After a weekend at a science-fiction convention it seemed quite right to watch a classic SF movie, and given thatVillageofThe Damnedis a short SF film that made it double-plus good.

VillageofThe Damnedis a film adaptation of John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cockoos. John Wyndham wrote a number of interesting and thought provoking SF novels including The Day of the Triffids. The Midwich Cockoos is equally jammed packed with ideas and concepts, many of which were ditched from the film simply because a film cannot be an extended discussion of evolution, not if you want to entertain the audience.

The movie starts off in the deep end straight away. Even as we are being introduced to the people of the small village a mysterious and unseen force causes everyone to fall deeply asleep. The force is indiscriminate, rendering men, women, children, and even animal unconscious. Major Alan Bernard is on the telephone with his brother in law Professor Gordon Zelleby, when Gordon is struck by the force and collapses in mid-sentence. Bernard drives to investigate and discovers the effect when he witnesses a policeman passing out as he passed the sharp zone of effect for the unknown power. The military is mobilized, but before the mystery can be solved the effect abates and everyone in Midwich awakens, cold but otherwise seemingly unchanged by the event.

The plot takes on a sinister tone when two months later it is discovered that every fertile woman in Midwich, including Professor Zelleby’s younger wife Anthea, is pregnant and the conceptions all date to the day of the event. Once the children are born, mankind faces a cold and merciless threat.

Made in 1960,VillageofDamnedmanaged quite well with its limited budget and special effects of the era, producing a film that did not rely on spectacle but rather on character, ideas, and a growing quiet tension. This was a movie I happily introduced to a number of people to by way of the San Diego Vintage SF club. (A club I sadly now longer have the time for, and one I truly miss.) Naturally, because it is an older film and in black and white, the story was readapted to the screen  in 1995 by John Carpenter, but that movie is a pale imitation and is to be avoided. If you want to see Village of the Damned, and you should see this classic SF film, then please make sure you watch the original.