{"id":20471,"date":"2016-04-19T22:41:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T02:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=20471"},"modified":"2016-04-19T22:41:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T02:41:45","slug":"village-of-the-damned-1995-collectors-edition-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/19\/village-of-the-damned-1995-collectors-edition-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Village of the Damned (1995): Collector\u2019s Edition [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"VILLAGEOFDAMNED1\"<\/a>It\u2019s a shame that John Carpenter\u2019s remake of \u201cVillage of the Damned\u201d isn\u2019t more highly regarded. If it were his own adaptation of \u201cThe Midwich Cuckoos,\u201d it would be placed alongside his other apocalypse or alien films like \u201cThey Live,\u201d or \u201cPrince of Darkness.\u201d I don\u2019t think Carpenter\u2019s film is better than the original George Sander\u2019s horror film, but I think it holds up very well and can stand alongside it like Carpenter\u2019s version of \u201cThe Thing\u201d with the Howard Hawks original.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cVillage of the Damned\u201d is a fine modern treatment of the original story that centers on American town, but possesses much of the same European themes, and practices some rather vicious carnage in the vein of classic Italian horror. After a massive anomaly renders folks of a small town in Midwich California unconscious, the outside world are shocked to discover that after hours in unusual comas, the town is rendered seemingly normal. Ten months later, local doctor Alan Chaffee is stunned to learn that many of the women in town are pregnant; even the women that weren\u2019t even trying for children are now with a child, and he\u2019s overwhelmed at what tidal wave of births are imminent.<\/p>\n

Kirstie Alley does a bang up job playing federal agent Susan Verner who appears in town with knowledge of what may have occurred and begins manipulating the series of events unfolding in order to help gain an upper hand on the mysterious births. By pulling strings in the shadows, she hopes to figure out what the now prepubescent offspring have in mind, now that they operate without mercy and empathy and act as a hive mind. Soon enough the children born from the strange occurrence begin wreaking havoc on the town, striking down dissension with their ability to control minds and bend people to their wills. Carpenter\u2019s direction is sleek and quite engrossing, bringing us deeper in to the mythology of the children born from the black out, and how they operate behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

Rather than opt for a more horrific angle, Carpenter embraces the science fiction. He boldly delves in to the ideas of aliens, their supernatural abilities, and how these children are only phase one in what may be plans for a massive invasion in the long run. He even thinks outside the box a bit by picturing one of the children gaining empathy and eventually finding allegiance with the human hosts, as he begins to slowly rebel against his group. Carpenter unleashes a very good cast for this reworking, casting Alley in a strong performance, Mark Hamil as the town\u2019s devout priest trying to comprehend this situation, and Christopher Reeve as the heroic doctor.<\/p>\n

Reeve\u2019s performance is incredible at times, as he spends most of the film trying to find the logic behind this event and soon submits to the extraordinary circumstances, using his intellect to fight the superior minds of these beings. I remember \u201cVillage of the Damned\u201d being considered a limp reworking by Carpenter initially, but upon second glance, John Carpenter\u2019s version of the original story is compelling and absolutely entertaining.<\/p>\n

The Scream Factory release is packed for fans of the film, or for folks that want to honestly take a second look at Carpenter\u2019s treatment. \u201cIt Takes a Village: The Making of John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned\u201d is an excellent forty nine minute look behind the production of the film. There\u2019s a very thorough and detailed behind the scenes exploration, with discussions with the cast, and director Carpenter, along with wife Sandy King. The featurette covers the gamut of the film\u2019s production, including the experience of working with Reeve and Hamil, and how Universal sabotaged the editing for the final film, and pushed up the release.<\/p>\n

If this film is a hollow representation of what Carpenter planned, I\u2019d kill to see his actual vision. \u201cThe Go To Guy: Peter Jason on John Carpenter\u201d is a fifteen minute interview with character actor Peter Jason who\u2019s gone on to star in seven Carpenter films, and discusses in great length, his career and work experience. Sean Clark greets us with \u201cHorror\u2019s Hallowed Grounds\u201d a twenty minute feature where Clark visits the California town where the film was shot. There are twenty four minutes of vintage interviews and Behind the Scenes, which was carried over by the original DVD release. Finally there\u2019s a two minute still gallery, and the original theatrical trailer in Standard Definition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a shame that John Carpenter\u2019s remake of \u201cVillage of the Damned\u201d isn\u2019t more highly regarded. If it were his own adaptation of \u201cThe Midwich Cuckoos,\u201d it would be placed alongside his other apocalypse or alien films like \u201cThey Live,\u201d or \u201cPrince of Darkness.\u201d I don\u2019t think Carpenter\u2019s film is better than the original George […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collectors-den","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20474,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20471\/revisions\/20474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}