The 1995 John Carpenter movie cursed by bad luck and tragedy: “We can’t release this”If anything, it’s remarkable that John Carpenter made so many great, indelible movies when his career was essentially one long battle against studio interference, outside forces, and plain old bad luck. That said, things were never worse than they were on Village of the Damned, which is a shame, because it’s not exactly his most memorable feature. The incidents began fairly innocuously, though, with the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the local newspaper Point Reyes Light, David Mitchell, being cast in a small role as a reporter. As a result, the town of Point Reyes voted to have its name removed from Village of the Damned‘s credits, and things kept getting worse from there. In an effort to rush the movie out for release in April 1995, Carpenter was pushed aside, with several scenes being removed without his consent, drastically altering the tone of the piece.