Review of Village of the Damned (1995) by Tedi V — 20 Sep 2007

Question:

What movie has been able to bring together a Vulcan, Jedi Knight, and Man of Steel?

Answer:

John Carpenterâ??s remake of the Village of the Damned.

Director John Carpenterâ??s remake as well as the similarly titled 1960 film was based on John Wyndhamâ??s novel â??The Midwich Cuckoos.â?? Carpenterâ??s science fiction/horror flick also brought together the talents of Mark Hamill (Star Wars: A New Hope; Empire Strikes Back; Return of the Jedi); Kirstie Alley (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan; Cheers); and Christopher Reeve (Superman, Superman II, Superman III, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) among others. Village of the Damned (1995) focuses on the mysterious birth of ten children (with one being stillborn) in the isolated town of Midwich. Dr. Alan Chaffee (Reeve) and Reverend George (Hamill) are among the parents of these seeming genetically linked children while Dr. Susan Verner (Alley) is a government sanctioned doctor whom observers the nine children from conception till their present age.

The children display potent intelligence, telepathic, and mind control abilitiesâ??which they use to sadistically eliminate those that they consider to be a threat to themâ??though the course of the film. In the end, after the children have killed most of the principal characters, Chaffer loads a time bomb into a briefcase and sacrifices himself in order to put an end to the childrenâ??s evil campaign against humanity.

For Reeve, Carpenterâ??s film as well as the 1995 suspense thriller â??Above Suspicionâ?? would be his last before a devastating horseback riding accident left him paralyzed.