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Village of the Damned (1960)

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30 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Aaaaaaaaaaargh!! Those EYES!!, 21 May 2004

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Village of the Damned is a strongly compelling Science-Fiction highlight and easily of the eeriest movies I ever saw. Although it's a very modest and simply made production, the scary-effect of this film is a lot more effective than some of its big-budgeted colleagues. On a random day, the entire English village of Midwich falls into a trance-like sleep. Completely inexplicably, they awake again seemly normal but two months later it appears that every fertile woman in town got pregnant on the day of the blackout. The newborns show a strange resemblance in looks and – what is even more bizarre – they're telekinetic! Due to their amazing intelligence and emotionless behavior, they form a huge threat and freak out the entire little town. `Village of the Damned' is loyally adapted from John Wyndham's novel `The Midwich Cuckoos'. Throughout the whole film, you don't get much explanation and, as a viewer, you're forced to guess at the mystery's origin. Although highly unlikely, the events in Midwich really are alarming and make you feel uncomfortable. This effect is reached through solid tension and macabre atmosphere much more than through special effects. The eerily lit eyes of the ‘children' are the only real effects but they cause a lot more fear than gallons of blood ever could! Village of the Damned also owes a lot of its power to a terrific casting job. Essentially to achieve the obtained scary effect were the children. Well, they did a good job! The offspring looks alienated almost naturally and their appearance literally chills your blood. The concerned adult in Village of the Damned is excellently played by George Sanders. Sanders was a terrific and shamefully overlooked English class actor who committed suicide in the early 70's. He has a got a few other delightful horror movies on his repertoire like `Psychomania' and `Doomwatch' (both are some of his last films). Village of the Damned is a highly recommended picture that'll certainly keep you close to the screen till the end-credits role. Equally recommended is the (unofficial) sequel called `Children of the Damned'. There's a bit more background in that film, as well as some more explicit horror sequences. The 1995 remake by John Carpenter, however, is rather unexciting and one of the most redundant films ever made. Stick to the original and be scared!

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26 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Magnificent, 5 June 2004

Author: Gafke from United States

On a perfectly normal, lovely afternoon in the English countryside, a small town is suddenly taken over by an unseen presence. Everyone within the town - man, woman and child - suddenly passes out cold for no apparent reason whatsoever. Anyone who attempts to enter the town from the outside is also stricken down, yet revive instantaneously when removed from the danger zone. No one, not police or military, can pass the invisible barrier, but within a few hours the strange presence is gone. Everyone seems to be alright...until a few weeks later, when all of the women in town who are of childbearing age discover themselves to be pregnant. Nine months later, a dozen identical children are born to these somewhat suspicious mothers, children with white- blond hair and scary eyes that glow. The children are oddly emotionless and only associate with each other, acting as a single entity. Worst of all, they can make anyone do whatever they want them to do, which often has fatal results. Can kindly schoolteacher (the wonderful George Sanders), whose beloved wife has borne one of these creatures, help the alien children embrace their human half? Or will he have to destroy them all?

This is an absolute masterpiece of paranoia, sci-fi style. The acting is superb, especially by the late and under-appreciated Mr. Sanders, whose compassion and intellect sets the tone for this quiet and somewhat sad little tale. The lovely Barbara Shelley as Sanders loving wife is sweet and totally believable. Indeed, the townsfolk are all very realistic and approachable, kind and simple folk who don't really deserve the wrath of the spooky children who have invaded their small town. Young Martin Stephens, who also turned in a creepy performance in the ghostly masterpiece "The Innocents" is every bit as creepy here as George and Barbara's "son."

Filmed in moody black and white, this movie creeps along with all the menacing stealth of a thick London pea souper. This is an intelligent horror film which deserves better attention. It probably won't be appreciated by people who consider expletives and explosions to be main characters, but for people who prefer horror with brains (and not brains ripped out of skulls) this is the film for them. Fans of George Sanders shouldn't miss this; it's quite a switch from his usual smarmy roles, and a nice switch at that.

Highly recommended!

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23 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Brick wall, brick wall, 3 October 2004
Author: Bucs1960 from West Virginia

This classic low budget, black and white film is right up there with the best of the sci-fi/horror movies of the time. It appears that it was shot on a very low budget ($300,000), thus no special effects beyond the superimposed glowing eyes of the children and the burning house at the end (not much of an effect). But it became a real moneymaker and a cult developed around it. They went on to make a sequel which doesn't live up to the original.

The cast, though limited, is quite good. The ever sophisticated, urbane, George Sanders as the scientist; Barbara Shelley from Hammer films as his wife; and little Martin Stephens as David, putative offspring of Shelley and Sanders. This kid is evil personified and does a bang-up job for such a youngster.

The story involves the village of Midwich and the birth of 12 children fathered in a very strange way that is never totally explained, who are intellectual giants with one purpose.....take over the world. Should they be destroyed or studied?....that's the problem facing Sanders and the government. Sanders comes to the inevitable conclusion and because they can read his thoughts, he must think of a brick wall in order to mask his intent. The ending, although not surprising is still effective.

