Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned

Based on John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos, Wolf Rilla's 1960 Village of the Damned is a British science fiction/horror cult classic that manages to produce more eerie atmosphere and subtle terror with its relatively small $300,000 budget than any number of multimillion dollar SFX-laden gorefests. The story revolves around the people of a small English town, who awaken after a 24-hour blackout to discover that the community's women are all pregnant. The resulting uniformly blond-haired children turn out to be telepathic and telekinetic little devils who are vanguards of an alien invasion. Followed, in 1964, by Anton M. Leader's Children of the Damned--a solid but less successful effort tinged by Cold War politics--Village of the Damned is presented, along with its sequel, on this bargain-priced "horror double feature" single disc boasting very good widescreen transfers (especially Village of the Damned) and solid Dolby Digital mono soundtracks, as well as a pair of fine commentaries (author Steve Haberman on Village and screenwriter John Briley on Children). Highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [Blu-ray Review—Sept. 4, 2018—Warner, 77 min., not rated, Blu-ray: $21.99—Making its Blu-ray debut, 1960’s Village of the Damned features an excellent transfer with DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Steve Haberman. Bottom line: a ‘60s psychological horror classic makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]