Product Description

This release contains two suspenseful horror films from the 1960s: VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED. See individual titles for detailed information.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31189 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-08-10
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, Dolby, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 166 minutes

Amazon.com
What's scarier than scary kids? Village of the Damned is the definitive scary-kid classic, a truly unsettling film drawn from John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The brilliant opening sequence depicts the sudden and temporary paralysis of a small English hamlet, which is followed by the town's women becoming mysteriously pregnant. The spawn of this occurrence are a dozen eerie, blond-headed children, who are either gifted, evil, or "the world's new people." A splendid outing, not least in the way it catches parental anxiety about this small new stranger in one's home. (It was remade by John Carpenter in 1995.)

Children of the Damned follows up with a story about six more creepy kids, brought from all over the globe to huddle in a old church in London. An excellent opening half-hour gets bogged down in the movie's global-political ambitions (it's very much a cold war offering), but it has its share of shivery moments--the sight of the six youngsters striding down a London street as though they controlled the world is a chiller. But where's the blond hair? The two films are different in tone; Village feels like a fifties sci-fi offering, with an old-school star (George Sanders) and classical style; Children is a film of the sixties, with hipper techniques, urban setting, and young actors Ian Hendry and Alan Badel. But both have those damned kids. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

At Last--It's the Village, People!
A cool double-feature DVD from Warner Home Video.

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED:

As with INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) before it, 1960's VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is a cold-war allegory that uses extraterrestrial infiltration to represent Western fears of Communist invasion. Even so, this flick is still one of the best SF thrillers ever made, and it has become one of the SF cinema classics.

When a group of albino children born under mysterious circumstances begin to demonstrate superhuman mental prowess, they come to be viewed by their community and the military as a threat to the survival of mankind. Though faithful to the novel on which it is based--THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS by Brit SF author John Wyndham--the film is in many ways more frightening, mainly due to simple but effective special FX and outstanding performances from adult leads George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, and Michael Gwynn and from child actor Martin Stephens. Indeed, the unusually reserved and sympathetic performance from Sanders--well known in England at the time for his over-the-top portrayals of villains or cynical antiheroes--makes the film's climax extremely dramatic and affecting.

Caveat: Avoid John Carpenter's far inferior 1995 remake.

CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED:

1963's CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED was originally marketed and is still often regarded today as the sequel to the 1960 classic VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. However, the second film's script diverges so drastically from the characters and premise of the first that it is not, in actuality, a continuation of or branch-off from the same narrative--super-intelligent children are the only common story element. While cold-war issues are still addressed, sympathies are ultimately directed towards the children rather than the adults or society at large, reflecting the burgeoning shift from conservatism to liberalism that was then occurring in the West (and especially the United States).

A decent SF film in its own right, CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED just isn't as cinematically effective nor as dramatically memorable as its purported progenitor VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED. In truth, its greatest merit is the fact that it marks the first solo scriptwriting credit for John Briley, who would later go on to win an Oscar for scripting 1982's GANDHI.

The double-feature DVD from Warner Home Video is well worth the price of admission. Not only does it offer anamorphic widescreen versions of both films, each film also includes its respective trailer and a feature commentary (John Briley does the commentary for the film he scripted). Definitely a five-star disc.

Terrifying 60s Horror Classic & Sequel at last on DVD!
"Village of the Damned" is the 60s sci-fi classic steeped in paranoia and set in England's Midwich. It seems that this picturesque district was visited by aliens who secretly impregnated the town's human women. Suddenly, blonde haired clone like boys and girls begin to pop up all over the countryside. These glowing-eyed humanoids have but one purpose - to use their intellectual superiority as mind-control over the adults in order to conquer the world. Top billed are George Sanders and Barbara Shelley as Gordon and Anthea Zellaby. Gordon is first to recognize that the town's children are not what they seem. But will he be in time and of enough strong will to stop this slow plague of brainwashing? The chilling screenplay by Stirling Siliphant (based on the novel, "The Midwich Cuckoos") and nimble direction by Wolf Rilla builds to a climax of unsettling terror that even today holds audiences spellbound. This classic film comes as a double feature with its sequel "Children of the Damned." Moving the location from countryside to a London school for the gifted, a professor (Alan Badel) assembles high I.Q. moppets from around the world for an intellectual experiment that goes horribly awry. The sequel has its merits but it lacks in the visceral and unsettling terror associated with the original. In 1995 "Village of the Damned" was remade by scare-master, John Carpenter with Kristie Alley and Christopher Reeve - but with decidedly predictable and less than stellar rewards.
Warner's DVD is outstanding. The image is remarkably clean, with a very solid and beautifully rendered gray scale, deep blacks and excellent contrast levels. Fine details are fully realized. There is a total lack of edge effects and other digital anomalies for an exceptionally smooth visual presentation. The audio is mono but with a considerable punch to it. For "Village of the Damned" there is a thoughtful and thorough audio commentary by author, Steve Haberman. On "Children of the Damned" we get a fairly thorough reading by the sequel's screenwriter, John Briley.

invasion of the aryan children from outer-space
Truly this a classic of both science-fiction as well as horror.
Of course the horror is not the traditional bloodletting but rather psychological.It reads like a hitler youths takeover of a
typical english village "while everybody is asleep".these fatherless children all sport blond hair & blue eyes and definite
ideas about how things should run in the now quaranteed village.
They also seem to exhibit no distinct personnalities but more of a "group mind"(hence the fachism analogy)that has no problem crushing all dissidents , even their own parents.

On the technical side I have to again commend Warner for including it's sequel (children of the damned)on the disc , making it a great value.While the sequel suffers in comparison
to the original it's still worth seeing.
We as customers should support Warner & it's "double bill" DVD's
so that other companies might jump on the bandwaggon (so far only
MGM has released some interesting double bills)and increase the circulation of classic films on DVD.