This is a story about a group of eleven children with strange psychic powers that allow them to control people who are born after a mysterious community-wide blackout causes every woman in an entire community to mysteriously become pregnant.
The Village of the Damned is a remastered version of the popular 1995 horror film Village of the Damned. The movie begins portraying a small community, where people seem to know everyone that lives within the community and many depend on the kindness of their neighbors to help each of them out when needed. People seem to treat each other as family.
Afterwards, in a way that is not totally explained, every person in the community mysteriously blacks out and it is found out that every woman in the village has become pregnant. Given the very frightening situation, the immediate logic is for the woman to terminate these fetuses by means of abortion. However, a woman who seems to be a top-secret government agent offers every family a deal: they can decide to freely terminate their mysterious baby with no repercussions or consequences socially or financially, or they can decide to keep the child and be awarded a healthy allowance as long as they allow their child to be researched and studied on.
It is then found out that each of these children have a mysterious psychic powers that can be used to control people. These powers are used to kill several of the adults in the village who stand a threat to the children or upset anyone of the children in any way.
All of the children are depicted to be as of an advanced species. They have no emotions, they can read minds, and they are strictly concerned about enhancing their species in any way possible, as they are constantly seeing reading the encyclopedias to gain knowledge. There is, of course, a lone, different child among the group. This child, who is raised by one of the main protagonists of the movie, feels feelings such as empathy and it begins to make him sort of an outcast in the group of children.
Overall, the film was mediocre at best. The plot jumped quite a bit and at random parts throughout the movie. In one scene the audience sees the children as babies, and in the very next scene the children are already talking, forming fully-functional sentences that an average high school student would not. The film refused to explain how the mysterious blackout even occurred, how all of these women got pregnant, and barely touched on why the children were so evil and destructive. The only thing mentioned was some curse at the very beginning of the film.
The remastered Village of the Damned had the opportunity to take a simple, flawed story and add depth to the plot to make it a truly emotional, bone-chilling film. Instead, the audience received a visually-enhanced version of the movie and nothing more. Fans of cheesy, old horror films that make them laugh more than anything might enjoy this movie. Those looking to for a bone-chilling experience that want to make them scream would not enjoy this movie as much.
Enough about the movie – it is time to take a look at the Blue-Ray DVD!
Special features:
- It takes a village: the making of Village of the Damned – featuring interviews with director John Carpenter, producer Sandy King, actors Michael Pare, Peter Jason, Merediory Dorkin, Karen Lahn, Lindsey Haun, Danielle Weiner, Thomas Dekker, and make-up effects artist Greg Nicotero.
- Horror’s hallowed grounds – revisiting the location of the film
- The to go to guy: my career with John Carpenter by Peter Jason
- Vintage interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
- Theatrical trailer
- Behind-the-scenes still gallery`
The special features of the DVD will be the most appreciated part of the entirety of the blu-ray. It allows the audience to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of the behind-the-scenes decisions. The interviews are well-done. They are simple, allowing for the audience to easily focus on what each person is saying. What I personally appreciated about the interviews is that it told the audience why some plot decisions were chosen to be used. Even if an individual does not necessarily agree with the decisions, at least there are explanations with logical defenses.
It is always fascinating to find out information about behind-the-scenes of movies. I actually believe a lot of this information should have been depicted in the actual movie. The explanations for a lot of the plot points would have been wonderful to have in the actual movie to explain for example the actions of the children.
Seeing the people who worked on the film re-visit the location who a little surreal. It was pretty cool to see them reflect on all the work they had done, even though they openly admit they did not have to put in as much work as normal due to the perceived high standards of the original Village of the Damned.
