Village of the Damned

In the coastal village of Midwich, a summer festival is about to take place when the entire population inexplicably faints. Soon, the village doctor (Christopher Reeve) discovers ten pregnancies, including his wife and a virgin. A scientist (Kirstie Alley as the characteristically unyielding, chain-smoking Carpenter heroine) wants to investigate the phenomenon, but events soon spiral out of control: the children, all white-blond and pale, turn out to be highly intelligent and incapable of empathy. They mercilessly use their psychic powers for a higher purpose... Carpenter's neglected remake of a British genre gem relocates the action to California's rolling hills (which he uses as masterfully as he usually does urban settings) and modernises John Wyndham's classic sci-fi novel. (C.H.)