This film is a keeper and is recommended to all those who like their films straight to the point without all the special effects and computer generated action. It's minimal with maximum punch.

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18 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Eerie little thriller, 1 November 1999

Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

I originally saw this when I was in junior high on late night TV. Those glowing eyes gave me nightmares for weeks! Seeing it now MANY years later, it still scares me. It's very quiet but very spooky. No real on-screen violence, no special effects (with the exception of the eyes) and all talk but never dull. The film is intelligent, doesn't talk down to the audience and handles the subject matter in a very realistic manner. Most people in horror films act like idiots--not in this one! Also some superb acting by George Sanders, Barbara Shelley (as his wife) and those creepy little kids (especially Martin Stephens) helps a lot. Proves a quiet little, goreless film can scare you silly. AT ALL COSTS, AVOID THE 1995 REMAKE!!!!!!! Carpenter's a great director, but you can't remake a great film. See this one!!

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13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
a fantastic and minimalistic thriller, 5 June 2005

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

I am giving this film a 10 based on the "bang for the buck" it provides. Despite having a small budget, few special effects and an unknown cast (aside from George Sanders), it is an engrossing and terrifying sci-fi adventure.

The movie begins with a VERY STRANGE occurrence--a small village just STOPS. All people life within the village stops--machinery, animals and people. And, when the military tries to enter the town, the soldiers just STOP as well--falling into comas. Then, just as suddenly, everyone awakens--none the worse for wear. Or so it would seem, for later, many women in this small hamlet are found to be pregnant! Once these little bundles of joy are born, the fun begins as these brilliant but disturbingly freaky kids slowly scare the crap out of everyone--especially as they walk, talk and look alike and speak as one (sort of like an evil version of Huey, Dewey and Louie)! And, it turns out, they are apparently unstoppable and up to some sort of evil (though exactly what they intend is uncertain--but it MUST be bad considering their evil proclivities)!

NOTE: Do NOT see the supposed sequel, Children of the Damned. It's terrible. Instead of the kids harassing people (such as making them crash their cars into walls or blow their heads off), the kids are misunderstood and only want to live in peace!! What crap--I want murder and global domination!

Another NOTE: Do NOT see the recent remake of Village of the Damned. It lacks the subtlety of the original and just does NOTHING to improve an already great film.

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18 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
George Sanders Made this a Classic Film!, 4 October 2004

Author: whpratt1 from United States

This is a great Classic film mainly because of the great movie star George Sanders(Gordon Zellaby),"Hangover Square",'45, who unfortunately took his own life. In this film Sanders plays a professor and has the great pleasure of raising a child with Barbara Shelley(Antnea Zellaby), who turns out to become a child with glaring eyes and a very bad temper! It seems the children in this film seem to grow at a very rapid pace and have great hidden abilities to do just about everything they want in controlling the minds of all ADULTS! In 1960, this was a great Horror film and captivated the movie goers. This is truly a great Classic Film to enjoy!

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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A great classic thriller, unfortunately overshadowed by the spectacular psychological thriller released the same year - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho., 9 September 2000

Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China

Village of the Damned is a very well-made thriller that seems to have been overlooked because of the sheer magnitude of its competition - Psycho. Both of these films are testaments to the idea that low budgets are very capable of producing great films. It is not the size of the budget that matters, it is the skill of the filmmakers and the actors. Village of the Damned makes use of a variety of very easily done but also very effective special effects, such as the boundary across which all people and animals lose consciousness, the creepy eyes on those kids, and their hypnotic powers.

The discussion of the exact same phenomenon happening to a few remote towns all over the world does a lot to show what these kids can do, and it increases the dramatic tension of the film as a whole. Cheaply made, but also very well made because a lot of thought was obviously put into it, Village of the Damned is a timeless thriller, even in black and white. When you watch a movie like this, if you are the kind of person who is so superficial about your movies that you refuse to watch black and white films, keep in mind that black and white photography REQUIRES good acting, to put it in the immortal words of Orson Welles. You can't have black and white photography and bad acting, the film would never work. Village of the Damned takes black and white photography and fills it with excellent acting, a fascinating story, and good direction that makes me wonder why this was the only film that Wolf Rilla ever directed.

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11 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
This is what happens when you don't beat them enough., 19 June 2005

Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A cheap, well executed British SciFi film about a cohort of superintelligent, mind-reading children growing up in a small English village.

The original title of the story, I think, was "The Midwitch Cuckoos," a less exploitative but far more appropriate title than "Village of the Damned." We may think of cuckoos as a cute wooden thing that comes out of a gingerbread clock and makes funny noises to announce the time, but that's because we are not birds. Real cuckoos are brood parasites. They lay eggs in the nests of other species of birds. The other birds fecklessly hatch them. And, man, are the cuckoo hatchlings ugly -- gray, featherless, sinewy things that immediately go about the business of rolling the other eggs out of the nest to get rid of the competition. They are born evil.

