Review of Village of the Damned (1995) by Bradley K — 05 Aug 2014

Early in his career, filmmaker John Carpenter was responsible for some of the most iconic movies of the '70's and '80's, but his work during the '90's was less dependable. Frankly, you never knew what you were going to get, and his re-imagining of the 1960 classic "Village of the Damned" is a forgettable speed bump in an illustrious career.

The director put his stamp on the picture in a few aspects, most notably the very Carpenter-esque score, but the biggest problem is other than that, this could have been made by anyone. There was a time when a new film from the auteur was an event, but those days are clearly over.

The cast is perhaps the weirdest assortment of actors assembled for a project the entire year, and there's not one strong performance among them. Some of the people, such as Linda Kozlowski, haven't acted in years and there's perhaps a very good reason for that. Many of them, Mark Hamill in particular, overact wildly. Still, it's not a total loss as some of it is easy to admire.

The ending is quite clever, with Christopher Reeve putting up a mental brick wall to block his thoughts, and with a little more imaginative touches like that, this might have worked. Some of the special effects are quite good as well. "Village of the Damned" is a little movie with meager aspirations that definitely had the potential for greatness. The tone is too light, and the wildly eclectic cast give lazy performances that mute the picture and keep it from being anything special.