Village of the Damned (1995)

In 1995 John Carpenter filmed his version of the 1960 horror movie “The Village of the Damned”, starring Christopher Reeve (in one of his last roles before his accident), Kirstie Alley, and Mark Hamill (who seemed oddly out of place and miscast). This version didn’t vary too much from the original beyond changing the location and giving the women characters more screen time and larger, more important roles. This is the film where I think Carpenter was being lazy and was just going through the process just to collect a check. He had written or came up with the concept for most of his other films or if he hadn’t, he made them feel like they were his. Nothing in this film feels like it’s his movie; he didn’t leave any of his personal trademarks anywhere. Overall, it’s a decent movie but it lacks anything new or creative that the original didn’t already offer.

The movie begins but quickly introducing all of the key characters who live in the small town of Midwich. While everyone is enjoying their daily activity, an odd phenomenon occurs in which all of the townspeople faint and stay unconscious. They soon all awake and think nothing of it until it’s discovered that ten women in town are now suddenly pregnant. Nine months later on the same night, nine of the babies are born; the tenth was stillborn. Over the next few years, the parents realize that something is wrong (as if fainting and waking up pregnant was not enough of a sign) with their children. They all look the same, behave years beyond their age, and have paired up with each other except for the 5^th boy, David. David is the only one who doesn’t act like the others and is the only one that shows any sign of emotions.

While this is all going on, the government has become involved and is monitoring the situation. This is not the first time a group of physic children have shown up but in those others instances, the parents killed off their children knowing that they were evil. All Hell breaks loose when the lead of the research team, Dr. Susan Verner, is killed by the children after they find out that she has David’s stillborn partner preserved for study. The town turns into a furious mob (ok, a sign of Carpenter at last!), and is quickly dispersed after the children kill their leader. Local, state, and federal agencies become involved which leads to a standoff of epic proportions (epic for a small coastal town at least). It’s up to Alan, the town’s physician and father of the leader of the evil children, to devise and carry out a plan to destroy the children once and for all.