Product Details

• Actors: Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Paré, Meredith Salenger
• Directors: John Carpenter
• Writers: David Himmelstein, John Wyndham, Larry Sulkis, Ronald Kinnoch, Steven Siebert
• Format: NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), German (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, German, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Hungarian, Polish, Dutch, Finnish, Czech, Bulgarian
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004WZYJ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #187,888 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "Village of the Damned [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The original 1960 version of Village of the Damned is regarded as a classic of science-fiction and horror, and it remains one of the creepiest movies of its kind. Directed with occasional flair by John Carpenter, this 1995 remake trades subtlety for more explicit chills and violence, but the basic premise remains effectively eerie. In the tiny, idyllic town of Midwich, a strange mist causes the entire population to fall asleep, and when everyone awakes the town physician (Christopher Reeve) discovers that 10 women--including his wife and a local teenaged virgin--have mysteriously become pregnant. Their children are all born on the same day, with matching white hair and strange, glowing eyes, growing at an accelerated rate and raising Reeve's suspicion that they're not of Earthly origin. These demonic brats can control minds and wreak havoc with the power of their thoughts--so of course, they must be destroyed! Only Reeve knows how to get the job done, and his performance (the actor's last big-screen role before his paralyzing accident in 1995) grounds this otherwise superfluous remake with enough credibility to hold the viewer's attention. But for the real chills, definitely check out the original version--it's 20 minutes shorter but twice as spooky. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

John Carpenter's insipid remake of the 1960 British chiller, about the birth of alien babies in a small town. In the original, the brilliant, emotionless children had a spooky unity of purpose, and the postwar English locale made their clean-cut Aryan appearance doubly unsettling. This version, set in California, has no subtext (even though the kids look like tiny Newt Gingriches); it's an "Omen"-style bloodbath in which the children knock off any townspeople who threaten their plans for world domination. The ensemble cast, led by Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley, is uniformly bad. (Carpenter explored a similar theme far more successfully in the 1988 "They Live.") -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "I Must Think of a Brick Wall", December 10, 2003

By	Michael R Gates (Nampa, ID United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Village of the Damned (DVD)

If horror maven John Carpenter decides to do a remake of a classic sci-fi horror film, it should be safe for fans to assume that it's gonna be great. After all, this is the groundbreaking filmmaker who turned Michael Myers into a slasher-film icon in HALLOWEEN (1978) and directed the highly revered THE THING (1982), itself a remake of the classic 1951 film THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. So when Mr. Carpenter's 1995 remake of the classic 1960 thriller VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED came out, it should've been a fantastic cinematic experience for horror and science-fiction fans. It should've been. Sadly, it wasn't.

For those of you unfamiliar with the basic plot of both films, here's a quick summary. In the middle of a seemingly average day, all of the residents of a small village mysteriously fall unconscious, and anyone attempting to go into the slumbering village also passes out. When the folks finally awaken, most everything seems to be perfectly normal. Normal, that is, with the exception that all of the women of the village capable of bearing children are pregnant. The mystery children are all birthed nine months later, and as they grow, it is very apparent that all of them have eerily similar physical characteristics. Also, they mature and learn much faster than the average child, which is creepy enough. But the real terror begins when they start exercising their preternatural psychic powers.

In the original 1960 film, it was always tacitly implied that the strange children were fathered by extraterrestrials, but nothing occurs in the film to blatantly prove such. This actually adds to the mystery of the origin of the children, which in turn heightens the suspense and terror...and the fun for the audience. Unfortunately, Carpenter's 1995 remake loses most of this fear-of-the-unknown suspense when it is revealed that one of the children had miscarried, and the aborted fetus, which has been preserved in the office of the village doctor, looks like the stereotypical sci-fi alien, complete with bug-eyes and an almond-shaped head.

