Monday, 15 February 2021

Village Of The Damned (1995) Review

 


When everyone in Midwich falls unconscious at once, the women mysteriously give birth to children possessing dangerous physic powers.


Horror master John Carpenter’s adaptation/remake touches bravely on abortion and artificial impregnation, subjects often avoided. Based on ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’ novel by John Wyndham and the 1960s film of the same name you can tell the bright setting is meant to make it more believable, however, it comes off as DTV looking synonyms with Stephen King TV adaptations. This broad daylight approach, lacks atmosphere and robs Carpenter's offering of frights and chills especially durning the confrontations and death scenes. Its surprisingly bright setting doesn't come off as well a Vampires (1998). Nevertheless, we do get a Carpenter score with the input of Dave Davies.


Individually Christopher Reeve, Mark Hamill and Kirstie Alley all shine but as a collective they don't get the chance to gel, unfortunately the cast never get enough interaction with each to shine. Here it’s nice to see them pushing against type cast. Pivotal Linda Kozlowski is particularly notable. The children are menacing even if the CGI effects are a little dated. That said, the practical effects by Bruce Nicholson and Greg Nicotero hold up well.


The pacing and writing is slightly flawed with the bookending horror and science fiction's starting and ending strong. It's not Carpenter's best but at least he tried to do something different in terms of atmosphere, even if the payoff didn't deliver. 


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