Village of the Damned

R

Released Apr 28, 1995

1 hr. 38 min.

Horror

List

30%

37 Reviews

Tomatometer

27%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Ten months after the small California town of Midwich was struck by a mysterious event during which everyone in the village fell unconscious at once, 10 local women give birth on the same day. As the unsettlingly calm and unemotional children grow at an abnormally fast rate, it becomes clear that they can read adults' minds and force people to harm themselves. Local doctor Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) and federal agent Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley) must team up to battle the alien children.

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Critics Consensus

With John Carpenter at the helm and an eclectic onscreen ensemble, this Village of the Damned should be distinguished by more than its improved special effects.

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Blu B

Completely pointless remake that doesn't improve on anything the original didn't do way better. Gone is all the underlying commentary, sharp script, and disturbing atmosphere for cheap slasher kills and a borderline action movie at times that add nothing to the plot. The acting is terrible. Besides Reeve who has some good moments (problem is most of the time he isn't the main focus and gets lost in the shuffling door of characters) everyone else blends in, has no point, or is bizarre or poorly acted. Alley is terrible in this and feels like she's just saying lines. The janitor is just bizarre, the kids aren't good villians and it isn't as creepy without having a adult dubbing the lines like the original. The acting overall is just a mess. The music really gets annoying and is arguably the most shocking thing for how bad it is because it's a Carpenter film. It sounds like a watered down version of all his previous soundtracks mixed with boring generic numbers and other tracks that don't blend in at all especially the end. The cinematography isn't good either filled with pointless kills that add nothing to the plot and bizarre scenes on top of showing the main plot points in the original but don't do any of them better. The editing is bad and the pacing isn't good. Again in the middle it just feels like stuff happens and it jumps around terribly between all the people in the town and is not scary at all mainly because the mystery around whether the kids are good or evil or the suspense is completely gone because this spells right out from the start the kids are evil. So every evil deed it shows them doing never adds anything and is just bizarre and a lot of the kills come off as unintentionally funny for how over the top ridiculous they are. The action fight at the end is so out of place as well and pointless. Hamill's character could be completely cut and nothing would be lost. The first one was very plot driven and filled with sharp dialouge which made up for the lack of in depth character development on top of good acting. This has none of that and goes long time frames without dialouge and really meanders a lot of times. Also, the one new idea that was interesting with David devloping emotions was introduced but because it's so interested in showing brainless action and slasher kills it forgets about him and never develops the one new idea that is interesting. Skip this. What the heck happened here...easily one one of Carpenter's worst and a huge misfire.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

12/08/23

Full Review

Vidar S

In 1960 the plot was probably interesting. In 1995 (and today) it's just brainless and silly. There isn't really anything more to the plot, other than a little bit more violence.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

10/08/23

Full Review

Antonio B

I've always loved this movie growing up. I think with new writing & modern technology it could be a major success in todays time. Especially in the era of reboots! This film deserves a reboot in my eyes .

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/31/23

Full Review

damian l

It was okay for a remake

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

ogn d

Why o why o why do people feel compelled to make remakes of classics? 😪

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

robert p

Nothing is going to match the original Village of the Damned!

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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John Carpenter

Director

Christopher Reeve

Dr. Alan Chaffee

Kirstie Alley

Dr. Susan Verner

Linda Kozlowski

Jill McGowan

Michael Paré

Frank McGowan

Meredith Salenger

Melanie Roberts

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Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Reverends Shouldn't Play With Guns

1:12

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Explosive Secrets

2:54

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - The Children From Hell

2:18

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Don't Argue With the Children

1:45

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Friendly Fire

2:39

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Life is Cruelty

3:06

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Self-Dissection

1:37

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - The Eye Doctor

1:51

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - A Town Falls Asleep

2:04

Village of the Damned: Official Clip - Boiling Barbara

1:46

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Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

There's nothing more static than a stalled fright vehicle.

Apr 12, 2002

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

A good-looking, well-wrought film with some knockout special effects, some dark humor and crisp portrayals.

Rated: 3.5/5

Feb 13, 2001

Full Review

Richard Harrington

Washington Post

Carpenter, whose batting average is dipping dangerously low, shows no grasp of character development, plot line or time passage.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Anderson Jones

Philadelphia Daily News

There's nothing worse than an un-scary scary movie. "Damned" is too long on drama, too short on horror and, what is most annoying, too insulting to our intelligence.

Rated: 1/4

Apr 26, 2022

Full Review

Brandon Judell

Critics Inc./America Online

So bad, so unimaginative, so poorly directed, you end up gawking at the screen entranced.

Nov 8, 2021

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Although it's not in the same league as Carpenter's other notable remake (his 1982 version of The Thing remains unparalleled), it's well worth reassessment.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 8, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Ten months after the small California town of Midwich was struck by a mysterious event during which everyone in the village fell unconscious at once, 10 local women give birth on the same day. As the unsettlingly calm and unemotional children grow at an abnormally fast rate, it becomes clear that they can read adults' minds and force people to harm themselves. Local doctor Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) and federal agent Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley) must team up to battle the alien children.

Director: John Carpenter
Executive Producer: Andre Blay, Shep Gordon, Ted Vernon
Screenwriter: John Wyndham, Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla, Ronald Kinnoch, David Himmelstein, Steven Siebert, Larry Sulkis
Distributor: MCA/Universal Pictures [us]
Production Co: Alphaville Films, Universal Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 28, 1995, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 19, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $8.6M
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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