First of all, the kids in this version are so goofy that it almost ruins the movie just because it's so hard to take them seriously. That lead girl is pretty convincingly evil, but as the movie goes on and with repeat viewings (yes, I've seen this movie several times. Feel free to judge me
), she becomes more and more clownish. This is kind of like the remake of Psycho, it just wasn't necessary, and also like Psycho, The Village of the Damned is a film that's better in black and white. Shooting it in color takes away a lot of the potential that the movie had to be really creepy and scary. It brings the story itself too much into the light of reality, and the subject matter of a film like this does not stand up very well in the light of reality. This is probably why so many horror films fall completely flat. Maybe if they would come out with more horror films in black and white the genre would not be in such a sad state. With horror films especially, less most definitely is more.
There were some other things changed or added in this version that were just frivolous and unnecessary. The increased violence, for example, did absolutely nothing for the story and just reminds us of some disappointing changes that have taken place between the audience of the 1960 version and the audience of the 1995 version. Have we really decayed so much that we need more and more violence in the movies to keep us entertained? I shudder to think.
This is one of those movies that I watched when I was in high school and absolutely loved it. I was fascinated with the whole concept of a whole town losing consciousness because of some passing cloud of evil and a few of the women turning up mysteriously pregnant. I loved the mysteriousness of the movie, I was terrified out of my seat, and was overall enormously impressed. But I was in high school. I loved a lot of stupid movies in high school. Kind of like Armageddon. Now that I know something about movies I can look at something like this with a little bit more of an informed point of view. The story is undeniably interesting, but it was just as interesting in the original.
I am sad to see that the great John Carpenter, one of the better directors of the horror genre, has directed a completely unnecessary remake of a film that could only be made worse with the addition of color and all kinds of augmented violence and goofy special effects. They eye trickery that they pulled in this movie was pretty cool, but got real old real fast.
Watch this movie. But watch it for the story, not the color or violence or special effects or even for Kirstie Alley. In other words, just watch the original.
There were some other things changed or added in this version that were just frivolous and unnecessary. The increased violence, for example, did absolutely nothing for the story and just reminds us of some disappointing changes that have taken place between the audience of the 1960 version and the audience of the 1995 version. Have we really decayed so much that we need more and more violence in the movies to keep us entertained? I shudder to think.
This is one of those movies that I watched when I was in high school and absolutely loved it. I was fascinated with the whole concept of a whole town losing consciousness because of some passing cloud of evil and a few of the women turning up mysteriously pregnant. I loved the mysteriousness of the movie, I was terrified out of my seat, and was overall enormously impressed. But I was in high school. I loved a lot of stupid movies in high school. Kind of like Armageddon. Now that I know something about movies I can look at something like this with a little bit more of an informed point of view. The story is undeniably interesting, but it was just as interesting in the original.
I am sad to see that the great John Carpenter, one of the better directors of the horror genre, has directed a completely unnecessary remake of a film that could only be made worse with the addition of color and all kinds of augmented violence and goofy special effects. They eye trickery that they pulled in this movie was pretty cool, but got real old real fast.
Watch this movie. But watch it for the story, not the color or violence or special effects or even for Kirstie Alley. In other words, just watch the original.