Popular reviews

• 

  Review by matt lynch ★★★ 1

  This gets a lot less interesting once the bad seeds sprout and the focus shifts to their goofy white hair and glowing eyes and their decidedly campy shenanigans like making mom stick her hands in boiling water. But the first 40 minutes or so are an eerie, occasionally even intimate look at an isolated community in crisis. In Carpenter's world Fordian collectivism crumbles in the face of uncontrollable fear, and he doesn't ignore the idea that the women, always a lynchpin of that collective, are traumatized by a literal alien invasion of their bodies. I continue to think this is one of Carpenter's weakest films but perhaps unsurprisingly it's proven to still be a grower.

• 

  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus <3] ★★★★½ 3

  John Carpenter's Village Of The Damned is a lonely, isolated and melancholic affair, awash in New Age tones and shivery disharmonies. The original book by John Wyndham and the initial film adaptation made sense in a culture steeped in anticommunist/anti-'youth movement' Baby Boom apocalyptics, wherein one culture is growing and harboring within itself a counterculture founded upon alien aesthetics, alien values, alien consciousness, which will overthrow and displace the host. This film could be perhaps be remade today, too, as an allegory of social media - as - hive mind. In 1995, however, what concerned parents was the fear that their kids would grow up as sociopathic murderers, 'superpredators', anesthetized by potent marijuana and crack cocaine and tv programs featuring…

• 

  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 17

  After watching both the original and Carpenter's remake, I can say that the story is strong and compelling enough to entertain in either rendition, and that it is still one of the most interesting evil kids movies.

  At first sight, John Carpenter may seem like the finest guy to remake the film, but unfortunately, in this case, the film is never as great as the score. But even at 90 minutes, the film lags and feels kind of sloppy and unfocused at points, partly due to its dubious special effects and performances that range from decent to mediocre and vacuous. The original's children were menacing, but these ones are just goofy.

  All in all, although it's not bad for passing the time and Reeve does a good job, I would rather recommend the original first.

  TODAY SCHEDULE
  Two O'Clock Courage
  Sing Your Way Home
  The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
  Village of the Damned

• 

  Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★ 2

  Why are John Carpenter's women's pictures so undervalued? Village of the Damned and Ghosts of Mars are almost always written off as lesser works in the director's oeuvre and yet I find myself endlessly fascinated by the stories they tell. Maybe even more importantly Ghosts of Mars and Village of the Damned are films that are so distinctly John Carpenter that I'm surprised auteurists haven't embraced these works more fully. Their dismissal is completely baffling to me.

  I think one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy Village of the Damned (and horror in general really) is because it's never afraid to tell a narrative from a woman's viewpoint. While other genres of film have often shied away from female…

• 

  Review by David Sims ★★ 1

  kill em with fire

• 

  Review by 𝚮𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖊𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖉𝖊 🎃🕯️👻 ★★ 11

  What "unknown life form"?! Making people want to kill themselves, saying creepy things and having batshit demands is exactly what human kids do.

  Honestly, if it wasn't for their glowing eyes I wouldn't even notice anything was out of the ordinary.

• 

  Review by pd187 ★★★½ 7

  on god this is PRINCE OF DARKNESS level for the first 1/2 hour right up to when reeve quotes charles fort to kristie alley but tells her not to read him (???) then it goes to bad kid actor hell til the unintentionally funny cop-shoot-cop finale. looks great tho, score kinda dungeon synthy & one kid is named DAVE MCGOWAN

• 

  Review by Kylo ★★★½

  How have I never seen this movie? So sinister and wacky. The Californian setting was so picturesque. I was also living for Kirstie Alley’s in charge character as an epidemiologist. It’s dated but in that classic John Carpenter way.

• 

  Review by Sam Thompson ★★★

  Village of the Damned feels like a 2000's M. Night Shyamalan film in some ways. It's like an amalgamation between Signs and The Happening. They are two films I really like (for very different reasons) and so I enjoyed Carpenter's take on Village of the Damned quite a bit.

  The first 40 minutes were absolutely awesome. I positively loved the setup and the psychological nature of the way things were progressing. It really hooked me in. After that when the proper child actors come in, things do get a bit silly and the second act does move pretty slow but I was still very much onboard and engaged because of how good and chilling the first act was. We've seen…

• 

  Review by Daryl ★★★½

  I think I'm in the small minority of liking John Carpenter's remake of Village of the Damned. Awesome concept, with a couple of creepy child performances, and an eerie score which suits the tone of the story very well. The kills are nicely done and Carpenter builds some pretty effective suspense.

  'Completing Carpenter'

• 

  Review by Slig001 ★★½

  John Carpenter's remake of the classic British chiller tells mostly the same story and doesn't go anywhere new with it. Village of the Damned, based on a novel by John Wyndham, begins with a small town falling asleep in unison. The residents awaken to find that every woman of child bearing age is now pregnant - each of them agreeing to carry the child to term after a promise of $3k per month a piece from the government, who want to study the children. The first half of the film is much more effective than the second. It offers a lot of promise early on, before morphing into what is basically a child lead slasher with a focus on set…

• 

  Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ½ 9

  Steer clear of this bum steer!

  Has the look and feel of a putrid made for tv movie by Stephen King!