John Carpenter's Village of the Damned is an English language 1995 science fiction–horror film directed by John Carpenter. It is marketed with the tagline "Beware the children."
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.
It stars Christopher Reeve (in his last starring role before he was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident), Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Pare, and Mark Hamill. 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.
The children are much more explicitly alien than in the original film. The children become more alien in appearance as they use their powers at greater intensity. Also, a degree of conspiracy theory permeates the storyline. According to Susan, it is implied that the American government is willing to allow the children to grow to adulthood regardless of how many murders the children commit. However, it is stated by Susan later that the other colonies have all been destroyed and that Midwich is scheduled to be next, which would imply that the government is not willing to allow the children to live.
Plot
The American village of Midwich is invaded by an unseen force which leaves ten women of the quiet coastal town mysteriously pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born simultaneously but one is stillborn. At first, they all appeared to be normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long enough to realize that their "children" are anything but normal. As they grew older, the children are shown to have pale skin, platinum-white hair, fierce intellect and steely, cobalt eyes. The emotionless children displayed eerie psychic abilities and remarkable powers, which they used 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, or pure white.
There are some story differences from the earlier adaptation. In this version, one of the children, David, the child of the local school principal, Jill McGowan, lost his "partner" after she dies at birth. As a result, he showed 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, especially their ruthless leader, Mara ("daughter" of a local doctor, Dr. Alan Chaffee; her mother, Barbara, commits suicide by walking off an ocean cliff), who considers him less important due to his expression of emotions. Because of his childhood loss, he understood what the other children do not: pain. He and his mother shared a brief conversation on 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 the other colonies of psychotic children in foreign countries are eliminated because of their danger, the scientific team there quickly flee from 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", who was the baby that was stillborn. Susan had secretly kept the baby, so that she could perform an autopsy on it and study it. A mob of angry townspeople attempted to stop the children, but they used 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 but they are hypnotized by the children into shooting each other in a chaotic gun battle.
In order to rid the town of the children, Alan devised a plan; he'll 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 begged him to save David (because he is not like the others), though, which he wholeheartedly attempted to do by asking him to leave the classroom to get his books, which were in his car. Finally, Jill shows up, but the children stop her. David, angered by this, rushed to her defense and knocked Mara over. The children turn on David, but not before Jill grabs him and rushes from the building together. At last, the children broke through Alan's defenses, but it is too little, too late as the explosives detonated, destroying the barn and killing everyone, including Alan.
Jill and David survived 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
External links
|
Films directed by John Carpenter |
|
| 1970s |
|
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
| 2010s |
|
|
| TV |
|
|
| Remakes |
|
|
