Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

John Carpenter's fourteenth big-screen feature Village of the Damned (1995) has previously been released on Blu-ray from a 2K scan by Scream Factory in 2016 and by Fabulous Films in the UK, Koch Entertainment in Germany, and Elephant Films in France. To read my original thoughts and analysis of the Scream edition, please refer to the first link above.

Bad seeds were planted in Midwich.

Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory's recent "Collector's Edition" of Village of the Damned arrives as a two-disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray set, which comes with a slipcover that replicates the film's poster art from Universal's LaserDisc and DVD releases. The BD-100 (disc size: 73.9 GB) and BD-50 stem from a new 4K transfer that's struck from the 35 mm original camera negative. The feature is presented in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) on the UHD. Cinematographer Gary Kibbe's photography appears in its native 2.35:1 on both discs.

Scream's Blu-ray from eight years ago had noise reduction applied that gave the film a more glossy look. The recent transfer restores the picture's original textures. Grain isn't coarse or heavy but retains a fine layer throughout. The first time I could really see the grain (in motion) is during the scene where Dr. Susan Verner (Kirstie Alley) addresses townspeople in a school auditorium (see Screenshot #s 30-31). It needs to be pointed out that the 2016 transfer was windowboxed during the main titles. You can see black bars along each side in frame grab #s 14 and 16. Fortunately, Scream has rectified this issue on the the two new discs. You'll notice that the original Panavision lensing is now fully anamorphic sans any thin black bands along the edges (see #s 15 and 17). The first post-credits scene without the vertical bars on the '16 transfer takes place on the road where Frank McGowan (Michael Paré) takes his pickup truck to get a tank of helium. The reason I bring this scene up is notice how much greater definition the sky is given on the new release compared to the older transfer. (cf. #18 with #19). Similarly, the Pacific Ocean is paler and more drab in #16 compared to the restored color in #17.

To help guide you through these large groups of screen captures, a majority of the first 25 in the Screenshots tab is taken from the UHD (downsampled to 1080p and without full HDR) along with some caps from the 2016 transfer as well as the MCA/Universal LD edition, which came out the same year as the movie's theatrical release. Screenshot #s 26-40 compares the LD, latest Blu-ray and 4K transfers. Longer shots on the LD appear hazy and lack the exceptional clarity and sharpness on the 4K.

I watched the UHD and Blu-ray back to back. I upscaled the 1080p image to 4K on my player and grain stood out well at times. The Dolby Vision and HDR are very solid but the second scene at Midwich Cemetery created a disparity in depth between two planes of the image. On the 4K disc, I thought that Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve), David (Thomas Dekker), and the two headstones really stood out in the fore from the sky and background objects. It kind of appeared like a process shot. The more two-dimensional image on the Blu-ray looked more natural to my eyes.
The print derived from the OCN is in almost immaculate condition. The only blemish I could see is an infinitesimal white speck to the right of Dr. Chaffee's left ear in #28. The tiny white dot is not part of the school blackboard. (I studied the 4K transfer on a monitor and could pick it out.)

Fangoria delivered (by far) the best coverage of the film. In a cover article for the June 1995 issue of the magazine, Darcy Sullivan got the scoop on Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) work for the movie. ILM came up with "the creeping shadow" seen in the first section of the film in post-production. ILM originally considered fitting the child actors with special contact lenses but that "fizzled" so the special effects group designed the kids' glowing eyes with computer graphics and fractal animation. Sullivan, who apparently was on location for part of the shoot, wrote that the nine child actors had their hair bleached white. (The actors portraying the children in the eponymous 1960 film all wore wigs.)

The 98-minute feature boasts an average video bitrate of 85.0 Mbps on the UHD while the full BD-100 carries an overall bitrate of 94.5 Mbps. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded Blu-ray sports a mean video bitrate of 32000 kbps.

Screenshot #s 1-13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 31, 34, 37, & 40 = Scream Factory 2024 4K Ultra HD BD-100 (downscaled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 14, 16, & 18 = Scream Factory 2016 2K-scanned BD-50
Screenshot #s 20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 32, 35, & 38 = MCA/Universal Home Video 1995 LaserDisc Letterboxed Edition
Screenshot #s 27, 30, 33, 36, & 39 = Scream Factory 2024 BD-50 (from 4K restoration)

Both discs receive the standard twelve scene selections.

Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround and a 2.0 Stereo mix on both the UHD and Blu-ray. Village of the Damned was originally presented in theaters with mixes of DTS (5.1), Dolby Digital, and DTS Stereo. Since DTS was still a relatively new audio codec in 1995, newspaper adverts of the film's poster art would come with this description: "PRESENTED IN DIGITAL DTS SOUND 6 TRACK DIGITAL." Papers such as the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, the Daily (NY) News, and Newsday printed a legend adjacent to or below the poster specifying which theaters output full DTS and those that only delivered DTS Stereo. I found some listings in the LA Times that played the film in THX-certified theaters.

