VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1995)
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski. Screenplay: David Himmelstein. Director: John Carpenter.
It's difficult to say whether it's a devoted core following or monumental chutzpah which accounts for John Carpenter continuing to receive the possessory credit before his films. It has been over a decade since Carpenter made STARMAN, the last of his films to receive any kind of critical or popular reception; the intervening years have been characterized by cult favorites like BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, ambitious failures like PRINCE OF DARKNESS and ill-advised catastrophes like MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN. So seeing a film hyped as "John Carpenter's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED" doesn't exactly set my heart racing. And it's too bad, because as stylish as it is, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED could have been a winner if not for some truly atrocious acting.
In the small town of Midwich, population 2000, it's a lovely, ordinary day. Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) is out on his rounds; school principal Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski) is busy keeping the school fair running. Then, at precisely 10:00 a.m., every living thing in Midwich falls unconscious. When they all awaken six hours later, no one is quite sure what has happened ... or why ten women are pregnant, having conceived during the mass blackout. National Science Foundation epidemeologist Dr. Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley) comes to study the phenomenon, and follows the children as they grow. But it doesn't take a scientist to figure out that something is very strange about the children of the Midwich blackout, and that every person in town lives in fear of them.
Even in his most uneven efforts, Carpenter has demonstrated a great sense for how to use the screen. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is a typically impressive piece of visual direction, filled with subtly creepy scenes. The shots of the town during the blackout, with streets and schoolyards littered with bodies, are serenely chilling. There is one very nice split screen image after a key plot point, and a simmering level of menace in the scenes of the 7-year-old children in their paired marches. Unlike Carpenter's previous remake attempt, 1982's THE THING, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED doesn't rely on gruesome special effects in place of a well-constructed atmosphere. Most of the time VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED has just the right feel.
If only Carpenter were as astute a judge of material and actors as he is of shot composition. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, based on a novel by John Wyndham and a 1960 film of the same name, is an inherently disturbing story, but screenwriter David Himmelstein feels obliged to spice it up with OUTBREAK-style mass hysteria, paranoia and government conspiracies in moving the scene to contemporary America. He also struggles with the story's broad time frame, which moves clumsily over an eight year span. Narrative has never been one of Carpenter's strengths, and the failure to include something as simple as a "2 Years Later" caption makes for some unnecessarily awkward transitions.
Directing actors has also been a longtime problem for Carpenter, Jeff Bridges' work in STARMAN asside, but in VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED that problem is tripled by some mind-boggling casting choices. Christopher Reeve as the tragedy-stricken, intense hero? Kirstie Alley as a flinty, secretive government scientist? Mark Hamill as the town priest ... or for that matter, as anything but a cartoon or video game voice-over these days? Why not Macaulay Culkin as the chief of police? The child actors are not much better, neither emotionless enough to be truly other-worldly or human enough to be the kind of "hidden threat among us" which can be so frightening. Only Linda Kozlowski (best known as CROCODILE DUNDEE's sweetheart) is at all believable in her role.
VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED almost pulls out a last second victory with a tense, well-staged climax, but it just isn't enough. It is a film with tone to spare, but like many of John Carpenter's works, it could stand to trade some tone for a little substance.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 little devils: 4.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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