Quite simply one of the all-time great spooky and atmospheric British sci-fi/horror winners from the 60's, this supremely chilling and engrossing knockout still packs a potent, lingering punch even today. All the young women in the quiet remote English hamlet of Midwich mysteriously become pregnant after the whole populace goes into a bizarre and abrupt 24-hour trance. The ladies give birth to a bunch of odd, emotionless, tow-headed kids with extraordinary kinetic and telepathic abilities. They also have glowing bright eyes, unusual fingernails, and acute advanced intellects. Moreover, the murderous moppets casually kill anyone they perceive as a threat in strange and startling "accidents." Some of the frightened townspeople stand up to the freaky tykes to no avail. It's ultimately up to brave and perceptive military scientist George Sanders (who gives a truly outstanding performance) to put a stop to 'em before it's too late.
Tautly directed with commendable understatement by Wolf Rilla, with a smart and compact script co-written by future Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Stilliphant, gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, a nicely spare and shivery score, an eerily ambiguous tone, a pleasingly concise 78 minute running time, uniformly aces acting from a top-drawer cast (the child thespians are extremely unsettling while Hammer horror queen Barbara Shelley makes for a very charming and pretty damsel in distress), and a genuinely nerve-wracking conclusion, "Village of the Damned" never falters for a minute. The film's smashing success derives partly from Rilla's wisely stark and straightforward execution, partly from the sheer vague creepiness of the intriguing plot (no explanation is ever given for how or why the children were born in the first place), and primarily from downplaying needless flashy special effects razzle-dazzle to emphasize instead the strong and absorbing adults vs. children conflict at the heart of the narrative (this movie could be read as a weird and imaginative fantastic allegory on the generation gap that was a key hallmark of the 60's). A terrific terror tale that's wholly deserving of its substantial classic status.
Tautly directed with commendable understatement by Wolf Rilla, with a smart and compact script co-written by future Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Stilliphant, gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, a nicely spare and shivery score, an eerily ambiguous tone, a pleasingly concise 78 minute running time, uniformly aces acting from a top-drawer cast (the child thespians are extremely unsettling while Hammer horror queen Barbara Shelley makes for a very charming and pretty damsel in distress), and a genuinely nerve-wracking conclusion, "Village of the Damned" never falters for a minute. The film's smashing success derives partly from Rilla's wisely stark and straightforward execution, partly from the sheer vague creepiness of the intriguing plot (no explanation is ever given for how or why the children were born in the first place), and primarily from downplaying needless flashy special effects razzle-dazzle to emphasize instead the strong and absorbing adults vs. children conflict at the heart of the narrative (this movie could be read as a weird and imaginative fantastic allegory on the generation gap that was a key hallmark of the 60's). A terrific terror tale that's wholly deserving of its substantial classic status.