Village of the Damned (1995 film)

Village of the Damned is a 1995 American science fiction-horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Paré, Mark Hamill, and Meredith Salenger. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name which in turn was based on the 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The 1995 remake is set in Northern California, whereas the book and original film are both set in the United Kingdom. The 1995 film was marketed with the tagline, "Beware the Children".
This was the last publicly released film starring Reeve before he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident in May 1995, as well as his last theatrically released film.
==Plot==
The quiet coastal town of Midwich in California's Marin County is invaded by an unknown alien force, causing a "blackout" for seven hours, which leaves ten women mysteriously pregnant, including a virgin girl, as well as a married woman who has not been sexually active for a year. Government scientist, Dr. Susan Verner, personally accepted the task of studying this phenomenon. None of the women seek abortions after having immoral dreams. Nine months later, the babies are born simultaneously on one night, with one girl being stillborn. At first, they all appear to be normal, but it does not take the parents long to realize that they aren't. As they grow older, the children are shown to all have pale skin, white hair, cobalt eyes, and unusually narrow fingernails. They also do not appear to possess a conscience or personalities. The children display eerie psychic abilities that can result in violent and deadly consequences whenever they experience pain or provocation.
The children soon "pair off" like mates, except for one of the boys, David, whose intended partner was the stillborn girl, and he walks in the back of the group by himself. As a result of this loss, David becomes more human, while retaining some degree of psychic powers. Mara is the leader of the group, and her partner is Robert. She is the daughter of a local physician, Dr. Alan Chaffee and his wife, Barbara. As a toddler, Mara used her psychic powers to force her mother to burn her arm in boiling water, and later commit suicide by jumping of a hill.
While visiting the cemetery, David sees Melanie Roberts, the mother of the stillborn baby, drinking alcohol and grieving. He saw a future vision of Melanie putting a pistol in her mouth and pulling the trigger, which Melanie eventually did. David and his mother, Jill McGowan, the school principal, share a brief conversation about empathy before he goes to sleep, and he learns to understand his mother's pain from her husband's tragic death in a truck accident. At the cemetery, David even held Alan's hand while he was visiting his wife's grave.
The children, who are by now known to have a bad reputation in the town for scarring an eye doctor and killing a drunk janitor, eventually move to the local barn as their classroom and for survival. Reverend George attempts to shoot Mara with a sniper rifle, only for the children to use their powers to force him to shoot himself with the rifle. Another father of one of the children is forced into crashing his truck into gas tank, with the explosion killing him.
Susan soon learns that there were other colonies of blackout children in foreign countries, and some were actually able to step into social academics, but due to their inhuman nature, they were quickly eliminated, and in some cases at the cost of destroying the entire town. The scientific team in Midwich quickly flees the town to escape the chaos. Susan is then forced by Mara, Robert, and David to show them the well-preserved alien corpse of David's future partner she secretly kept in her laboratory for scientific research. David is devastated, and Mara and Robert force Susan to fatally stab herself with a scalpel. An angry mob gathers to kill the children, but the leader, Sarah, George's wife, is forced to set herself on fire and burns to death while the state police and national guard sent there are instead hypnotized into shooting each other in a chaotic gun battle.
In order to rid the town of the children, Alan devises a plan to detonate a briefcase of explosives inside the children's classroom. By thinking of a brick wall, he is able to create a mental barrier and keep the presence of the time-bomb a secret from the children. Jill begged him to spare David because he is not like the others, and Alan agreed. He attempts to do this by asking David to leave the classroom to get his notebook from his car. The children begin to suspect that Alan is hiding something. After Jill shows up, the children try to stop her by using their psychic abilities, but David rushes to his mother's defense and knocks Mara down to the floor. Alan then yells at Jill and David to leave, and they run out of the building. Mara's alien form starts to show as she digs deeper into Alan's mind, and she and the other children see the bomb he's hiding, and look at the clock. The bomb explodes, killing everyone inside, along with Alan.
While driving away, Jill tells David: "Don't worry, David. We'll go someplace where nobody knows who we are." David looks off into the distance as they drive away.
==Cast==
*Christopher Reeve as Dr. Alan Chaffee, the town doctor, and Mara's father
*Karen Kahn as Barbara, Dr. Chaffee's wife, and Mara's mother
*Kirstie Alley as Dr. Susan Verner, an epidemiologist working for the United States Government, who investigates the mass pregnancies
*Linda Kozlowski as Jill McGowan, the school principal, and David's mother
*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
===The Children===
*Lindsey Haun as Mara 
*Cody Dorkin as Robert
*Thomas Dekker as David
*Trishalee Hardy as Julie
*Jessye Quarry as Dorothy
*Adam Robbins as Isaac
*Chelsea DeRidder Simms as Matt
*Renee Rene Simms as Casey
*Danielle Keaton as Lily
==Theatrical Trailerthumb|right|335 px==
Category:1995 films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:Universal films
Category:Rated R
Category:Horror
Category:Sci-Fi
Category:1990s films
Category:1990s horror films
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