Was boring to no end. Wasn't scary in the slightest.

"Village of the Damned," an adaptation of the "Midwich Cuckoos" and remake of the 1960 film of the same name, chronicles mysterious occurrences in a small Northern California town where a miles-wide blackout occurs among all the residents; inexplicably, ten women in the town find themselves pregnant, and all give birth to children on the same date nine months later. The children exhibit mysterious as they age, and seem to possess a sinister plan.One of the lesser appreciated remakes, "Village of the Damned" had something of a lackluster production history, reportedly slapped together and ushered out by Universal Pictures after being severely edited. John Carpenter, in spite of penning and directing one of the most successful independent horror films of all time ("Halloween"), has been hit-and-miss for the majority of his post-"Halloween" career, and "Village of the Damned" is considered by most to be a definite miss. Fans and critics aren't incorrect in saying so either, because the film is far from a success; the main issue it has is that it feels remarkably streamlined and atonal. An example of this is that the narrative briskly and somewhat sloppily progresses from the pre-birth of the children to their elementary school ages, yet there is no sense of time having passed. The ostensible "main" characters, a doctor and a government scientist, played by Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley, respectively, slip in and out of the narrative carelessly, to the point that they almost seem ancillary. Meredith Salenger plays one of the town's pregnant young women, and the only one to birth a stillborn, while Mark Hamill is the town priest—these characters also seem to fall in and out of the narrative, and the result is that the film doesn't seem to be grounded in any one character. None of the performances are remarkable, though I'd chalk this up largely to the sloppy editing and narrative arrangement.All that said, the film is beautifully shot, and is extremely atmospheric. There are fantastic compositions of the children and moody meditations of the landscape. It's overall an aesthetically interesting film. The special effects feel like overkill at times, especially with the kids' eyes—granted, it was the early nineties when the film was made, so it's permissible, though it does age the film considerably. The extravagant sci-fi effects at the end are decent and more or less effective, though the conclusion feels just as disjointed as the rest of the film.At the end of the day, I can't help but feel like much of the faults in the "Village of the Damned" are a direct result of studio intervention that left it feeling like a disjointed hodgepodge of Carpenter's original intention. While it does feel confused, it is at least entertaining and cinematographically astute. Not one of Carpenter's best by any means, though it's difficult to tell how much its defects are a result of weak foundations or Universal's meddling. 6/10.

An insipid, uninspired retread of the 1960 original. This film is typical of what happens when America churns out yet another remake of a classic film. The result is shallow, glossy, and totally dull. John Carpenter, who has made such brilliant films as HALLOWEEN and THE THING, obviously took the money and ran in this case, as the film contains none of his typical atmosphere or style. Instead it has a bland, TV movie like atmosphere. The chills in the first film from the spooky children are replaced instead by clumsy over-emphasis. Gone are the sinister kids, instead we have aliens (what else? Post X-FILES, no film can be complete without an alien in a jar) with glowing multicoloured eyes. Unfortunately, the special effects are rubbish, and look far too computer generated to be anything but realistic. The 'horror' in the film comes from the series of murders that the children commit.In 1960, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED achieved fame from a chilling atmosphere of the unknown. In 1995, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED achieves nothing with a handful of boring murders, which aren't even particularly gory. The most gruesome demise is that of Kirstie Alley, but it has to be said that we were pretty thankful it took place; Alley sleepwalks through her role here and comes off as totally unlikeable. The same can be said of Christopher Reeve, who gives such a bland, expressionless performance that you can't help but smile at the end. His riding accident which left him crippled took place right after the completion of this film; it's disappointing that he had the misfortune to end his able-bodied career on this note. The only actor of interest in the film is Mark Hamill as a shotgun wielding vicar who gives an over the top performance bordering on psychotic. He's fun.The children are annoying bad/cute child actors and actresses, who try very hard to look sinister but fail miserably. The only moments worth watching in this film are the comic scene where a man is burnt on a barbecue, or the ending where policemen and soldiers all suddenly start shooting each other for no reason. There is also some tension in the explosive finale, but it comes far too late to lift this film from being anything other than a middling, stupid affair.

John Carpenter seems to like putting his name with his movies as the official title of this movie is "John Carpenter's Village of the Damned." This movie is not his original though, rather it is based upon a movie made in 1960 and a book by John Wyndym, who also wrote Day of the Triffids. My friend described this movie as a "B-grade horror movie" and I am sort of inclined to agree with him except that there is a little more to it than simply nasty monsters.One Saturday afternoon, the entire village of Midwich falls asleep. The doctor (Christopher Reeve) is out of town and when he returns he finds that the FBI, state police, and army stand at the road leading in. They are all mystified as to why everybody fell asleep. Later they all wake up (and a graphic scene of a man having been cooked when he fell asleep on a barbecue is shown) and soon it is discovered that all of the women in the town are pregnant. Nine months later about nine children are born, four females and five males. One of the babies is still-born and quickly taken away by the FBI scientist (Kirsty Alley). These children grow up to become very intelligent and possessive of psionic abilities, and they begin to take control of the town.The nature of the children need be examined before the entirety of the film is looked at. These children are albino and travel in male/female pairs, all except one whose female partner died in childbirth. These children have no emotion and consider themselves to be the superior to the human race. Where they come from it not clearly explained, but that is the nature of horror movies, there is no need for explanation.The single child, David, is one of the keys to the movie. As he does not have a partner, he begins to evolve differently to the children. He begins to understand pain due to the emptiness that the absence of his partner causes. He is torn between looking for a place within the children and without. His desire to belong and his loyalty to the other children cause a conflict within. The leader of the children is a female, and this is possibly a symbol of the nature of the children. They are opposed to everything that humanity stands for. They view humanity as an enemy and thus a female, generally considered the submissive sex, rises to become the leader of the children to challenge this aspect of humanity.There are two basic fears within this movie: the fear that there exists a race that is supremely more powerful than humanity, and the parental fear that their children will rise to take their place. One of the major themes is that the children are superior to humanity. They exist to replace humanity and to destroy them. This is a basic fear as humans generally want to be the dominant. The problem is that we are not. Our fear of an extra-powerful entity is justified with the existence of God. People deal with this by making God their ally in everything they do. God is somebody, to most people, that lives with humans and demands nothing. This is not true for God demands obedience and we refuse to give it. Because we refuse to acknowledge him he will destroy us, and because of this we should respect who he is.The second fear, that of parents towards the children, is also a justified one. At one stage a parent will have many expectations of the child, but as the child grows and begins to become independent, this changes. There is generally a struggle between the child and the parent with the child wanting to go his or her own way while the parent wanting his/her will for the child. This movie manifests the ultimate fear that the child is superior to the parent and also uncontrollable. It is not the parent who controls the child but the child who controls the parent. Not only are the children in control of their parents but they also have the power of life and death over the parents, as is revealed quite quickly in the movie.I enjoyed Village of the Damned. It was not a movie that stands above other movies, but it is one in which there is some thought. The horror in this movie is more subtle than a lot of other movies, the horror being more social than spiritual.