Village of the Damned (1960) on Netflix
Everyone in Midwich falls unconscious. Every woman of childbearing age is found pregnant, and the children are platinum blond with a telepathic bond. Gordon Zellaby's son David is among them.
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- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.3/1021,592 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the English village of Midwich, people drop unconscious where they stand, and so do the animals and anyone who tries to enter. Soldiers seal the area off and find that a canary carried inside goes limp and revives once taken out; a five-mile zone is closed to aircraft. Some four hours later the villagers come round, apparently unharmed. Two months on, Doctor Willers works out that every woman and girl of childbearing age conceived on the day of the blackout. Their pregnancies run fast, and all give birth on the same day to children with platinum blond hair, narrow nails and a telepathic bond with one another. Professor Gordon Zellaby's son David is among the children.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Village of the Damned (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stirling Silliphant wrote the script with Ronald Colman in mind for Professor George Zellaby; Colman died in May 1958, and his widow, actress Benita Hume, later married George Sanders, who was cast in the role meant for Colman.
- British censors required the glowing-eye effects be dropped to secure an 'A' certificate instead of an 'X', so a UK print without them was made, in which the children widen their eyes in close-ups instead of the American freeze frames.
- The children's glowing eyes were made with animated overlays of a bright white iris, optically printed to give a glowing iris with a black pupil, and the technique was used mostly on freeze-frames.
- Six weeks before filming, the project was handed to television director Wolf Rilla, who called Stirling Silliphant's script false-sounding and was given a single weekend to rework it with producer Ronald Kinnoch.
