Village of the Damned Poster

Village of the Damned (1960)

Horror  
Rayting:   7.3/10 15.4K votes
Country: UK
Language: English
Release date: 14 November 1960

In the English village of Midwich, the blonde haired, glowing eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.

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Spikeopath 8 May 2010

Village of the Damned is directed by Wolf Rilla and is a fairly faithful adaptation of the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. It stars George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens & Michael Gwynn. It was originally meant to be an American produced picture starring Ronald Colman but MGM got itchy feet on account of what they deemed as some sinister issues. A couple of years down the line the film was relocated to England and shot on location at Letchmore Heath, with Sanders stepping in for the recently passed away Colman.

The peaceful English village of Midwich falls victim to a strange occurrence that sees the inhabitants fall asleep for several hours. With no clue to exactly what happened or what caused such an event, the villagers are further baffled to find all the women of Midwich have suddenly fell pregnant. Come the births of the children it's apparent that all is not well here in this once sleepy little village.

The 1950s was a great decade for the sci-fi movie fan, with the paranoia of potential atomic war and communist fervour taking hold, a ream of B movie schlockers tapped into this feverish air of mistrust. With the sight of giant creepy crawlies and atomic monsters rampaging across America creating much fun, it's arguably with the alien invasion that 50s cinema garnered its real terror. Enter English sci-fi writer John Wyndham (The Day Of the Triffids), who wrote The Midwich Cuckoos in 1957. Wyndham came up with an original idea to take the alien invasion premise to another level, use children. Horrible, creepy, blonde haired, blank staring, children.

The film in truth is too short to fully do justice to Wyndham's frightening novel, while other issues such as the barely believable coupling of Sanders and Shelley ensures the film has a lot of creakiness within. But it's still a potent bit of sci-fi horror that, come the latter stages, cranks up the creep factor as the children are born and the piece becomes a conventional monster movie. It's here where Rilla does a terrific job of building the dread. Armed with a small budget of under $300 thousand (it was a monster box office smash), the stop frame effects work is surprisingly effective, as are the child actors. Led by the impressive Martin Stephens who a year later would continue the creepy vein as Miles in The Innocents. A more than decent sequel would follow three years later {Children Of the Damned} and a poor remake by John Carpenter would surface in 1995. But it's this one that stands the test of time as a genre classic. Spooky atmosphere coupled with a genuinely intelligent and sinister story makes for an eerie 70 odd minutes of cinema. 8/10

Space_Mafune 30 October 2002

Fmovies: 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?).

ma-cortes 4 February 2012

Some women give birth various strange children with supernatural power and extraordinary intelligence . An suspenseful and interesting premise dealing about several strangely emotionless children all born at the same time in a small village in Midwich . The scene is a village called Midwich in which a rare event overcomes the idyllic location . At the same moment, every single person and animal in town has passed out just as suddenly ; some unknown force has put all the inhabitants of Midwich to sleep. Everybody falls into a deep, mysterious sleep for several hours in the middle of the day. When the army gets involved, they find this force has precise boundaries. A few hours later, this strange force disappears and everyone wakes up. The mystery remains unsolved for weeks, but it has a sequel. Later on , every woman (Barbara Shelley married to George Sanders) capable of child-bearing is pregnant . All Midwich women of childbearing age are unaccountably pregnant . Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long to realise that the kids are not human or humane .And the glowing-eyed children (Martin Stephens , among others) they have will prove to be worse than what they could have feared. The children that are born out of these pregnancies seem to grow very fast and they all have the same blond hair and strange, penetrating eyes that make people do things , all of them have telephatic powers , the stare will paralyze the will of the villagers . They result to be mind-controlling demons or aliens . Meanwhile a government officer (good performance by George Sanders) along with the doctor (Laurence Naismith) attempt to stop their plans of conquest .

This classic Sci-Fi thriller contains chills , suspense , intrigue and creepy events about some precocious deadly children and their quest of power . MGM shelved the project, because it was deemed potentially inflammatory and controversial, specifically due to its sinister depiction of virgin birth . Eerie and strange plot very well developed by the screen-written Sterling Silliphant based on John Wyndham novel titled "The Midwich Cuckoos" that focuses a British village visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Performance is frankly good as main cast as Barbara Shelley and Ronald Colman was originally supposed to star in this film but he passed away in 1958 and was replaced by an excellent George Sanders who married Colman's widow Benita Hume . Exceptional support cast formed by prestigious Brit actors as Michael G. Wynne , Laurence Naismith and very secondary Peter Vaughan as Policeman . Special mention to Martin Stephens as an unsettling little boy , his creepy effect of the glowing eyes was made by matting a negative image of their eyes over the pupils . Intriguing and atmospheric musical score by Ron Goodwin . Furthermore , it packs appropriate cinematography in black and white by Geoffrey Faithful who photographs splendidly the scenarios from the village . This suspenseful and thrilling film is well directed by Wolf Rilla . Rating : Very good , providing pleasant screams for the viewer . Essential and indispensable seeing for Barbara Shelley and George Sanders followers .

Other renditions based on John Wyndham novel titled ¨The Midwich cuckoos¨ and well adapted by Stirling Silliphant are the following : A nice sequel titled ¨Children of the damned (64)¨ by Anton Leader with Ian Hendry , Alan Badel and Barbara Ferris . It's subsequently mad

Anonymous_Maxine 9 September 2000

Village of the Damned fmovies. 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.

MartinHafer 5 June 2005

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.

BaronBl00d 11 January 2002

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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