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DVD Village of the Damned / Children of the Damned
What's scarier than scary kids? Village of the Damned is the definitive scary-kid classic, a truly unsettling film drawn from John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The brilliant opening sequence depicts the sudden and temporary paralysis of a small English hamlet, which is followed by the town's women becoming mysteriously pregnant. The spawn of this occurrence are a dozen eerie, blond-headed children, who are either gifted, evil, or "the world's new people." A splendid outing, not least in the way it catches parental anxiety about this small new stranger in one's home. (It was remade by John Carpenter in 1995.)
Children of the Damned follows up with a story about six more creepy kids, brought from all over the globe to huddle in a old church in London. An excellent opening half-hour gets bogged down in the movie's global-political ambitions (it's very much a cold war offering), but it has its share of shivery moments--the sight of the six youngsters striding down a London street as though they controlled the world is a chiller. But where's the blond hair? The two films are different in tone; Village feels like a fifties sci-fi offering, with an old-school star (George Sanders) and classical style; Children is a film of the sixties, with hipper techniques, urban setting, and young actors Ian Hendry and Alan Badel. But both have those damned kids. --Robert Horton
Review(s): DVD Village of the Damned / Children of the Damned
The classic U.K. science fiction chiller and a reimagining on one DVD
"Village of the Damned" is a testament to how a simple idea can make for an eerie film. One afternoon in the small village of Midwich every living being collapses. Major Alan Bernard (Michael Gwynn) discovers the situation and the authorities launch an investigation. Just as they learn that the people are not dead but unconscious, the people revive. Then it is discovered that every woman of childbearing age in the town has become pregnant. In time they give birth to blond haired babies with strange eyes and no discernable human emotions. Clearly there is something strange going on in the "Village of the Damned."
This 1960 classic science fiction film is based on the novel "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham, and represents as they say on the commentary track the H.G. Wells school of science fiction where you introduce one strange idea into the normal world to tell you story of the fantastic. One of the children is born to scientist Dr. Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders) and his wife, Anthea (Barbara Shelley). Zellaby believes that David (Martin Stephens) and the other children must be taught human morality while the military argues they should be destroyed before it becomes too late. Meanwhile, the children clearly have their own agenda and their own way of dealing with those who they perceive as being a threat to them. What that agenda might be is in dispute, but there is no denying that the children are capable of making people end up dead.
There are so many examples of justifiable paranoia in American science fiction films, the paragon of which would be "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," it is interesting to see an English version. I especially like the opening part of the film where Bernard is just trying to figure out what is going on and the rather logical way they go about it (so often the military types are so stupid in these movies, seeing competence is such a treat). Dr. Sanders is not a mad scientist in the traditional sense, but he is blinded to the facts and the film is also unusual in that he becomes part of the solution (cf. Dr. Carrington in "The Thing from Another World"). Director Wolf Rilla, who never made another theatrical film this good, gets credit for sticking to Wyndham's novel although there are aspects of the story (e.g., virgins giving birth) that would be considered rather taboo at the time.
Once you have seen "Village of the Damned" it is pretty much inevitable that you will check out "Children of the Damned," although you will find it impossible to avoid being less impressed with the sequel. Written by John Briley ("Invasion Quartet" and "Ghandi"), this 1963 film makes more sense if you think of it as a re-imagining of Wyndham's original concept. Instead of all these children being born in one place looking the same, this time we have children born all over the place who look different. They still stare and they still control your minds, but now they are not children from a damned village but children from around the world. But are they the progeny of alien visitors? Apparently not, because although their births cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence, it could just as likely be that they are the result of mutation. At least I could make such a reading based on what happens in the film, which goes for a more of a sense of ambiguity regarding why the children are here: are they evil or our saviors? Good question.
Paul (Clive Powell) is from the United Kingdom, Mi Ling (Yoke-Moon Lee) is from China), Nina (Roberta Rex) is from the Soviet Union, Aga Nagolo (Gerald Delsol) is from an African nation, Rashid (Mahdu Mathen) is from India, and Mark (Frank Summerscale) is from the United States. So while there is East and West tensions here there is also a Third World element to the Cold War sub-text, although really it is each nation for itself because allies do not trust each other. Debating the pros and cons are Dr. David Neville (Alan Badle) and Colonel Tom Lewellin (Ian Hendry) while Paul stares in a manner that is either threatening or unthreatening depending on what you end up thinking about the children. "Children of the Damned" is not even close to being a great science fiction film, but if you could forget the inevitable comparisons to "Village of the Damned" it is at least interesting on its own terms and apparently much more worth watching that John Carpenter's remake of "Village of the Damned" from what I hear. Consequently, having both black & white films on one DVD is not a bad deal.
