Village of the Damned Movie Review

Trailer here.

Village of the Damned is a 1960 horror/Sci-fi movie directed by Wolf Rilla and starring George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn and Laurence Naismith.

The film begins in a village called Midwich in England. Everybody in the village suddenly falls asleep. Everyone else cannot understand what is going on. Any person who enters the village suddenly falls asleep too. Major Alan Bernard(Gwynn) comes to Midwich to investigate what is going on. The military are there and they cordon off the village. They send in a plane and it crashes when the pilot falls alseep. All of a sudden, everything and everyone comes back to life. Alan walks into the village and everything is fine.  Professor Gordon Zellaby(Sanders) was speaking to Alan on the phone when he fell asleep with his wife Anthea(Shelley). Alan calls to see them and tells them what happened. The army enters the village and search for answers.

Anthea is pregnant. More women in the village are also pregnant. It dates from the day that the strange event happened. The babies are growing faster than normal. The babies are all born. They have strange eyes. Gordon notices that his son David(Stephens) seems unusual. The children are advanced. They are highly intelligent. Gordon tests all of the children. They are exactly the same. They can make people do things just by looking at them with their flashing eyes. The locals want to do something about these weird kids. The kids know that they are coming. They make one of the locals set fire to himself. Alan goes into their house and he speaks to David. David tells him that he will have to leave them alone. 

Doctor Willers(Naismith) is puzzled. David shows up. He wants to speak to Gordon. He tells him that they have to leave the village. They want to form new colonies on earth. David wants Gordon to help them. Anthea and Alan leave for London. Gordon is alone with the weird kids. He has a bomb. He brings it to the children and he tries to shut them out from his mind. They eventually realise what he is doing but it is too late. He blows them all up, along with himself. Anthea and Alan have returned from London and they see the explosion.

This is a very entertaining film. I really liked it. The cast were great and the story was good.  There have been different versions of the book, but I think that this one is the best. A really enjoyable tale. I will give this a 6/10.