I saw "Village of the Damned" in the theater (Fresh Meadows, NY) and several times since. It's an okay movie. I'm a big fan of most of the films of John Carpenter. This is not one of his best movies but it's not one of his worst either. It's a watchable movie. It has more than a couple worthwhile moments. It often feels like a weak Stephen King movie. The cast of B-listers do a nice job. John Carpenter makes this one worth a watch. In lesser hands it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble.

My mother turned on Village of the Damned one evening because Christopher Reeve was in it. I knew absolutely nothing about it beyond the fact that there was a movie by that title. After ten minutes I was completely hooked. After it was over I thought about it and realized there were some flaws, but still, while it lasted I was fascinated. I recommend it.

Well this is an oddball cast, isn't it? Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Mark Hamill - and, of course, regular Carpenter collaborators Peter Jason and George Buck Flower.

It's not bad. But it mostly lacks those Carpenter staples, the tension and atmosphere, that he does so well, and that defines his films.

At least for me, the beginning of the film is the strongest part here: the ominous event of the town falling unconscious, and the unexplained concurrent pregnancies. Once the creepy kids take over the town, and the narrative, 'Village of the damned' mostly just becomes a series of violent deaths and injuries through psychic manipulation, bereft of substantial style or suspense. At no point is it scary or particularly thrilling otherwise, and despite the efforts of all involved, the bulk of the movie trundles along without any real impact.

I'm very much a John Carpenter fan, and this lies near the bottom of his filmography in my opinion. Maybe it's the rose-tinted glasses talking, but I'm inclined to think that's just the nature of the remake--of working with someone else's material instead of his own, and perhaps more specifically with a plot that largely relies on the hit-or-miss horror trope of "creepy kids."

You could certainly do worse, as far as movies go in this genre. But 'Village of the damned' is hardly extraordinary, and unless you're a Carpenter completionist, the best reason I can think of to recommend it is if one wants to watch something without having to really engage with it.