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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Between 1960's "Village of the Damned" and this one, I'd say take your pick. Both are effective and creepy sci-fi/horror flicks, this one primarily so for the virtually silent but menacing children who seem to have no parentage on the father side, and exhibit a super-normal intelligence that defies scientific investigation. The young kid Paul (Clive Powell) was particularly effective as the lead youngster, but I had to laugh during the opening scene when he put together the puzzle cube - what was the point of using a stopwatch to time the effort? The other 'normal' kids didn't even have a half dozen pieces completed yet.What the film should convince one of is that film makers don't need to get elaborate with fancy special effects or mindless physical horror when so much more can be done with a mysterious story line and the power of suggestion. Having some of your principal characters go catatonic from time to time helps too, it creates tension and anxiety the way peeking around a dark corner does when you suspect a demon on the other side. Pretty effective.It's too bad we didn't get a firmer idea of what the kids with the million year advanced brain capability were really up to. The finale made an oxymoron of the term military intelligence, can you imagine a battlefield confrontation between super powers determined by the dropping of a screwdriver?

Children Of The Damned is directed by Anton M. Leader and written by John Briley. It's a thematic sequel to Village Of The Damned from 1960 which was based on the novel written by John Wyndham. Plot finds 6 children identified by UNESCO to have special powers that if used in unison could have devastating consequences for mankind.Interesting and atmospheric if ultimately lukewarm as a whole. Retreading the plot from the superior first film, it's amazing that this take actually has very little to do with the 1960 darling. Confused? Well you wont be watching this since it's very talky and the makers are intent on making us listen. Listen to some moral quandaries, Cold War politics and even a touch of existentialism. All nicely wrapped around 6 not very creepy kids who actually aren't very evil at all. The acting is fine, notably the taut turns from Ian Hendry and Alan Badel, while David Boulton's black & white photography carries a suitable bleakness to it.Well made but all too often dull; where Briley's script isn't as clever as it wants to be, the film is mostly saved by some technical smarts and a boldly gloomy ending. 5/10

When a film is a success, it is almost inevitable there will be a sequel to it. The classic 1960 sci-fi film Village Of The Damned is no exception to that rule and 1964's Children Of the Damned would be that sequel. While any sequel to Village Of The Damned would have big shoes to feel, this film doesn't quite live to the standards set by the original film. In fact, it is easy to say that Children Of The Damned is very much a sequel in name only that, contradictorily, requires knowledge of the original film for it to make sense as well as being a terribly dated Cold War parable.The film certainly has a respectable cast. Ian Hendry and Alan Badel play Tom Llewellyn and David Neville, who both give believable performances as the two scientists who uncover the children and their powers. Barbara Ferris plays the aunt of one of the children who ends up becoming a spokesperson for the children while under their control. Alfred Burke gives perhaps the film's best performance as British government agent Colin Webster whose involvement only makes the situation worse as the film goes on. Together they are a cast that is more then a match for that in the original film.One of the film's problems though is in its title characters: the children. Due to whatever reason, gone are the seemingly normal yet otherworldly and menacing children of the original. These children are the exact opposite. They are utterly normal children from five places around the world who lack any of the otherworldly feeling or menace of the original children. Even the special effect used on the eyes when the children are using their powers isn't really used and, when it is, it just doesn't look stand up to the effect used in the original film. The result is that perhaps one, single essential element of the film that needed to work just doesn't work.The production values of the film are excellent. In particular the stark black and white cinematography of Davis Boulton gives the film a strong sense of atmosphere and menace throughout which helps the film immensely. The production design of Elliot Scott give the film the same feeling as the cinematography, especially in the form of the destitute church the children come to occupy for much of the film. One element that improves in this film is the score by composer Ron Goodwin that, after a rather mixed result in the original film, is never out of place and put to good use throughout. The success of the production values helps the film out immensely.Along with the children, the script is another essential element that ends up having a rather mixed result. If anything, the script presents this film as a rather confused sequel to say the least. The script seems to require that the viewer have seen the original film to understand all the events taking place. Yet the film seems to spend most of its time wanting to distance itself as far as possible from the original film. The result is a confusing mix: the plot and events make little sense without having seen the original film but the story might as well be anything but a sequel. It also doesn't help that the film, by the admission of screenwriter John Briley, was more or less meant to be more of a Cold War parable. The children can be viewed as scientists around the world who the major Cold War powers (represented by the government officials in the film) want to put to use building ever more powerful weapons of mass destruction. While this would be a good idea to have explored somewhere else, this film doesn't really seem to be either the place to do it or even do it well. If anything the script seems to be drowning in good ideas (such as the revelations that come out in the films last few minutes) that are never put to good use. Also the Cold War parable gives this film something the original doesn't have: a terribly dated feel to it. The result is that the script is a rather mixed affair.Children Of The Damned, even when viewed on its own and not as a sequel, is a rather mixed affair. Despite a fine main cast and excellent production values, the film's supporting cast (the children) and its script both are rather mixed in their results. When viewed as a sequel however, the film comes across as a rather confused sequel that requires knowledge of the original film for it to make sense as well as being a terribly dated Cold War parable to the point of becoming a sequel in name only. All this means that, while a decent film, it never quite works either as a sequel or as an original film either and is a bit of a letdown overall.

CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1963)Follow-up to VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) is not quite up to the original, but this sequel takes things a step further as more potentially dangerous, advanced alien children cause concerns to mankind. What's interesting this time is the switch to seeing children of different countries now possessed (India, Russia, America...). There's more of a serious political undertone to this story, which works in its favor. **1/2 out of ****