30, 1995
- Gross worldwide
- $9,418,365
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1