After seeing the BBC travesty that claims to be based on John Wyndham's DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS I decided to catch the film version of The Midwich Cuckoos given the more melodramatic title of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and wasn't disappointed . It's a very faithful adaptation of the author's work showing the strength and weakness of Wyndham's writing
Like most of Wyndham's work the theme of mankind trying to survive the presence on Earth of an alien life form is well realised . The aliens in question - a new breed of children - are portrayed as being amoral rather than cruel and belligerent . The problem with this is that people nowadays are far more used to " talking monsters " where they come to Earth and explain their plans and motives to the human characters and The Midwich Cukoos is probably the closest Wyndham came to these type of aliens . Certainly if you read The Kraken Wakes you might be surprised that humanity is incapable of making any kind of communication to the aliens
If there's a downside to this type of writing it's that much of the drama revolves around scientists , military men and government bureaucrats sitting around tables discussing the matters in hand and how to deal with the threat . Much of the film is dialogue driven and for an audience brought up on DOCTOR WHO they might find this slightly boring . It's not helped by an old fashioned feel where the likes of the local vicar being a centre for the community and a scene where a character visits the doctor's surgery only to see the doctor pull out out a cigarette and light up
Perhaps the most effective scene is the opening where the village inhabitants fall asleep and anyone approaching the village also falls unconscious . This gives a very eerie opening installment along with the revelation that several of the female inhabitants have become pregnant . It's a great premise though to be honest once you know where the plot is going it's not as exciting as you expect . The film also has a rather short running time which means there's not much plotting involved . That said at least it keeps to Wyndham's book and is much better than the 1995 remake by John Carpenter
Like most of Wyndham's work the theme of mankind trying to survive the presence on Earth of an alien life form is well realised . The aliens in question - a new breed of children - are portrayed as being amoral rather than cruel and belligerent . The problem with this is that people nowadays are far more used to " talking monsters " where they come to Earth and explain their plans and motives to the human characters and The Midwich Cukoos is probably the closest Wyndham came to these type of aliens . Certainly if you read The Kraken Wakes you might be surprised that humanity is incapable of making any kind of communication to the aliens
If there's a downside to this type of writing it's that much of the drama revolves around scientists , military men and government bureaucrats sitting around tables discussing the matters in hand and how to deal with the threat . Much of the film is dialogue driven and for an audience brought up on DOCTOR WHO they might find this slightly boring . It's not helped by an old fashioned feel where the likes of the local vicar being a centre for the community and a scene where a character visits the doctor's surgery only to see the doctor pull out out a cigarette and light up
Perhaps the most effective scene is the opening where the village inhabitants fall asleep and anyone approaching the village also falls unconscious . This gives a very eerie opening installment along with the revelation that several of the female inhabitants have become pregnant . It's a great premise though to be honest once you know where the plot is going it's not as exciting as you expect . The film also has a rather short running time which means there's not much plotting involved . That said at least it keeps to Wyndham's book and is much better than the 1995 remake by John Carpenter