Review of Village of the Damned (1995) by Keith R — 01 Jan 2015

Ok, lets be frank, this film was done by John Carpenter. That should say something. I too am a fan of the original version that stared George Sanders. The source material is a work of Science-Fiction; the original film held mainly to that theme.

Carpenter, however, chose to make this film in the style for which he is known: horror! Unlike the original, his version has the story focus more on the aspects of terror that the children engender and the mounting threat they pose to our race.

There are many differences as well as similarities between the two films. The most glaring difference is in the character of David. In the original version, he acted as the voice of the children -- them being a single group mind.

In Carpenter's version, the role went to a girl named Mara. David, in this film, is crippled because one of the children died when born which isolated his mind from the group and allowed him develop something none of the others were capable of -- empathy.

This one plot difference more than made up for any faults that the film had. I truly enjoyed it -- it was more of a re-imaging rather than just a remake. This film is in my library.