Village of the Damned

This movie, which holds its own, is a remake of the 1960 film classic, which in turn was based on the book "The Midwich Cuckoos". This John Carpenterized version is a tad more gory and more colorful than the 1960 version.

The small town of Midwich one-day falls inexplicably asleep. Many accidents occur due to sudden narcolepsy, which is exaggerated in John Carpenter style. The result is that several of the village females including a virgin are in a motherly way. They all have their bouncing white hair babies the same day and as with the cuckoo eggs, they are too in love to notice the little quirks about having to control or mentally punish everyone. Compound this by other villages that fall to the same fate and you have an epidemic that threatens to wipe out the human race.

What action can be taken?

Is it too late?

If he/she were your child, what would you do?

Carpenter seems incapable of actually making something not worth watching... I have certainly yet to see something of his that qualifies. Even the ones of his films that I didn't expect to love, I've always at least liked. This isn't his very best, no, but it certainly delivers. It pulls you in and doesn't let go until the credits start rolling. I haven't seen the original, of which this is a remake, nor have I read the novel. Thus, I can make no comparisons, although I certainly have no problem with the prospect of pursuing them. The mood is expertly built up. Most of the acting performances are great, including those of the children. The majority of the effects are excellent, and they're never downright bad. Cinematography and editing are marvelous. The plot is well-told and develops nicely, with surprises along the way(I can, of course, not verify if they are expected by those already familiar with the story from earlier sources). This is terrifying, and there are no cheap "jump scares" that don't pay off. The dialog is well-written and quotable. All of the music is the relatively simple(if it ain't broke don't fix it), well-composed pieces that John usually gives us. I recommend this to any fans of him, and to a lesser extent, anyone else who helped create this. 7/10

The movie is pretty well pasted with a clever script and some creepy scenes. We also get some good acting from the adult actors and one of the child actors (David), but when we consider the other children, they seem to be creepier when they're 3-years old. When the movie brings you to the part where they're somewhere around 8 or 9 years old, the movie starts to loose the creepy elements. Basically because the children's acting starts to loose its balance as they tend to act mature. I think those children are creepier when they're unable to speak than they are when they try to talk in the manner of adults (eg. the scene where they all lined up infront of the campus, they were muted and still, and that had a creepy effect along with the score!!!). But besides that, the movie does have powerful special effects and some really neat scenes. The movie did a great job on the visuals and the scores!

9.5/10 -0.5 for loosing the creepy effect, but later as the movie reaches its climax where we get the children lining up in front of the cops, from then, the acting didn't seem so weird anymore and they're "mature" way of talking didn't seem to mess up the eeriness.

I saw "Village of the Damned" in the theater (Fresh Meadows, NY) and several times since. It's an okay movie. I'm a big fan of most of the films of John Carpenter. This is not one of his best movies but it's not one of his worst either. It's a watchable movie. It has more than a couple worthwhile moments. It often feels like a weak Stephen King movie. The cast of B-listers do a nice job. John Carpenter makes this one worth a watch. In lesser hands it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble.

John Carpenter's ambitious remake of the 1960s horror thriller/chiller about demonic children with extra-sensory perception powers who raise Hell in their home town. As with "The Thing", this remake of a horror classic is very creepy and atmospheric. Nothing less is to be expected of John Carpenter.

The late Christopher Reeve (1952-2004) gives a solid performance as the local doctor and all around nice guy protagonist Dr. Alan Chaffee, who unfortunately is the father of the ringleader of the evil hell-spawn children. Sadly, this was his last theatrical film before he was paralyzed below the neck in the notorious horse riding accident. Not to be overly sentimental with my praise, but he really was an underrated actor.

Interestingly, in addition to featuring Superman/Reeve, Mark Hamill, AKA: Voice of the Joker and also everyone's favorite Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, also appears as an ill-fated priest along with former Vulcan vixen Kirstie Alley as an FBI agent keeping an eye on the evil little bastards.