Product Details

• Actors: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Naismith
• Directors: Wolf Rilla
• Writers: Wolf Rilla, John Wyndham, Stirling Silliphant, Ronald Kinnoch
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• VHS Release Date: April 27, 1995
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301977858
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,862 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This moody little sci-fi classic has it all over the competition when it comes to possessed tykes with telekinetic powers. Midwich's mysteriously hatched brood bores into the subconscious both with their eyes and with their creepy Hitler Youth-like presence. Based on John Wyndham's 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos, and starring George Sanders as the most skeptical of the "miracle" parents, Village gets off to a rousing start when the isolated town of Midwich is cordoned off after some invisible knockout gas descends from above. A few weeks later, every female of childbearing age is pregnant. Much anger and consternation ensue, especially in those families for which the blessed event isn't a blessing.

Nine months later: a town full of blue-eyed, golden-haired cherubs with telekinetic and telepathic powers. The kids mature at an alarming rate and travel the streets in packs. Anyone who looks at them sideways meets with a violent accident. Barbara Shelley, Sanders's wife, is scolded by her child; a motorist who is deemed a threat winds up driving into a wall.

The film is especially refreshing in these days of computer- generated visual effects. Director Wolf Rilla, working from a script cowritten by Stirling Silliphant, generates unease the old-fashioned way: through clammy atmosphere and character development. The opening sequence, in which the military attempts to figure out the extent of the Midwich epidemic, is especially unsettling. --Glenn Lovell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic horror!, December 2, 1999

By	"rynnfrink" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This movie is fantastic, and, like Psycho, should never have been remade. The entire movie has an eerie feel to it, beginning when everyone in the tiny village of Midwich, suddenly and simultaneously, passes out. Nine months later, several women give birth to platinum blonde children, precocious both mentally and physically. The children also posess an alien power which enables them to hypnotize and control the minds of anyone they please. In addition to that, the kids have no consciences, nor emotions. That was the most chilling part for me: They didn't think twice about what they did, and would stop at nothing to do what they needed to do. The acting is superb, especially David's. If you want to watch Village of the Damned, skip the remake and head for this one - you won't regret it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 1960, what a movie year!, March 2, 2001

By	Calle (Sweden) - See all my reviews

The best-known horror movie from 1960 is probably Alfred Hitchcock's `Psycho'. But a number of other very good movies were made that year. One of them is `The Time Machine', and also this one, `The Village of the Damned'. I very much like the opening scenes where everybody falls asleep and the policeman falls to the ground when walking into the village. The sleeping man on the tractor and the phonograph adds to the `spooky' feeling of the movie. The rest of the movie is very good too, but not quite as good as the opening. The ending is a little abrupt and sudden and I would have liked to know a little more of what happened afterwards, maybe. The children look very weird and funny, with their white hair and big, hypnotic eyes and give the movie an eerie feeling.

Overall, this is a very good movie. I gave it a four, but if I could, I would have given it four and a half. I really recommend you to see this movie. It is a classic. Maybe I should read the book and go see the sequel (`Children of the Damned') and John Carpenter's remake now...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent film version of THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS, October 16, 2002

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

John Wyndham is today remembered primarily for his two excellent English Sci-fi classics THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS and THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS. Both were made into enduring Sci-fi films, but VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is by far the better of the two (as well as the better of the two film versions of Wyndham's books). There are several reasons this movie stands out.

First, there is the incredible contrast between the everyday, matter-of-fact attitude of all the village's inhabitants and the rather amazing children who are born to its female residents. The village is so utterly average and unspectacular. The matter-of-factness extends to the visual style of the film as well. Some of the more compelling scenes occur early on when no one is able to enter the village without passing out. There is no milking the scenes for effect, such as when an airplane flies over the village, and slowly plunges to earth, the pilot having apparently fallen into a trance. The way several people experimentally explore the edges of the village serves to intensify the mystery.

A second reason the film stands out are the way in which the children themselves are conceived. They are genuinely creepy, with their vacant expressions, blonde, Nazi-like demeanor, and strikingly clear eyes.

Finally, the movie succeeds because George Sanders does his usual magnificent turn as the lone person the children seem to trust, and the one person who does not seem to fear them. Both his character, and the manner in which he interrelates with the children are crucial the overall success of the film.

Although more Sci-fi was produced in Great Britain in the 1950s and early 1960s than many might realize, this is probably the finest of the bunch. Not merely that, it is one of the finest Sci-fi films of the era.