"Why are you here?"
The answer that the Children of the Damned give to that question is the most interesting.
There are only four years between the classic British horror film Village of the Damned (1960) and the sequel, Children of the Damned (1964), but when you watch both movies you see that there's at least a decade (maybe a whole generation) separating them.
Children of the Damned is one of those rare horror sequels that has more ideas in it than the original (like The Rage: Carrie 2, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and Vampires: Los Muertos, for instance, all of which are worth seeing).
Village is an old-fashioned fifties movie; Children is a modern sixties film.
Village is a rural story; Children is urban.
Village has blond alien children who all look alike; Children shows a multiethnic and multinational group of children with different skin colors and languages but the same Mind.
Village is the story of an alien invasion; the Children are "genetic sports" that may be the next step in human evolution - - not Them, but Us.
The "Midwich Cuckoos" in Village of the Damned are a murderous threat to the adult humans around them; The Children of the Damned are the victims, not the aggressors.
In Village, the worst threat from the children is to the "natural" family (father, mother, child); In Children there are no "natural" families except for the one the Children make to protect themselves.
In the Cold War 1950s in the Village of the Damned, authorities in Great Britain (the freedom-loving West) at first only want to study the children, but they receive word that "behind the Iron Curtain" Communist leaders with no regard for human life have tried to massacre "their children" when they couldn't be controlled.
But by the 1960s the Children of the Damned have seen the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the start of the Vietnam War. The Cold War isn't a struggle between good and evil, it's a feud between two greedy superpowers. Now the generals of both East and West try to murder the "their own" children rather than let their superhuman mental powers fall into enemy hands. The children have other ideas, and the film makes it clear they (the children) are only protecting themselves. Every time the children strike out, the authorities (usually British) have tried to harm them first.
Paul's mother (shown as a tramp - - "I think we can safely say that he didn't get his brains from mother") is under his mental control and she says to him, "I want you to suffer the way you've made me suffer." Then Paul plants the idea in her mind of walking into a tunnel in front of a truck. But nothing else Paul or any other of the children do is violent except in self-defense. We see other children (mostly from poor families, unlike the Midwich middle class) who seem to love their parents and whose parents seem to love them without being telepathically controlled. Maybe Paul is just defending himself against an abusive mother. (One theme of this movie is MOTHERS ARE BAD. There's really only one good mother in the movie, and he's a man.)
Two male scientist "friends" (a psychologist and a geneticist) who live together discover the children's powers. (One scene shows them coming out separate bedrooms at night, but they're not fooling anyone. The geneticist walks around the flat carrying a frying pan and trying to strike a balance between Basil Rathbone and Oscar Wilde.)
The geneticist is Oxbridge English while the psychologist is Welsh with an accent - - not "one of us."
The geneticist wants to destroy the children as a threat to homo sapiens' domination of the planet. ("It's the law of nature - - ask any ape.")
But the psychologist asks what if they just want to be poets or lovers? ("Nowadays we find a better use for Shakespeare and Casanova.")
The climax of the movie may not be what a logical species would do in trying to protect itself, but maybe the children are operating with a different logic than we understand. By the time the final conflagration unites the East and West in more ways than one, it's more important for the film to show the inescapable conclusion of the insanity that's gone before.
A Classic
Spooky kids, crazy town. Village of the Damned is a cult classic with those of us that grew up in that era of the 60's. They are very low tech and low budget which can be very refreshing these days. Women suddenly find themselves pregnant and they all give birth to kids that have the same strange powers. They seem to share one mind and use their mental powers to control everyone. What do they want? To take over the world of course! Great creepy fun. Being in black & white seems to add an air of suspense. Children of the Damned is a picture of much lesser quality. It's a 1995 remake starring Christopher Reeves. It just doesn't measure uo to the original. I'd avoid that one if I were you.
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