The average audio bitrates on the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks differ between the UHD and BD. On the latter, the 5.1 averages 2694 kbps and 2.0 averages 1762 kbps. But on the 4K disc, the averages are 4229 kbps and 2010 kbps for the 5.1 and 2.0. When I played the DTS-HD MA 5.1 on the 4K disc, the .LFE emanating from the subwoofer is heard almost immediately. I read a first draft of Carpenter's June 1993 screenplay for VotD and the immersive sound f/x during the main titles is intentional: "HUSHED WHISPERING SOUND, all around us, enveloping us..." Carpenter's script also promised "stiff wind swirls," which both audio mixes deliver. The satellite speakers on the 5.1 also do a very good job of picking up background chatter at the Halloween carnival seen at the beginning. The surrounds also generate cries from the newborn babies.

In a scene between Alan and Barbara (Karen Kahn) in Dr. Chaffee's study, I discerned differences in dialogue levels between the 5.1 and 2.0. Spoken words on the stereo track are louder, clearer, and more audible. Ditto for some scenes in the Midwich Clinic where dialogue is softer and less distinct on the 5.1 compared to the 2.0. I also played the LaserDisc's matrixed surround track and the 2.0 is more amplified than the Blu-ray's stereo mix. In fact, the LD mix produces some thunderous bass which rivals the 5.1 on the UHD! The track on the LD doesn't have the discrete effects that the Surround track has but its sonic characteristics yield a wide spatiality in atmospheric effects.

The original score by Carpenter and Dave Davies deliver their fair share of stingers and zingers. They sound and feel like a loud pound of weight dropped in your home theater on the 5.1 and 2.0 mixes (even more so on the LD's digital track than the BD stereo). Credit should also be given to sound mixer Thomas Causey, sound effects artist Ron Bartlett, and foley mixer Evelyn Hokanson.

The transcription of dialogue on the optional English SDH is complete and accurate. However, there's one subtitling error in identifying a speaker. In the scene at the eye clinic, the track incorrectly says Mara lets out a scream during an eye exam. However, it is really Lily screaming in this scene.

Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Scream has ported over all bonus materials from its 2016 CE and recorded a recent commentary track along with two new interviews.

DISC ONE: 4K UHD

• NEW Audio Commentary with Filmmakers Jackson Stewart and Francis Galluppi - this feature-length commentary was recently recorded by Scream. It starts out very promising. Stewart and Galluppi discuss the filming locales and their earliest memories of seeing Village of the Damned (1995). Both Stewart and Galluppi are friends with composer Daniel Davies, who helped connect them with John Carpenter and his producer wife, Sandy King. Stewart explains how Dave Davies (Daniel's father) and Carpenter came to work together and become friends. Stewart interviewed Carpenter and King for this track and shares some of the tidbits he learned from them. One wonders, though, how much information he gathered from them because he doesn't share that much in the commentary. As the track progresses, several gaps stall Stewart and Galluppi's discussion. They sometimes lose focus on the film and veer off topic. Galluppi shares anecdotes he learned about the production but he speaks without sources or proper attribution. Kudos to Stewart, though, because he said he read the film's original source material (John Wyndham's 1957 novel, The Midwich Cuckoos), apparently in preparation for his talk here. He describes some of the differences between the book and Carpenter's film. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Audio Commentary with Filmmakers Jackson Stewart and Francis Galluppi - this feature-length commentary was recently recorded by Scream. It starts out very promising. Stewart and Galluppi discuss the filming locales and their earliest memories of seeing Village of the Damned (1995). Both Stewart and Galluppi are friends with composer Daniel Davies, who helped connect them with John Carpenter and his producer wife, Sandy King. Stewart explains how Dave Davies (Daniel's father) and Carpenter came to work together and become friends. Stewart interviewed Carpenter and King for this track and shares some of the tidbits he learned from them. One wonders, though, how much information he gathered from them because he doesn't share that much in the commentary. As the track progresses, several gaps stall Stewart and Galluppi's discussion. They sometimes lose focus on the film and veer off topic. Galluppi shares anecdotes he learned about the production but he speaks without sources or proper attribution. Kudos to Stewart, though, because he said he read the film's original source material (John Wyndham's 1957 novel, The Midwich Cuckoos), apparently in preparation for his talk here. He describes some of the differences between the book and Carpenter's film. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Beware the Stare: Writing VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED – An Interview with Screenwriter David Himmelstein (22:04, 1080p) - Towards the end of this interview, Himmelstein briefly describes the short working collaborations he had with two directors on pre-production of Village of the Damned before Universal hired Carpenter to direct it. Himmelstein then summarizes what did and did not happen for the rest of the production. I would have liked to have learned more about the collaborative process he had with the first two directors attached to the film and why he feels alterations were made to his draft of the script. Himmelstein talks about the hot-button issues surrounding the original movie and how global problems changed or shifted at the Cold War's end when he wrote his screenplay. The writer describes some of the scenes that never made it into the film and how they were changed. He also profiles some of the characters, including one whose name was changed after Carpenter took over. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW March of the Children: Composing VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED – An Interview with Film Music Historian Daniel Schweiger (15:01, 1080p) - Schweiger first delves into Ron Goodwin's score for Wolf Rilla's Village of the Damned (1960). He examines musical patterns that are employed in certain scenes. He delivers a nice overview of Carpenter's early scores and other composers the director hired to compose original music for different films. Schweiger speaks about Carpenter's association with Dave Davies on Village of the Damned and musical layers each contributed. He analyzes the "March" theme. Several scenes from the film are excerpted with the score. In English, not subtitled.

