Subject: REVIEW: VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1995)

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 18:56:27 GMT

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1995)
		      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
		       Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: The second adaptation of John
          Wyndham's MIDWICH CUCKOOS is surprisingly
          restrained for a John Carpenter film.  Fans of
          Carpenter's usual flashy special effects and gore
          may be disappointed to find them toned down, but
          the real enthusiasts of science fiction will
          welcome a return to a more traditional approaches.
          Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4)

     [Spoiler warning: For those unfamiliar with the story, VILLAGE OF
THE DAMNED has many small mysteries for the viewer starting with the
very first scene.  It is impossible to say anything about the content
of the film without giving away some of the mysteries.  This review
will have only minor spoilers outside of one paragraph.  That paragraph
will have a separate spoiler warning.]

     One of the best British science fiction authors of the 50s and 60s
was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris who wrote under several
names, but the best-known were John Beynon Harris and John Wyndham.
His most popular two novels, both written as John Wyndham, were THE DAY
OF THE TRIFFIDS and THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS.  The former has been filmed
twice under its own name; the latter has just been filmed for a second
time, both times under the title VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, though the
second film version perhaps owes more to the first film than to the
novel.  Incidentally, the novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS itself appears to
owe a great deal to Richard Matheson's short story "Trespass"
(a.k.a. "Mother by Protest"), Theodore Sturgeon's "More than Human,"
and Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life."

     The director this time is John Carpenter.  When Carpenter remade
THE THING he threw a lot of special effects at the project and made a
film respectful neither of the spirit of the original film, nor of the
classic science fiction story on which it was based.  (Ironically, the
original story could be more satisfyingly adapted today with morphing
effects than with the model effects he used.)  His version of VILLAGE
OF THE DAMNED is much less sensationalist in style, probably lower in
budget, and at the same time a better representation of its story.  The
story is not one of screaming horror and dismembered bodies, but one
with more a subtle and a cerebral sort of chill.

     [Spoiler warning: do not read unless you already know the plot.]
The story takes place in the village of Midwich but no longer Midwich,
England.  Now it is Midwich, California, as unlikely as that name
sounds.  It is a nice, isolated coastal town.  In the middle of the day
a mysterious sleep falls upon everybody in town.  Simultaneously,
everybody in town simply collapses where he is.  Six hours later the
sleep ends as mysteriously as it began.  But things are not quite back
to normal.  Ten women come to realize they are pregnant.  With one
stillbirth, they give birth to what appears to be nine silver-haired
children, but it is actually one single organism with a single mind and
incredible mental powers.

     Carpenter has put in a few touches to please an action-film
audience.  There are a couple of particularly nasty deaths, there are
two fiery truck crashes, and toward the end there is a half-hearted
action scene with guns blazing.  But most of the violence is compulsion
by mental suggestion and mental suggestion is what Carpenter uses to
make it seem effective to the viewer.

     Carpenter clearly respects Wolf Rilla's 1960 version.  He credits
the screenplay and lifts whole scenes from the earlier film's script.
Visually he imitates the style of the earlier adaptation.  Realizing
how silly the superchildren would look in modern clothing styles, he
dresses them in the same sort of clothing as the earlier film and gives
them a similar silver-haired look and similar facial cast.  And
speaking of familiar casts, we have Christopher Reeve as the lead, an
amalgam of two characters in the original, but primarily the George
Sanders character.  Many may disagree but Sanders played the role too
smugly and confidently.  Reeve conveys a wider range of emotions.
Personifying the line "I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help
you" is Kirstie Alley.  There are interesting ironies in her character,
but she adds little to them.  As the town priest Mark Hamill
underpowers the role and carries too much baggage from previous roles.
The Children, like Reeve, may actually do a better job here than in the
original.

     For the most part, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED looks like a science
fiction film that could have been made in the 60s or 70s that is not
half bad.  I give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					[email-masked]