Village of the Damned

• Cat.no: PFLEB 35791
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 98 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1994
• Pressing: UK, 1997
• Chapters : 37 (17/19+1)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Trailer: Waterworld
  

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  Director:

  John Carpenter

  (Escape from New York, Halloween, The Thing)

Cast:

Christopher Reeve (Superman)
Kirstie Alley (Cheers, Look Who’s Talking)
Linda Kozlowski (Crocodile Dundee)
Michael Pare (Eddie and the Cruisers)
Mark Hammill (The Star Wars Trilogy, Slipstream)

John Carpenteris one very good reason for owning a laserdisc player -as PAL discs of both Halloween and The Thing testify. Carpenter’smovies, with his unique and instantly recognisable visual look, areinvariably shot in Panavision with its widescreen aspect ratio of2.35:1.

Unlike some directors, Carpenter really utilises that letterboximage – placing a bit of action now on screen left, now on screen right,now in the middle. Carpenter panned and scanned is something you reallydon’t want to think about.

Village Of The Damned remakes the eponymous 1960 Hammer SF thriller inturn adapted from John Wyndhams novel The Midwich Cuckoos. Carpenter,who wisely credits both sources, shifts the backdrop for this harrowingsocietal nightmare of pregnancy, childbirth and family life from ruralEngland to small, isolated US coastal town. The camera races over firstwater then coast, strange shadows cross the buildings, alien babble isaudible on the rear speakers. Then, the village fete is upstaged by theentire town – man, woman, child and even the school pet canary – fallasleep (definitely a bad idea if you’re running a bath, standing behinda barbecue or driving a car at the time).

Returning from out of town, local GP Dr.Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve)runs into a collection of soldiers and scientists – including no-nonsense Dr.Susan Verner (an impressive, chainsmoking Kirstie Alley) this side of awhite line, beyond which civilians and cows are unconscious.

When everyone awakes, there appear few after effects (aside from carcrash victims and suchlike) – until all the townswomen discoverthemselves simultaneously pregnant (including one whose husband’s awayin Japan and another who’s a young unmarried virgin). Strange dreamscompel them to keep the babies (though one is lost in childbirth), whogrow into silver-haired children who seem to act more as a group thanindividual kids (interesting aside: did this particular element strike achord with Japanese-owned Pioneer’s higher echelons?) and possessuncanny powers to harm anyone who hurts them.

Barbara Chaffee (Karen Kahn), for instance, gives little Mara some foodever so slightly too hot – at which the small girl’s eyes flare green and motheruncontrollably sticks her hand in a boiling tureen of soup! Local schoolmistressJill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski) suggests Dr.Chaffee take overthe children’s education as they’re disrupting the school. “What could Ipossible teach them?,” he asks her. Perhaps the answer lies in McGowan’ssilver-haired child David, the only one of the boy children lacking agirl to walk beside (the birthing casualty – of whom he says simply andheartbreakingly, “she was to be with me”).

As the children’s power grows, and the numbers of fatal “accidents”mount among the local populace, Dr.Verner learns to block the children’sability to read her mind – and Dr.Chaffee repeats the trick by thinkingof powerful waves crashing on a shore as he stands before the childrento give them their final lesson, a timebomb ticking away in hisbriefcase.

This has all the Carpenter trademarks (including a helicopter!), ranksamong his serious SF work (as opposed to horror shockers like Halloweenor mindless actioners like Escape From L.A.) and proves surprisinglyeffective. Reeve gives a convincing performance as the doctorconfronting some difficult circumstances, Alley proves she can play morethan Cheers and Hammill puts a brave face on being downgraded from LukeSkywalker to local priest. But the real star is Carpenter – who awardshimself an early cameo in a garage phone booth – and his set piecesreally impress. The finale, with Reeve’s brick wall image under psychicassault from the children benefits greatly from the Dolby Digital soundmix absent on the NTSC disc (film’s comprehensive chaptering isidentical on both) which lends further urgency to the ticking on themusic track, while the earlier wave images crash determinedly on rearspeakers.

For those who care, the disc also contains a trailer for Waterworld(assuming there were no available trailer for Village itself, why notinclude one for another Pioneer Carpenter title like The Thing or EscapeFrom L.A.?).

More to the point, this never got a UK theatrical release but merely appearedon rental video in fullscreen, where it not suprisingly loses much in terms ofeerie atmosphere. Pioneer’s laserdisc, presented in glorious 2.35:1, does themovie far better justice – and demonstrates (yet again) why no self-respectingJohn Carpenter fan should be without a laserdisc player. Intelligent viewingindeed, very creepy and thoroughly recommended.

Film: 4/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5