Horror Double Feature: Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned

Dandy adaptation of John Wyndham's even dandier novel. A mysterious force knocks out everyone in the small English town of Midwich for several hours. After they awaken, they eventually discover that every woman of child-bearing age is pregnant.

The pregnancies advance far too quickly to be normal. And the children that are born, who mature far too quickly -- well, they're a bunch of blond-haired, super-intelligent beings with strange, menacing, and rapidly increasing powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Earth has been invaded through a form of cosmic rape. What will the outcome be?

John Wyndham was Great Britain's best-selling master of the apocalypse in the late 1940's and 1950's, though in The Midwich Cuckoos the (near) end of the world is implied but not observed as it was in other Wyndham novels like The Day of the Triffids or The Kraken Wakes. Rilla and his army of screenwriters do a solid job here of condensing the character list and the timeline for a short, tense film -- a lot of things are left out, but you wouldn't note their absence unless you had read the novel.

George Sanders and Barbara Shelley are solid as protagonist Gordon Zellanby and his much-younger wife, who gives birth to David, the leader of the 12 quasi-alien children born in Midwich. Sanders's character is a high-profile scientific consultant to the British government, so he has a seat at the table as debates occur about what to do with the children.

The representation of the children has become something of a pop-cultural icon, even for people who've never seen the film. They're blond, they're eerily well-spoken, and their eyes glow when they're using their mental powers. Zellanby believes they can be educated about human morality and become a boon to mankind. Pretty much everyone else watches in horror as the body count mounts -- like Texas, these kids don't like being messed with. Followed by a lackluster sequel and a pointless 1995 remake starring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley.

I saw this when I was a teenager; thought it was the coolest movie. I saw the color version, hoping for the same excellent thrill. The color version failed miserably. But this original version remains the best horror movie. I love to watch it. The black and white really gives the film punch. The story is solid all the way through and the ending is chilling and yet satisfying. I love this movie and am proud to own it. I saw the sequel, Children of the Damned, I cried at the ending. For me, the sequel was too tragic for me to enjoy. But the Oringial Children of the Damned is a permanent favorite.

Truly this a classic of both science-fiction as well as horror.
Of course the horror is not the traditional bloodletting but rather psychological.It reads like a hitler youths takeover of a
typical english village "while everybody is asleep".these fatherless children all sport blond hair & blue eyes and definite
ideas about how things should run in the now quaranteed village.
They also seem to exhibit no distinct personnalities but more of a "group mind"(hence the fachism analogy)that has no problem crushing all dissidents , even their own parents.

On the technical side I have to again commend Warner for including it's sequel (children of the damned)on the disc , making it a great value.While the sequel suffers in comparison
to the original it's still worth seeing.
We as customers should support Warner & it's "double bill" DVD's
so that other companies might jump on the bandwaggon (so far only
MGM has released some interesting double bills)and increase the circulation of classic films on DVD.