The original film stars British actor George Sanders as the astute "father" of one of the mystery tots who eventually infers the evil nature of the village offspring and ultimately saves the world. Sanders was an accomplished veteran of both the British and U.S. cinema, and his talent and experience add a great deal of credibility to the film's fantastic plot. But for some reason, John Carpenter chose to cast Christopher Reeve as the lead in his remake. Though Reeve is an adequate actor who did a fine job as Clark Kent and his titular alter ego in SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978), he just simply does not have the range or depth of Sanders and is therefore unable to pull off a convincing average-Joe hero. Add to this the tepid performance of supporting actress Kirstie Alley (TV's CHEERS)--here grossly miscast as a government scientist--and it becomes impossible for the audience to suspend its disbelief and surrender to the fantasy of this film.

Carpenter's remake of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is not without its moments, however. Gore hounds and fans of slasher films like Carpenter's HALLOWEEN will enjoy the scene where a man lies roasting on a barbeque grill. And though they are not as genuinely eerie as the children in the original film, the evil kiddos in Carpenter's remake can often be creepy little brats, and some of their scenes are quite scary.

Overall, the 1995 remake of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is a disappointment, and true horror fans should avoid it and instead push harder for the original 1960 film to get the DVD treatment. In the mean time, fans who want to spend an evening with John Carpenter will probably get more satisfaction from viewing one of his other films like THE FOG (1980) or THEY LIVE (1988).

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I loved this movie!!, September 15, 1999

By	"skywlkr_1" (greene, ia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Village of the Damned [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is one of the creepiest I've ever seen !! It seems so real! I love Mark Hamill as Reverend George. It was a top-notch performance! Beware the children!! It makes me want to reconsider having my own kids. Don't listen to the ones that totally bash this movie,it's awesome! However, if you get scared easily, have a weak stomach,or a weak heart for that matter, I wouldn't recommend that you watch this movie. For those of you that like to have the sh** scared out of you, this movie is the one for you!!!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars John Carpenter's worst, December 8, 2005

By	Anthony Green "cascode" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Village of the Damned (DVD)

I tried very hard to enjoy this film, being a fan of John Carpenter, of the original English version of the film, and of the original book by John Wyndham. Unfortunately it is a very poor effort and for me ranks as John Carpenter's worst film.

Carpenter is the horror/sf/fantasy B-movie great of current times, comparable in many ways with Roger Corman and Val Lewton from the mid 20th century. He has a deft touch and usually manages to turn in a quirkily personal vision which is always worth watching, even if he occasionally loses complete control of his films. Like Corman, he sometimes seems to lack the patience required in order to be a really great director.

In his "The Thing" he brought the much loved Howard Hawks thriller from the early 50s up to date, and to his credit he made a film which was both original and also more faithful to the book than the earlier effort, but he completely missed the target with "The Village of the Damned".

The atmosphere of the original book is all about tension, claustrophobia, and the terror that the people next door in a peaceful village setting are not what they seem. It depends on malevolence and an understated, brooding approach in order to work. Carpenter failed completely to capture this on film, and consequently his "cuckoos" are merely nasty and spiteful.

They do not have the required air of unstoppable power, authority and - most importantly - intelligence. The frightening thing about the children in both the book and the earlier film was that they were always two or three steps ahead of the adults, toying with them as a human child might unemotionally torment a small animal. The audience, identifying with the adults, should be drawn into the situation and feel personally threatened, but Carpenter did not understand how to achieve this state of threat by understatement. His style is too gory and obvious for this type of film, which needs a more subtle, romantic or gentle hand in order to work. Ron Howard would be the perfect director for this film, precisely because he does not work in the horror genre.

Think that sounds silly? Well imagine this - a version of "Cocoon" in which the old people bathe in the "energised" water of the pool, but then are "infected" by the alien presence which uses them as camouflage to quietly and methodically take over the planet, rather like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". THAT is the sort of atmosphere that this film should have had, but completely missed.

Apart from that, there are also some gaping continuity holes in the script, and some truly absurd scenes that do not advance the action - evidence of Carpenter's typical haste and lack of patience with his films. What a shame that this was Christopher Reeves' last film role.