John Carpenter's the Village of the Damned

Village of the Damned (1995) Directed by John Carpenter From the Novella "The Midwich Cuckoos."

I am going to begin this review with the same paragraphs that I began my review of the original.

The Common European Cuckoo (Cuculus Canorus) is a brood parasite. This means that the Cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of another species, frequently the Reed Warbler. It then moves on, never being involved with its young again.

When the chick Cuckoo is hatched, it immediately shoves any other chicks or eggs out of the nest. It is much larger and stronger than the warbler chicks, so the outcome is never in doubt. The Reed Warblers then devote their entire energies to raising this alien child. And it takes all their energy as this changeling quickly grows to weigh more than both "" combined. The fledgling leaves the nest, and finds another set of Reed Warblers to victimize in its own turn.

I think it sets the correct tone. Some things from the original movie may have been lost in this remake, but it returns to the original premise of Village of the Damned, that was completely lost in the abysmal sequel, Children of the Damned. These children are cuckoos; they do not mean us well. It is not that they hate us, it is just what they must do to survive.

The Plot.

The sleepy little town of Midwich California certainly lives up to its adjective. One day, for no apparent reason, every living thing within a certain radius of the town center fell into a profound sleep. Very soon, people outside the area are alerted to the bizarre phenomena and they discover that it is a static well defined area. If you cross in, you fall asleep. One man walked in with a rope tied around his waist. When he succumbed, he was dragged out. He immediately awoke, feeling strange and chilled, but none the worse for wear.

Then, a suddenly as it began, it stopped. The cows stood up, the state troopers got to their feet, and the rescue teams moved in.

It was a little late for a few people. There were numerous car accidents; one drove into a propane tank, and blew up. Another fell asleep while grilling at the church picnic; this is not recommended for your health, especially if you fall forward onto the grill

The government moved in to study what had happened. It was obviously not a poison, the edges were well defined. It was not radiation. It was not....the list went on and on. What it was, there were fewer answers. But in a month or two, there was a new development; every woman of child bearing years was pregnant, including a virgin, and a woman whose husband was overseas. The government, in the form of Dr. Susan Verner (Kirste Alley) is there offering support. Support includes termination, if chosen, but there is an incentive to allow the children to come to term. $3,000 per month, per baby. And most people, either from moral or religious reasons, or simple greed, agree to have the children.

When the children come to term, all at the same time, there is only one problem; one is still born. And it is not normal.

The rest of the children are perfectly normal, except their nails are a bit narrow, and their hair has a "D" shaped cross section. It is not until later that the parents realize that like the birds, the children have sinister instincts.

Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve, in his last role before his tragic accident.) and his wife Barbara (Karen Kahn) name their daughter Mara. When Barbara fails to check a bottle temperature, and burns Mara, she finds herself compelled to thrust her hand into boiling water. Barbara senses something wrong with her daughter, and grows distant. Since she is no longer of use to Mara, and indeed, may begin to oppose her daughter, Mara coerces her into walking off a cliff to her death. Of course, how do you prove something like that?

There are other signs that the children are not normal. They are all platinum blond, with a golden complexion. All have fair eyes. All favor conservative clothing in shades of grey. They grow at a phenomenal rate, they learn faster. They tend to move in lock step. When they go somewhere, each boy walks beside the same girl every time, with David in the rear, all alone. They are calm, cold, precise, unshakable and unemotional. There is no bond between parent and child, but there is a terrifying link between the children. When one child learns something, they all know it. They are a hive mind; individually geniuses, collectively, much smarter than the sum of their parts.

There is a very human reaction to the unknown. We fear it. We seek to understand, and if that fails, our fear grows. The children elicit fear. And when that fear causes anyone to strike out at them, they strike back. They are brutal and efficient, and completely unhindered by conscience. Their psionic powers are formidable, and almost irresistible. They display telepathy, clairvoyance, and coercion to terrifying degrees. This makes them virtually invulnerable.

The only chink in their armour is David. Born without a mate, he seems, perhaps, to have a little human feeling.

Nor were the Midwich colony the only Cuckoos. There were others; the ones in Australia were all still born. The ones in the Aleut tribe were killed at birth. Only one other group survives, in Russia. And when they are destroyed, it precipitates a crisis, the Cuckoos determined to flee. This occasions a talk between father and daughter.

Alan Chaffee: Another man is dead. Why do you hate us so much, Mara?
Mara: It isn't a matter of hate. It is a biological obligation. (Pause) You are thinking of what happened to the others. Then our actions shouldn't surprise you. We have to survive no matter what the cost; we are the only ones left now.
Alan Chaffee: I don't see why we can't reach an understanding. Why can't we just live together?
Mara: If we coexist, we shall dominate you. That is inevitable. Eventually you will try to eliminate us. We are all creatures of the life force. Now it was set us at one another to see who will survive.
Alan Chaffee: That's a cruel sport.
Mara: Life is cruelty. We all feed on each other; exploit each other in some way to survive.
Alan Chaffee: I don't agree with you. I think that adaptation is the key to survival. Cooperation and symbiosis... and compassion.
Mara: Why do you think your own survival depends upon emotion from us? Should we pity you? Empathize with your plight?
Alan Chaffee: You should feel! You should feel something! Without feelings, you're nothing. You're just second-rate mimics of a higher organism. That's right, higher organisms. We're your superiors in our capacity to love. Without compassion you're a doomed species.
Mara: Emotion is irrelevant. It is not our nature.
Alan Chaffee: (Looking over at David) Well, I'm not so sure you're right about that, Mara.

And there you have it. The moment of revelation. Now, the good Doctor has a choice to make. If he chooses wrong, humanity is doomed. If he chooses correctly, but the children read his mind, humanity is doomed. Anyway you look at it, it does not look good.

This movie is a worthy child (sorry, bad metaphor here, perhaps) of the original. It did not do well at the box office, and I think that is sad. It is well done, with an excellent cast, and more layers than the original. The original lacked a villain, other than the children. It was humans good, Cuckoos bad. In this one, you have Dr. Verner, who represents the government very well. Kirstie can play a villain, and when she gets what she has earned through her hard work, it gives one a feeling of ironic satisfaction.

Christopher Reeve does a much better job than George Sanders. Sanders was very dry, very reserved, and very English. It was sometimes hard to believe David was not his son. But Reeves brings warmth, humanity, and not a little sex appeal to the role. His romance with David's mother, Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski) added a very human element, to contrast with the emotionless Cuckoos.

This movie pits two of humanities most primal instincts against each other, our most noble instinct, to protect children, and our worst, to instinctively fear that which is strange and unknown. Isn't it ironic that our noblest instinct is the one the Cuckoos are counting on?

Also try the classic original:

Village of the Damned (1960)

For mercy's sake read this warning review of the sequel:

Children of the Damned