Customer Reviews

Children of the Damned [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While many people seem to think this movie is a sequel to Village of the Damned, it really isn't. This fact should be clear to anyone who has seen both films. Children of the Damned is actually a completely different take on the same basic theme presented in Village of the Damned (kids with super brains and psychic powers wreaking havoc). There is no continuity between the two films. In Village of the Damned, women have alien children artificially implanted into their wombs. Children of the Damned creates the same problem by having children mysteriously born with a mutation that causes them to be a million years ahead of ordinary humans in the process of evolution. One should also notice that all the children in Village of the Damned were blond. This is not the case with Children of the Damned. This movie is well acted and suspenseful. It is a solid piece of early 60's black and white horror. In my opinion, it is not quite as good as Village of the Damned for two reasons, the first one being that the story is very vague about the cause of the children's existence and what is motivating them to terrorize people. The second reason is that this movie is simply not as creepy as Village of the Damned. All that having been said, It's still a great movie if you like old sci-fi and horror flicks, so definitely see it!

I like both versions of Village of the Damned. The children are eerie and a little scary, so cold-blooded and cruel. The children in this movie, six children from different countries staying in an abandoned church in London, don't look as eerie and seem to be confused rather than evil. The small town in the first movie is also a more interesting environment than the big city in this sequel.

The acting is quite fair but the screenplay is far from as good as the one of the first movie. The cinematography is quite good, but this sequel should have been better, but it's not a bad movie, watch this if it is on TV but don't pay too much to see it. If you have seen neither of them, watch Village of the Damned, it's quite much better. I give this movie 6 points of 10. I wouldn't buy this movie.

There is the unfortunate but understandable tendency to judge the merits of THE CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED against its highly successful predecessor, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. In the latter, director Wolf Rilla created crackling suspense with the birth of a brood of telepathic blond children who are clearly the result of extraterrestrial intervention. Their mission was to create more of their own kind; hence the mutually antagonistic Darwinian confrontation between them and humanity. With the former, however, director Anton Leader shifts the focus from the why of the children to the how. Several times, a human scientist asks the children, "Why are you here?" Each time, the reply is noncommital. For the most part the children are eeriely silent, and it is only toward the end that they can verbalize, however imperfectly, their mission. Just before the inevitable bloodbath, the children's spokesboy Paul notes: "We are here for the same reason you are." This reply raises more questions than it answers since humanity is here only because as a species human beings have run roughshod over all competitors.

This film is not meant to be a sequel to the earlier VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, despite the similar titles and storyline. CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED is a stand alone film that is typical of the British thrillers of the mid 1960's. The production is starkly filmed in harsh shades of black and white with an earnest cast that delivers considerable suspense, even if none of the actors is known to American viewers. Both films suggest that humanity is quite willing to meet all threats to its safety with a singlemindedess of purpose that is at least as fixed as any the children could produce.

Perhaps Children of the Damned would have been a lot more effective had it not been for the heightened expectations created by the original Village of the Damned. By itself, it's not a bad little chiller, combining strong elements of suspense, horror, some unintentional humor, and adequate special effects. The plot is a bit too predictable and the action too slow in developing. The action/horror sequences lack the surprise and unpredictability of the earlier film, but are decent in their own right. This is a perfect three-star effort, not too good, not too bad. If you really like modern variations of gothic horror, you'll enjoy Children of the Damned. If you only like truly good horror films, or your tastes lean markedly in another direction, this one probably isn't worth the effort.

Intelligence experiments of children being conducted by the United Nations roots out Paul, a quiet boy in England that shows signs of being an absolute genius. Like assembling different shaped pieces into a box in 37.5 seconds, whereas an adult might take 2-3 hours kind of genius. Ever more bizarre is the discovery of five other children around the world with identical test results as Paul's. Bizarre to the second power: all the children come from mothers who have no idea how they got pregnant in the first place, with one claiming to be a virgin prior to the mysterious bun in the oven manifesting. Agamogenesis, anyone? When the tykes convene in an old church, the standoff thus begins between mankind and... well... emotionless children with awesome mind control capabilities, creepy, glowing eyes when provoked and who are well overdue for a timeout. A not bad sequel to the superior "Village of the Damned" that seems to be not much more than a cut and dry extension of the previous story. I'll go as far to say that a couple of times, it just got plain dull (there really was no need for this film to be 12 minutes longer than the first). It also didn't help that the story was more impersonal than its predessessor, where conflicted families dealing with their unusual children added emotional attachment for the viewer. Again, not bad, but definitely no "Village". 5.75/10

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 John 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.

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.

Are these children still the progeny of alien visitors? Apparently not this time around, 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. Just plan on looking into your own heart and mind to find the answer because the film wants to have it both ways (or as many different ways to explain what is going on as you can come up with here). In the end what this film most has in common with "Village of the Damned" is the conclusion.

"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. Still, if what you are interested in is a science fiction film that functions as a Cold War allegory, skip this one and go directly to "Invasion of the Body Snatches" and "The Thing From Another World." If you want children who are damned, then just go back to the original.

This movie was great and very suspense! I think it took imagination and a lot of thinking! You never knew what was going to happen and I had to take breaks just to calm myself down! I would recomend this to a lot of people! 12 and older is just the age you have to be!