Wichita's Kirstie Alley in "Village of the Damned" (1995)

Starring Wichita's, Kirstie Alley

"Village of the Damned" (1995) is a science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter, written by David Himmelstein, and starring Kirstie Alley, Christopher Reeve, Linda Kozlowski, and Michael Paré. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, itself based on the 1957 novel, "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham. The 1995 version is set in Northern California, whereas the book and original film are both set in England. The 1995 film was marketed with the tagline, "Beware the Children".

Plot:
The populace of the Midwest American village of Midwich suddenly all go to sleep at once. After six hours, the people return to normal but not long after that all the women of child-bearing age discover that they are pregnant. The children are all born with pure blonde hair and demonstrate great intelligence. But as they grow up, the children demonstrate the ability to operate as a group mind and be able read thoughts and control the minds of the townspeople. Any that oppose them are mentally driven to kill themselves.

Cast:
Christopher Reeve as Dr. Alan Chaffee, the town doctor
Kirstie Alley as Dr. Susan Verner, an epidemiologist working for the federal government of the United States, who investigates the mass pregnancies
Linda Kozlowski as Jill McGowan, the school principal, and a widow who becomes the mother of David
Michael Paré as Frank McGowan, Jill's late husband
Meredith Salenger as Melanie Roberts, a virgin whose baby is stillborn
Mark Hamill as Reverend George, the town minister
Pippa Pearthree as Sarah, Reverend George's wife
Peter Jason as Ben Blum
Constance Forslund as Callie Blum
Karen Kahn as Barbara Chaffee, Dr. Chaffee's wife
George Buck Flower as Carlton
Squire Fridell as Sheriff

The Children:
Thomas Dekker as David McGowan, son of Jill McGowan
Lindsey Haun as Mara Chaffee, daughter of Dr. Alan and Barbara Chaffee
Cody Dorkin as Robert Roberts, brother of Melanie Roberts
Trishalee Hardy as Julie Blum, daughter of Ben and Callie Blum
Jessye Quarry as Dorothy
Adam Robbins as Isaac, son of Reverend George and Sarah
John Falk as Matt
Renee Rene Simms as Casey
Danielle Keaton as Lily

According to John Carpenter, there had been attempts to remake "Village of the Damned" since "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" had been successfully remade in 1978.

In 1981, Lawrence Bachmann, who was head of MGM-British Studios when the 1960 film was made, said he was going to remake the movie. "I couldn't really do the book properly then", he said. "Twenty years ago, you couldn't talk about abortion; censorship didn't even allow you to mention impregnation. This time, we'll do it right."

The project wound up at Universal, who approached Carpenter to remake it. He said, "I thought, 'Sure, it's an obvious choice, it's easy, that's a pretty easy movie to make.'"

Carpenter saw the original when he was 12 "and it stuck in my mind for several reasons. The whole idea of a whole town blacking out was 'Wow!' Also, I somehow got this incredible crush on one of the girls in the original. She was the first love object I had; I wanted her to zap me and take me over and make me do whatever she wanted."

He said, "I also knew exactly where to shoot it. I live up there, Inverness, California, and Point Reyes, where we shot "The Fog" in 1979. I have a house up there. It's paradise; you can stand anywhere, put the camera down and shoot, and you've got it, it's there. It's a small town, plus it's home; I get to shoot at home for a change. So off we went."

Unlike its predecessor, the film was shot in widescreen color. Lloyd Paseman of The Register-Guard said that the shooting in widescreen color and the fact that major actors such as Christopher Reeve, Mark Hamill and Kirstie Alley were a part of the film made it so that the film was "anything but cheap".

Additional graphic violence was added in the remake. The children cause one adult, Dr. Susan Verner (Alley) to kill herself by stabbing herself with a scalpel and another adult, Sarah (Pippa Pearthree), to immolate herself.

---

This video is for educational, historical, and informational purposes only and has not been monetized in any manner whatsoever.

It has been posted to be ad-free.

In Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the US Copyright Law and under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, historic preservation, scholarships, education and research.

Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.