Village of the Damned (1960)

Village of the Damned (1960)

6/10

Starring

George Sanders

Barbara Shelley

Martin Stephens

Michael Gwynn

Directed by Wolf Rilla

Way back in 1960 before Christopher Reeve decided to join Hollywood, the Village of the Damned was made and it was a massive horror film then, but a thriller will be the rating now. The movie was creepy by its own rights and very interesting to watch.

If you decided to compare this movie with its 1995 remake which starred Christopher Reeve, I beg to say you are not setting a fair comparison. The 1960 movie was set in black and white which comes along with its own spectacle adding thrill.

Here is a movie which was a hit for MGM in the 60s, gaining $2,000,000 in the box office based on a $320,000 budget.

The movie is based on The Midwich Cuckoos book by John Wyndham in 1957 and its directed by German Director Wolf Rilla (this movie was his best critical wise). Rilla also worked on the adaptation screenplay and made the movie start out creepy and remain creepy until the final scene.

The director didn’t even bother to lightning the thrill or let out a little joke here or there, the movie was straight on a path to scare you or leave you shaken from the start to the finish.

The creepy way the children were and how much the people wanted to hate them and Professor Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders) wanting so much to study them and understand where they came from and how they were able to achieve such things as they did itself was mind boggling.

The movie starts with us seeing the people of Midwich drop to the floor unconscious for reasons unknown. Prof. Gordon was on the phone with his brother-in-law when he fell unconscious, his brother-in-law (is in the British service) inability to reach him made him drive down to Midwich to see what was going on.

On his way he met a local constable who was cycling to the town to investigate a missing bus. David (Gordon’s brother-in-law) saw the constable collapse the moment he got close to the bus. He ringed the military at once and they discovered that the whole town had collapsed and any venture near the town from the sky or ground will warrant the person unconscious.

Things couldn’t get any stranger when the whole town just arose from their slumber. Two months later all the women eligible for child bearing became pregnant. After three months all the women delivered babies who had the same hair and the same gaze.

The children grew rapidly and had psychic ability. Prof. Gordon discovered these abilities as well as the ability of the children to be interconnected and read minds.

Soon the whole town was against these children and wanted to kill them, but the children also had an offense ability, the ability to control people.

Village of the Damned is a great movie, enjoyable even now 56 years later.