Point by Point: Village of the Damned (1995) 2/10

A remake by John Carpenter of the creepy classic, the story pretty much stays the same - Everyone in a small town blacks out and wakes up hours later. Within a few weeks, it seems all women of child-bearing age in the town are pregnant. They have children who quickly develop into white-haired, hyper-logical, mind-controling devil-kids. But perhaps it's not the devil . . .

The Good: Well, it doesn't COMPLETELY ruin the original movie.

The Bad: But it sure tried to. The casting / acting is sub-par, with Christopher Reeves the only one doing anything resembling a good job, and that's only if you like his style. The soundtrack is distractingly made-for-tv bad. While the first movie kept the story tight and the kids scary, this one wanders all over the place and has the kids almost parodying the oirginal ones. Plus, the colored eyes when the kids are doing their mind control thing are far less frightening than the all-white of the first film.

The Ugly: It's a toss up between a man who passes out on a grill for hours and Kristie Alley's performance. She really is THAT bad.

Points Pondered

• People take it in stride that the kids grow up abnormally fast, are super-smart and seem to be able to read minds. However, they can't figure why all these people seem to have accidents around the children. They are just SHOCKED to find out that they're being forced to commit suicide. These people are idiots.


• It's too bad this is the last movie Christopher Reeves did before his accident. Not Raul Julia Street Figher tragic, but still.


• I always thought of John Carpenter as an awesome director, but then I actually looked at his filmography. Pretty much the definition of hit or miss. Still, he gave us They Live and The Thing (not to mention Snake Plissken) so I guess he's still cool.