In this movie the cuckoos are children. Their mothers were impregnated by -- well, by some kind of extraterrestrial infrared hypermolecular cosmological incubus. Anyway, all the women of Midwich become pregnant during a blackout period that encompasses the entire village for a few hours. It's chilling from the outset to see others try to enter the village and flop down as soon as they cross an invisible boundary.

These kids aren't ugly though. They all have blond hair and magnetic eyes. And what one of them learns, the others know immediately. (Curiously enough there is an unsupported notion now going around about this happening in a couple of monkey communities, called something like "the index monkey hypothesis.") But handsome or not, they can immediately solve one of those Chinese-box puzzles in which you have to slide panels around, up and down, until you expose the inner drawer. It always takes me ten times as long as it take them, which makes me want to exterminate the little buggers.

I won't go on for too long about the story, though. This is an intelligent science fiction thriller. Here are these dozen or so kids, who have powers beyond the natural and need no one except each other. Like autists they don't show any affection for anyone or indeed any emotion at all, unless determination is an emotion. Their biological mothers mean nothing to them, the supposed "fathers" even less.

What they seem to want as they grow into preadolescents is to be left alone except for what tutoring George Sanders as the requisite professor can give them in earthly knowledge. They're mortal enough. An independent community of them has been destroyed in the USSR. And they're dangerous too. In three instances -- one accidental, two deliberate -- a villager almost kills some of them, and he dies the way he intended them to die.

Why are they here on earth? Nobody knows. If the kids know, they're not telling. National leaders sit around in conferences wondering what to do with them. It's not easy to put a bunch of 10-year-olds in prison, let alone destroy them. It's not just morally difficult, it's practically difficult too because, after all, these kids can read the "front part" of everybody's mind. (They're working on the back rooms too.) Sanders proposes that the government give him a year to teach them in the local school and to study them, and the wish is granted.

But eventually Sanders comes to realize that when they are grown the children will have all the power and knowledge they need to take over the entire world, and maybe that IS their goal. They show nothing in the way of humane impulses. If they only kill when they are threatened, well that can change as soon as they pick up some of the values of the world they're now living in. Yes -- ruthless fascist dictators seem about the right slots for them. I can't readily visualize them as Gestalt psychotherapists.

Sanders decides that they have to go, but it's a problem because, although he's about the only person in the village they feel any trust for, they can also read his intentions. And naturally if he succeeds in ridding the world of these kids, he must go with them because, really, how can you murder these beautiful intelligent children and go on living with yourself. In order to accomplish his goal, he must think of nothing but a brick wall, so they can't read his mind. But they are suspicious and their collective power begins to cause the brick wall to crumble -- too late.

I said this was a low-budget flick and it is. There are hardly any special effects to speak of. The production couldn't even afford to pay a stunt man for a full body burn. The performances are fine, but the direction is no more than efficient, and the art direction and photography project a chilly and grimy atmosphere which seems to have occurred naturally.

I also said it was intelligent and it is. It's not exactly a horror flick because it has no monsters or murderers and it's not exactly science fiction in the usual sense because it takes place in the present and there isn't a robot in sight. What it does is use improbable events to pose a series of important moral questions. Nobody would argue that these kids are likable. And maybe their Daddies were nothing more than a shower of golden coins or a stream of photons. But they look human and in many ways act it. They don't want to die -- they know about mortality.

They certainly DO seem dangerous but they haven't done anything irredeemably evil yet. Sanders decides that there's nothing wrong with them that a darn good blowing up wouldn't cure and we applaud when he manages to carry out his plan. But he's making an awful lot of questionable assumptions. Do they deserve to be killed en masse? Would YOU kill them all?

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Them Their Eyes, 11 January 2002
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

A small countryside village in England experiences a time period of several hours where all living things lie lifeless and helpless. Anything living that connects within this sphere of lifelessness gets the like treatment. Everyone soon awakens from whatever happened, and soon the women of child-bearing years all get pregnant and are all due on the same day. Village of the Damned is one of those discerning, intelligent science fiction films of yesteryear that tends to leave much to your imagination in terms of gore and violence as well as make you think and ponder important questions about the limits with which humanity should go to procure knowledge. The children are decidedly very creepy as their eyes glow when they are angered. Martin Stephens as George Sanders' boy is particularly good as he looks and speaks with such class and distinction yet has the conscience of a cold-blooded, calculated killer. Sanders is also very good in his role as a man torn between bridging the field of knowledge with the unknown and protecting mankind from foreign/alien harm. His wife, played with credibility, is Hammer beauty Barbara Shelley. A great British science fiction film and certainly one of the more thought-provoking ones around.

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Stuff..., 30 October 2002

Author: Space_Mafune from Newfoundland, Canada

at least if you're a science fiction and horror fan. There's a great build-up here and a very satisfying climax. This has a wonderful eerie feel reminiscent of the feeling one gets watching "the original Outer Limits". The story feels a little bit more like "the Twilight Zone" however with the questions of morality, right and wrong it raises. This film might not appeal as widely to non-genre fans but it's classic great stuff for the fan. Best scenes involve the eyes--it's a very effective nightmare when it's your own children who are the evil ones(or are they?).

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