Village of the Damned: Difference between revisions

 

 

The tale begins as every inhabitant of the village of Midwich, even the animals, suddenly falls unconscious, and anyone entering the village likewise falls unconscious. The military establishes a cordon around the village, plus a five-mile exclusion zone for aircraft after the pilot of a plane passing overhead falls unconscious, causing the plane to crash. Nobody can enter the village to find the cause - but when everyone in Midwich wakes again, apparently unaffected by what is soon dubbed a "time out," the danger appears to have passed.

''Village of the Damned'' was followed by a sequel, ''Children of the Damned'', in 1963, and a remake in 1995, directed by [[John Carpenter]] and starring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley.

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* [[Bizarre Baby Boom]]: Possibly the first visual media example.

* [[But I Can't Be Pregnant]]: Aliens impregnate every woman of child-bearing age in a small English town. Initial reactions range from joy (from a previously childless couple) to suspicion (from a husband who's been away at sea) to this incredulous reaction from a teenage virgin.

* [[Creepy Child]]: All the mutant children.

* [[Enfante Terrible]]: Guess. Go on, guess.

* [[Evil Albino]]: The children.

* [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]]: The children are implied to be the result of alien impregnation during the time out.

* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: The alien children have these when they use their psychic powers.

* [[Literal Metaphor]]: In the original, the protagonist focuses on the words "brick wall" to hide how he plans to kill the psychic children. We see their attempts to break through his [[Psychic Static]] as a literal brick wall, which slowly falls to pieces as they force their way in.

* [[Oh Crap]]: The children's reaction when they find out what's behind the "brick wall".

* [[Uncanny Valley]]: The [[Evil Albino]] in conjunction with the [[Hive Mind]] and the complete, and utter lack of emotion the children possesses, has this effect on the audience, and even in-universe.

 

=== The remake provides examples of: ===

* [[Creepy Child]]: All the mutant children. The remake tried to fudge this by having one of the boys (the son of the local schoolteacher) lose his female counterpart in childbirth, and thus learn empathy... ''and he's still creepy''

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: In the remake, the children take any pain inflicted upon them, accidentally or otherwise, and force the adults to experience it taken [[Up to Eleven]].

** The little girl who is accidentally given too hot soup, and coincidentally is the leader of the group? She makes her mother stick her arm into a boiling pan of water. And then makes her commit suicide via driving off a cliff.

* [[Hellish Copter]]: In the 1995 film, the children mind-whammy a police helicopter pilot into making a rather abrupt and explosive crashlanding.

** [[Mark Hamill]] is the local minister.

** Don't forget [[Cheers|Kirstie Alley]] as the government investigator {{spoiler|who's forced to cut herself up to death [[He Knows Too Much|for digging in too much]].}}

* [[Man On Fire]]: The minister's [[Holier Than Thou]] wife, Sarah, leads a group that tries to attack the kids while holding a torch. Guess what happens.

* [[Redemption Earns Life]]: In the remake, the one child who refuses to use his powers for harm survives.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]