Village of the Damned (1995 film)

John Carpenter's Village of the Damned
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Carpenter
Produced by	Michael Preger Sandy King
Written by	Screenplay: David Himmelstein Novel: John Wyndham
Starring	Christopher Reeve Kirstie Alley Linda Kozlowski Mark Hamill Michael Paré Meredith Salenger
Music by	John Carpenter Dave Davies
Cinematography	Gary B. Kibbe
Editing by	Edward A. Warschilka
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 28, 1995 (1995-04-28)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$22 million
Box office	$9,417,567 (USA)

John Carpenter's Village of the Damned is a 1995 science fiction-horror film directed by John Carpenter. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name which is based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The 1995 remake is set in the United States, while the book and original film were both set in the United Kingdom. The film was marketed with the tagline, "Beware the Children."

It stars Christopher Reeve (in his last starring role before he was paralyzed in a riding accident a month after its release), Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Pare, Mark Hamill and Meredith Salenger. The remake stands out from the original due to its incorporation of graphic violence, with depictions of such things as a man falling asleep on a barbecue grill and a woman eviscerating herself with a scalpel while under the children's psychic control.

Plot

The quiet coastal town of Midwich, California, is invaded by an unseen force which leaves ten women mysteriously pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born simultaneously on one night, except for one which is stillborn. At first, they all appear to be normal, but it does not take the parents long to realize that their children are anything but normal. As they grow older, the children are shown to have pale skin, platinum-white hair, fierce intellect and steely, cobalt eyes. The emotionless children display eerie psychic abilities and remarkable powers, which they use with deadly consequences, unleashing a reign of terror. When they actively use their mind-controlled powers, their irises or their entire eyes glow in different colours, mostly reddish-orange, but also green, yellow, violet, blue or pure white.

There are some story differences from the earlier adaptation. In this version, the children "paired off", but one of the children, David, loses his partner after she dies at birth. As a result, he shows human compassion while still resembling the other children and retaining some degree of psychic powers. This leads to him not fitting in well with the children. Their ruthless leader, Mara ("daughter" of a local doctor, Dr. Alan Chaffee; her mother, Barbara, commits suicide by walking off an ocean cliff), considers him less important due to his expression of emotions. Because of his childhood loss, he understands what the other children do not: pain. He and his mother (the local school principal, Jill McGowan) share a brief conversation about this, with David understanding that if he feels pain, he can understand others' pain also. When the other children experience pain, they simply use their powers to inflict the same pain on the adult responsible for the pain.

Soon it is revealed that there are other colonies of psychic children in foreign countries, but they were quickly eliminated because their "parents" realised that they were not human. The scientific team at Midwich quickly flees the town to escape the chaos. However, the lead government scientist, Dr. Susan Verner, is killed by the children after being forced to show them David's partner, the baby that was stillborn. Susan has secretly kept it so that she could perform an autopsy on it and study it. A mob of angry townspeople attempt to stop the children, but the latter use their powers to kill the leader of the mob, causing the other townspeople to flee quickly. The State Police and the National Guards are then sent out to kill the children, who instead hypnotize them into shooting each other in a chaotic gun battle.

In order to rid the town of the children, Alan devises a plan: to detonate a briefcase of explosives inside the children's classroom. By thinking of a brick wall, he is able to create a mental barrier and keep the presence of the bomb a secret from the children. Jill begs him to save David (because he is not like the others), and Alan agrees. He attempts to do this by asking David to leave the classroom to get his notebook from his car. Finally, Jill shows up, but the children stop her. David, angered by this, rushes to her defense and knocks Mara over. The children turn on David, but Jill rushes him from the building. At last, within a few seconds of the end of the bomb countdown, the children break through Alan's defenses, the explosives detonate, destroying the barn and killing everyone, including Alan.

Jill and David survive the massacre; she says that they will both move to a place where nobody knows them. The last scene is of David, riding in his mother's car, looking off into the distance.

Main cast

The sinister children.

Actor	Role
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
Thomas Dekker	David McGowan
Lindsey Haun	Mara Chaffee

Reception

Based on 30 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Village of the Damned holds a 30% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 4 out of 10. In 1996, the film was nominated at the 16th Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake Or Sequel.

External links

• Village of the Damned at AllRovi
• Village of the Damned at the Internet Movie Database