• It Takes a Village: The Making of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (49:18, 1080p) - this 2016 doc features interviews with director John Carpenter, producer Sandy King as well as actors Michael Paré, Peter Jason, Karen Kahn, Meredith Salenger, Thomas Dekker, Cody Dorkin, Lindsey Haun, Danielle Wiener-Keaton and make-up effects artist Greg Nicotero. Shout! had asked Carpenter if he wanted to record either a commentary or conduct a new interview about the film and he chose the latter. The participants' comments are intercut with clips from the film along with VHS footage of a deleted scene. This is a well-balanced account of how the film came together. Dekker defends Carpenter's contributions on the film and is the most vociferous of all his castmates, speaking his mind with passionate conviction. Alley, Hamill, and Kozlowski do not appear here so they were probably not available. In English, not subtitled.

• Horror's Hallowed Grounds – Revisiting the Locations of the Film (20:59, 1080p) - in this continuing series included on Shout!'s vintage horror releases, host Sean Clark takes the viewer to many of the locations in northern California that Carpenter filmed Village of the Damned. In English, not subtitled.

• The Go to Guy: Peter Jason on John Carpenter (45:14, 1080p) - Carpenter's frequent collaborator looks back with nostalgia and guffaws at several of the films he's worked on with the director. Filled with many amusing stories. In English, not subtitled.

• Vintage Interviews Featuring John Carpenter, Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Mark Hamill and Wolf Rilla (Director of the Original VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED) (14:20, 1080p upconvert) - a compilation of brief interview segments with Carpenter, Reeve, Alley, Kozlowski, Hamill, and Rilla that were culled from Universal's original EPK. They are presented full-frame with VHS-like quality. In English, not subtitled.

• Vintage Behind-the-Scenes Footage (10:19, 1080p upconvert) - this B-roll footage immediately follows the collection of older interviews. It shows Carpenter directing the actors in several different scenes. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:00, 1080p) - a 16x9-friendly original studio trailer which appears in decent shape. It is in anamorphic widescreen with a very thin black border around all four sides.

• Behind-the-Scenes Still Gallery (2:00, 1080p) - a compilation of twenty or so production stills, lobby cards, ad slicks, and theatrical poster sheets from Universal's press kit and publicity campaign.

Village of the Damned 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In re-watching Village of the Damned (1995), the remake's flaws are more apparent to me than they were when I first saw it in 2010 and again on the first Scream Factory Blu-ray. There are some technical errors when the blackout hits Midwich. For instance, it would seem logical that the electricity in the elementary school where Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski) works as principal would go out as they also should where we see a fully-lit convenience store in the montage of clips. During the blackout, there's an overcast in one part of Midwich but then sunlight shows in another part of town. In addition, I feel that the children's glowing eyes are overdone and tend to wear out their welcome. To his credit, Carpenter varies their colors, but he could have combined some scenes into a continuous sequence where the kids assert their hypnotic powers. On the plus side, Kirstie Alley is very good in a serious, dramatic role here. Original writer David Himmelstein and Carpenter, who to my knowledge penned two script drafts of his own, produce the strongest writing for Alley's character, Dr. Susan Verner. All in all, this version is a solid modern retelling of Wolf Rilla's VotD (1960), which is the better film.

Scream Factory has delivered a significant upgrade in the image department compared to its more processed Blu-ray eight years ago. The prior BD's audio mixes had some phasing issues but those have been cleaned up here. The three new extras Scream has produced are above average but not great. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED. Having more Carpenter on 4K is always a good thing!