Hallo-Watch: Village of the Damned (1995)

Watched:  10/13/2023

Format:  Criterion, I think

Viewing:  Second

Director:  John Carpenter

So, Friday night I was wrestling with the two vaccines I'd had injected earlier in the day and wanted to watch something I'd already seen so it wouldn't really matter.  Plus, I wanted something Halloween-ish.  A quick scroll landed me on the John Carpenter directed 1995 remake of Village of the Damned.  

Now, here in 2023, I still have not seen the original.  But in the mid-90's, I kind of saw everything, and this starred Christopher Reeve and was directed by Carpenter, so I was curious.

What I remembered from the movie:  

• Kirstie Alley looking smashing and chain smoking to great effect
• Christopher Reeve giving it his all despite the fact this is nonsense
• Mark Hamill as a pastor?
• Creepy kids who just won't listen

And these things were all accurate.

What I didn't remember about the movie:

• Co-stars a Dundee-less Linda Kozlowski who is almost unrecognizable post nose-job
• Michael Pare is in the movie (but not for long)
• Meredith Salenger is in the movie (also looking smashing)!

There's no direct line to John Carpenter's career, and this is just another zig-zag.  It couldn't be more different from either In the Mouth of Madness which he released the prior year, or Escape from LA, which would follow the next.   According to Wikipedia, he'd liked the original movie as a kid, and that's good enough for me.  If someone said "hey, here's millions of dollars.  Go remake Batteries Not Included," I guess I would.  

It's pretty clearly shot in the same place as The Fog, and it makes for a good location.

SPOILERS

Anyway, it's got a great structure, but I think the most interesting bits kind of all happen before the kids are on screen and supposedly at their most threatening.  The mystery of a town where everyone is knocked out for 6 hours and then many of the women find out they're pregnant is some good suspense stuff and ripe for drama.  There's innumerable possible complications when one is magically pregnant, and the movie hits the right notes, making sure they take this weirdness somewhat seriously.  

The movie works for me right through the arrival of the children (and Alley making off with a baby corpse) and into the first horrible appearances of their powers.  Really, the last chilling bit is the death of Reeves' character's wife.

Once the kids show up, while intellectually it's kind of weird, it never feels exactly scary - more *tense* as you wonder what these mean little shits will come up with next.  

As a guy who has now experienced much more adult life than I had in the mid-90's, I more readily buy the idea that everyone is just sitting back and letting kids absolutely freak everyone out and no one knows what to do about it.  This part of the movie makes way more sense. 

But sooner or later all someone had to do was leave a ticking bomb where the kids were going to be, and a lot of problems were going to be solved.

Anyway, it was with some shock that I realized that this movie does end by blowing up the kids.  I mean: baller move, movie.  Most would find ways to depower the kids or render them harmless.  But you went for a bag of dynamite, and for that, I tip my hat.  

It IS a horror film, and so the reasons they eventually get to that point are not bad!  These kids do not like to hear "no" for an answer, and their tantrums are pretty solid, murder-wise.  But also the certainty that they're on Earth to take over - makes me think these aliens didn't think things through or guess how much dynamite we have.  

Gigantic, handsome Chris Reeve is in this movie just pouring his everything into the role, and it's a bit questionable if the movie deserved it.  His work elevates the movie and makes the need for a bag of dynamite seem like a pressing reality, but the movie itself doesn't handle the growing crisis with what felt like buyable urgency beyond his performance, which does more to convey the problem than the  ill-defined threat of the town being destroyed to save everyone else.

That said, I do think Carpenter got A-game performances out of everyone, in roles large and small.  Not least of which were the kids, who had to be believable as sociopathic aliens.  And, man, they are.  Kudos to casting agents, Carpenter and the young actors (I think only one is continuing to work here in 2023).  

Anyway, it made for a good re-watch, and now makes me want to go see the original.