Rent Village of the Damned (1960)

Classic, Creepy and Great - Village of the Damned review by GI

A brilliant and creepy psychological horror film with a restrained plot that works really well. Set in a small rural English village where one afternoon a strange phenomena affects everyone in the village when they all black out. Everyone recovers with no apparent side effects but a couple of months later it seems that all the women of childbearing age are pregnant even though it's an impossibility for some of them. Twelve children are born a few months later and develop at an accelerated rate and appear to be of high intelligence, they are similar in appearance and soon the villagers begin to fear them. One of them a scientist (George Sanders) who's wife has given birth to one of the children tries to find out why they are so different. This is one of those cycle of films that appeared in the late 1950s and early 60s that delved into the paranoia around technological developments, radiation and atomic energy and like Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956), this is one of the most original and being set in quaint old England gives it a pagan feel of the supernatural. What appeals most about this film is the clever avoidance to over explain the plot leaving the viewer to make their own assumptions but whatever you decide is behind the strange happenings this remains a very unsettling film and a first rate British film. It's a pity the women who give birth to the children and are emotionally and socially damaged by the experience are somewhat sidelined in favour of the superstitions that the menfolk develop but this is arguably a result of the need to divert the audience away from the rather closeted subject of childbirth and appease the censor. A 1964 sequel and a 1995 remake changing the setting to small-town America are not a patch on this original. A film well worthing checking out if you've never seen it.

Chilling and immersive - Village of the Damned review by VG

A beautifully designed, very British, very neat and very chilling tale of the uncanny, Cold War fears and paedophobia.

Brilliantly Effective Spooky 1960 Britflick Horror from a Classic Novel - Village of the Damned review by PV

This is in the top 20 of films everyone should seem together with Night of the Demon too.

Forget the later remake or the new woke multiculti Sky mashup TV series - I refuse to watch that drivel. The whole POINT is all the children are white and blond. Alien. THAT is the point, so colourblind casting is yet again just wrong. And as silly as casting a white ginger-haired or Chinese actors as Zulu warriors...though we all know THAT would never happen... That is thus racist, non?

I watched this as a child of maybe 11 and remember the brick wall scenes clearly - it educated me re the possibilities of film. I am so glad I watched it again. It is a PERFECT film. Has to be seen in terms of the Cold War too which is highly relevant. USSR the enemy of the West then. The threat of nuclear war ever-present.

Maybe watch with classic original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL too. Another classic based on fear of commies and nuclear war and space programmes etc.

Loving the lack of pc in this too - a doctor asking several people for a cigarette after helping a woman give birth LOL. 1960s eh? reference to 'Eskimo' too. All white men in charge - which makes a change from these days when they are rare in films tbh.

The actors playing the children are superb - though they all just get a credit as THE CHILDREN at the end. Wonder what happened to them...

Adult actors superb and perfectly judged too. Just p[erfect.

I suspect this film and the novel it came from influenced The Omen too.

5 stars. One of the best films ever made.