30 Years Ago, Mark Hamill Headlined A Horror Legend's Underrated Sci-Fi Thriller

Actors work hard to avoid being pigeonholed into roles similar to their most notable characters. After the original "Star Wars" trilogy had made Mark Hamill known to the world as intergalactic swashbuckler Luke Skywalker in the late '70s and early '80s, he teamed up with horror maestro John Carpenter for the 1995 thriller "Village of the Damned." The village in question is the small North Carolina town of Midwich, where Reverend George (Hamill) frets to his wife Sarah (Pippa Pearthree) about needing finger paint for the town's fall festival.

Worries about finger paint soon turn to deeper concern, as a mysterious event brings simultaneous waves of sudden deaths and pregnancies in town, and that concern turns to abject terror when the resulting children turn out to be unearthly, murderous monsters. Hamill was joined in the powerhouse cast by Kirstie Alley and Christopher Reeve; it was the last film released before Reeve was paralyzed after a horse-riding accident. The 1995 version of "Village of the Damned" was a remake of a 1960 film that placed Midwich in England and starred George Sanders and Barbara Shelley. The original was a fairly faithful adaptation of John Wyndham's 1957 novel "The Midwich Cuckoos," but Carpenter's interpretation introduced new characters and moved the town to the United States. This allowed him to cast Hamill along with Reeve and Alley, but robbed audiences of the chance to hear Luke Skywalker attempt a British accent.

"Village of the Damned" placed last in our ranking of every John Carpenter movie, and its critical reception and box office performance justify that position. It shares unimpressive 28% approval ratings from critics and audiences at Rotten Tomatoes and earned just $9 million in box office receipts from $22 million in reported costs. The original is much better regarded, with a 93% approval rating from critics and 78% from audiences at Rotten Tomatoes. The original also fares better with IMDb viewers, with an average score of 7.3/10 vs. the 1995 version's 5.7/10. As for Mark Hamill, he was quite busy otherwise in the mid-to late '90s with dozens of animated voiceover roles and appearances as himself on "The Simpsons" and "Just Shoot Me!"

In the new millennium, Hamill made a cameo appearance in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and  had a slew of additional voice performances leading to his final two appearances as Luke Skywalker. Those came in "The Last Jedi" in 2017 and as a force ghost in "The Rise of Skywalker" two years later. He's stepped outside the Star Wars universe and the equally familiar realm of voice acting since, earning an Astra Midseason Movie Award nomination as best supporting actor earlier in 2025 for "The Life of Chuck." He also stars as The Major in Steven King's "The Long Walk," threatening teenage boys with being shot if they don't keep pace on a forced march.