VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Wolf Rilla. Co-screenwriters: Stirling Silliphant, Ronald Kinnoch.)

Storyline:

Blond children with glowing eyes appear in Midwich, an English village, after a freak incident causes its adult inhabitants to briefly pass out and its women to wake up pregnant.

 

Review

Based on John Wyndam’s 1957 science fiction novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS, VILLAGE may be one of something rare: a perfect film, one that ably mixes horror and science fiction, like John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece, THE THING. Like THING, VILLAGE is tightly shot, visually exciting, every line of dialogue matters, its pacing never lags (while allowing its excellent actors, among them George Sanders and Michael Gwynn, to give their roles story-enhancing quirks), its score (courtesy of Ron Goodwin) is striking as is its ending─as striking as the iconic, eerie image of the children’s glowing eyes (brought about by superimposing a negative image of their eyes on their pupils when their powers were used). Unlike THING, there is no gore, making this a great introducing-the-kids-to-science-fiction-horror movie. Followed by the good but unnecessary non-sequel CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964, also featuring Clive Powell as a spooky child) and a John Carpenter-helmed 1995 remake of VILLAGE.