Children of the Damned

Clive Powell as Paul.

Children of the Damned (1964) is not a sequel to the 1960 science fiction classic Village of the Damned, but rather a rethinking. That's a good thing for the most part, as I'm not sure where a sequel could have gone. The second film takes the original's themes and extrapolates them to a global scale.

The subject once again is a group of super-intelligent children who appear to threaten the existence of the human race. Whereas Village of the Damned explored this theme in a social microcosm (a small English village), Children takes place in London and focuses on a group of super-children from various countries. Ian Hendry and Alan Badel played a pair of scientists who "discover" Paul, a British youngster who becomes the children's leader when six of them band together in a deserted church.

Alan Badel and Ian Hendry.

Initially, Hendry and Badel's characters work together to protect the gifted children from those who would use them for nefarious purposes. But Badel eventually concludes that the world is not ready for such intelligent beings and the unpleasant reality is that they must be destroyed. Hendry, though, remains optimistic that a compromise can be reached and the children's true purpose uncovered.

I'm not sure why screenwriter John Briley (Gandhi) goes out of his way not to reference the events in Village of the Damned. It could be the hint that alien forces had something to do with the unexplained pregnancies in the first film. In Children, the implication is that the youngsters are simply humans who have somehow skipped ahead several generations. Of course, that still doesn't explain how the children were conceived without fathers.

Like The Day the Earth Stood Still, religious references dominate the film. The children have no human fathers, they eventually "live" in a church, and one of them is apparently resurrected from the dead. In the film's climax, Paul reveals that the children are there to save mankind by dying. These elements enrich the film, though one wishes that they would have been explored more fully. (There are rumors of a slightly longer ending that provides more clarity.)

Barbara Ferris with children in the background.

Children of the Damned is a better film than I remembered and it holds interest throughout. However, it's missing the emotional power of Village of the Damned and ultimately remains a footnote to one of the 1960s best science fiction movies.

The Town of Midwich Becomes the Village of the Damned

There’s nothing to distinguish Midwich from any other rural English village—except that one day, every living inhabitant passes out for four hours. A man slumps over the steering wheel of a tractor as its runs in circles. An unconscious telephone operator doesn’t hear the constant ringing of incoming calls. Water overflows bathtubs, irons scorch clothes, and a stuck phonograph record repeats the same musical notes over and over. Then suddenly, everyone wakes up and all seems normal again.

Except it isn’t, of course. A month later, every woman capable of bearing a child is pregnant. Twelve perfectly healthy children are eventually born, each with blonde hair, “arresting” eyes, and narrow nails. At the age of 12 months, one of them opens a Chinese puzzle box. And what one learns, they all do—immediately—as if they share the same consciousness.

Few films can match Village of the Damned for its eerie opening and original premise. Much of the credit belongs to John Wyndham, who wrote the source novel The Midwich Cuckoos (as well as The Day of the Triffids). However, director Wolf Rilla builds on Wyndham’s ideas by giving the film an otherworldly quality. Some of his images are disturbingly hypnotic, such as the sight of the Aryan-like children, walking like a pack, through the quaint village. Likewise, his use of natural sound—even the opening credits roll over church bells instead of music—gives the film a different aural quality.

George Sanders portrays the only sympathetic father (as you can imagine, the “fathers” have difficulty accepting the children). Sanders’ character, though, appreciates the children’s tremendous intellectual potential. He and his son, David, may not love each other in a conventional sense, but they admire and respect one another. In contrast, David has little need for his coddling mother, though he is always polite to her.

As David, young Martin Stephens gives a fine performance. One of the best child actors of the 1960s, Stephens had enough screen presence to hold his own against Deborah Kerr in The Innocents (1961). He had the unique ability to act like an adult trapped in a child’s body.

Village of the Damned is an unconventional science fiction film, so don’t expect answers to the questions it poses. A 1964 sequel, Children of the Damned, expanded on the notion that the children are feared mainly because they’re different (a theme also explored in Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive movies). John Carpenter directed a lifeless remake of Village of the Damned in 1995.

(Incidentally, co-writer Stirling Silliphant had an interesting career. He created the TV series Route 66 with Herbert B. Leonard and wrote most of the episodes. He later won an Oscar for In the Heat of the Night, had a boxoffice smash with The Poseidon Adventure, and became a martial arts student and friend to Bruce Lee. Silliphant, Lee, and James Coburn conceived a martial film called The Silver Flute. It was eventually made as Circle of Iron with David Carradine in the role intended for Bruce Lee.)