Unseen Terror: Day 18

A small town in California is getting ready for an annual something-or-other, when inexplicably, everyone faints. When every person comes to, all the women in the town (at least, all the legal ones) discover that they are pregnant. Nine months later, everyone gives birth. Well, everyone except one woman who loses her child (more on that later in the film). All the children who survive childbirth grow up to be surprisingly intelligent, not to mention that every child, be it female or male, have platinum white hair, cold eyes, and pale skin. The people in town soon suspect that these children may not be completely normal, or even human...

Village of the Damned is a remake of a 1960 film of the same name and the same basic premise. I'll admit that I've never seen the original, but I don't think it'd be hard to imagine that it's probably just as silly, but far more well done. Have you ever wondered what it would have been like if John Carpenter directed a remake of an older horror flick again? Well, you might want to ignore this film's existence then. This feels like John Carpenter directing a made for TV movie based off a mediocre Stephen King adaptation. Admittedly, this ISN'T a work of Stephen King's but you still get the point, hopefully.

The cast is a bit of an odd one. Christopher Reeve, playing the main character and head doctor of the town, goes in and out of "caring" mode here, but overall doesn't do that bad. It's nice to see him doing something again that he shortly thereafter would never do again: breathe. (too soon?) Kirstie Alley I can't say the same for, she seemed to be rushing some of her lines, implying that she'd rather be reading something Xenu-approved in this film's place. Mark Hamill as the town priest is just...odd. I just don't think he was cast well in that role, and there's a point in the film where he tries to assassinate one of the kids with a hunting rifle. Think of that scene in your head for a moment: Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself, dressed like a priest, menacingly aiming at a white-haired kid with a hunting rifle. A truly hysterical moment, whether Carpenter intended it to be or not.

Not all the film is bad though. The score isn't too bad, though it's nothing to write home about either. I also thought most of the child actors here were better than the adults, with Thomas Dekker and Lindsey Haun playing two of the evil children rather well. Speaking of Haun, I wonder what she looks like now. She was a pretty creepy kid...

Well helllooooooo nurse!

God I'm a creep.

Anyway, the film just isn't very good. Far too funny to be scary (although one scene with a woman lighting herself on fire was kind of cool), too tame for Carpenter, the editing is TERRIBLE, there's no moments of real suspense (at one point, they tease that the town will be bombed, but nothing comes about from it and it's never mentioned again), characters suck, yadda yadda yadda. Just go watch anything better from Carpenter, like Halloween or The Thing.

Tomorrow, I check out a film about the apocalypse! Or zombies! Or...a SciFi? What the HELL do you call NIGHT OF THE COMET anyway?!