CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)

 

(Director: Anton Leader, billed as Anton M. Leader. Screenwriter: John Briley.)

Storyline

Six ultra-intelligent children with a disturbing psychic bond and powers are experimented upon by the British military. This drives the dangerously powerful sextet to flee to a church and warn the military to leave them be, lest they unleash their wrath on the world.

Review

CHILDREN is a sequel to VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) in name only─it’s more of an alternate-take/not-quite-remake work that eschews VILLAGE’s village/mass passing-out/pregnancy set-up and cuts straight to the already-born children with unsettling (at best), terrifying (at worst) powers. The setting has been changed as well, most of CHILDREN’s action happening in dark-and-grimy London, England.

There is a lot to like about CHILDREN: its waste-no-time set-up scenes and tight writing; its well-sketched, well-acted characters, including actor Clive Powell, who appeared in VILLAGE and again plays a differently named boy-leader of the alien children; its evocative score (composed by Ron Goodwin, who also worked on VILLAGE) and its dark, atmospheric setting. Other notable names attached to this film are Ian Hendry (DAMIEN: OMEN II, 1978), who played Dr. Tom Llewellyn, and an uncredited Leo McKern, who played "Inspector" (an uncredited McKern also played Carl Bugenhagen in THE OMEN, 1976, and DAMIEN: OMEN II).

CHILDREN does not cover any new ground story-wise, and if it were a sequel to VILLAGE, it would be a good but unnecessary one. And its church-siege scenes with the six kids─who want to be left alone─run long, ending the film on a familiar and almost whew-the-film’s-finally-over note.

Overall, this is a good movie. Just don’t confuse it for a VILLAGE sequel. CHILDREN inspired heavy metal band Iron Maiden to write the song "Children of the Damned" for its 1982 album THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.