Village of the Damned (1960)

Directed by Wolf Rilla. Starring George Sanders, Michael Gwynn, Barbara Shelley, Laurence Naismith, Martin Stephens, Richard Warner, Jenny Laird, Thomas Heathcote, Sarah Long.

After an unexplainable event that puts the entire population of a small English village into a sudden sleep that lasts for hours, all the women of child-bearing age become pregnant; they eventually give birth to a slew of pale, blond children, stoic and eerie and possessing terrifying powers. Though not without its hokey and dated elements, this classic British chiller still makes for a low-key, unsettling diversion, nicely restrained and written with enough intelligence to overcome the logical fallacies of its premise. Sanders’ voice always lends him a wry but regal bearing, though Shelley is awfully young to be cast as his wife (roughly half his age). Based on a John Wyndham novel (“The Midwich Cuckoos”). Followed by Children of the Damned; remade by John Carpenter in 1995.

78/100