Village of the Damned: Pretty damn awful (Spoilers)

This movie came out when I was a teenager and it is one of the last, if not THE last film that Christopher Reeves starred in before his horse-riding accident that left him paralyzed. It was actually very close to the wrapping on filming of this movie that the infamous equestrian accident happened.

I remember hearing about this movie when I was younger and although the trailer looks plain stupid now, it was very intriguing at the time (1995) but I guess it wasn't enough for me to go and watch it because I only just watched it yesterday for the first time.

I am sure that Reeve was not very pleased about the fact that this film actually capped his legacy of many awards and of course being the most beloved Superman in most people's minds. He wouldn't actually say much about the film and I suppose that is understandable seeing as how he had much greater concerns at the time being paralyzed from the neck down and all.

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The story is that in a very small city in California called Midwich is struck by a blackout at a certain point in the night that renders a bunch of people in an affected area unconscious from 10pm to 4pm the following day. Those who were driving at the time crashed of course, but for those who were on foot or just hanging around, they simply fainted. This applied to all the animals as well.

Crews were sent in to investigate but regardless of the amount of protective gear they wore, everyone who crossed a certain threshold experienced the same phenomenon and in one scene and officer had to be pulled out by a rope.

At this point in the film the story is still interesting and well-done because the Sci-Fi had an element of mystery and we were left to guess what it could possibly be. What happened next is when the absurd begins.

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Following the "blackout" incident, 10 women in the city fall pregnant at the same time and subsequently give birth at the exact same time. Some of these women are older and others are single and haven't done what you have to do in order to get pregnant in the first place. The fact that none of this seems out of the ordinary to the village and also the rest of the world, is pretty stupid.

Then later, the children who are being raised just like any other child, start showing hyper-intelligence and also they all have very white hair. Nothing out of the ordinary here, right? No reason for anyone to be alarmed at all!

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We are introduced to a situation as how the kids are able to turn on their headlight eyes and control the mind of anyone they choose, making them do anything that the children want. This includes causing grievous harm to their own parents.

Now call me overly sensible if you want but I think that if I returned home from my job as a physician (Christopher Reeves role) and my wife told me that the baby used mind control to force me to put my arm into a pot of boiling water, my child that was born under very strange circumstances and has impossibly white hair and was born at the exact same moment as 9 other kids who all look exactly the same, some alarm bells might be going off at this point...

But nah... the people in the village carry on as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

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Lo' and behold the children are left to carry on, even after they caused several people to kill themselves and at this point the village is finally starting to understand that there is something out of the ordinary about these youngsters but nobody actually does anything about it such as flee the city in terror or sneak up on them to kill them. That is except for the bizarrely cast Mark Hamill as Pastor George. George, who is a religious man, is the only person who musters up the courage and good sense to kill these kids, but of course is conveniently discovered by them as he is lining up the shot.

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_{isn't it ironic that essentially "the force" was used on Skywalker himself?}

As the film bumbles on it is revealed that the children are actually an alien species and there are multiple other colonies around the globe that they have the exact same thing going on. The other cities have been razed by the government as we are told by Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley) who is a veterinarian in the city that also doubles as an informant for the CIA or some other government organization. Apparently, the destruction of those other cities was successful, but this one village that we are privy to is apparently the only one where they send troops on the ground in a very obvious manner that raises the alarm of the mind-controlling children very early on in their tactics.

It would probably be entertaining if it weren't so stupid.

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Prior to the government attacking (and they brought at correction center bus with them as if they were going to put the kids in jail or something) the citizens of Midwich literally take to the streets with torches and pitchforks as if this was the 18th century or something. This is after they are already aware that the alien kids are able to control their minds.

_{This was towards the end of the time period where all movie trailers had to be narrated by a male with a deep voice}

Should I watch it?

I think the only reason why anyone should subject themselves to this pile of poo is to see exactly how terrible it is, or maybe to do it for the reason I did: To see the last film Reeves made before his accident. It is awful in every way and the ending (which I will not reveal) is predictable and the execution of it where they show what is going on in someone's mind, is just staggeringly bad.

I will say one good thing: The children in the film are fantastic actors and actresses and I hope they went on to make other things later in life.

The film lost tons of money and was panned by basically everyone.