Village of the Damned

"What Demonic Force Lurks Behind Those Eyes?"

1960 1h 17m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🔥

93%

CERTIFIED FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 524🍅93%Rotten Tomatoes●77Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 20,103

HorrorScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.

“What Demonic Force Lurks Behind Those Eyes?”

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Cast

George Sanders
Gordon Zellaby
Barbara Shelley
Anthea Zellaby
Martin Stephens
David Zellaby
Michael Gwynn
Alan Bernard
Laurence Naismith
Dr. Willers
Richard Warner
Harrington
Jenny Laird
Mrs. Harrington
Sarah Long
Evelyn Harrington

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Wolf Rilla
Writers: Stirling Silliphant, Ronald Kinnoch, Wolf Rilla
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 77-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $2M — a 10.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

66 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Damned Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Wolf Rilla, shot by Geoffrey Faithfull. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ron Goodwin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Wolf Rilla directs. Geoffrey Faithfull behind the camera. Ron Goodwin scores. Gordon Hales cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 77-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $2M — a 10.9× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
466 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
6Part of the "The Damned Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7Directed by Wolf Rilla, shot by Geoffrey Faithfull. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Ron Goodwin. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Gordon Hales shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10George Sanders and Barbara Shelley and Martin Stephens carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "What Demonic Force Lurks Behind Those Eyes?".
12IMDB entry: tt0054443 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13Classified under 15 themes, including "suicide", "based on novel or book", "england", "parent child relationship".

The technical file

Cinematography: Geoffrey Faithfull
Original score: Ron Goodwin
Editing: Gordon Hales
Makeup / hair: Eric Aylott
Runtime: 77 min · 1h 17m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $200,000
Box office: $2,175,000
Return: 1088% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Village of the Damned (1960)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 77/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 20,103 votes
MPAA: Approved

Awards

2 nominations total

Part of

The Damned Collection

We have met the enemies, and they are the children. The offspring of aliens who secretly impregnated human women terrorize their parents or anyone who defies them. Armed with glowing eyes, these humanoids develop at an alarming rate and use astonishing powers of mind to assert their supremacy.

Also by

Wolf Rilla

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Sierbahnn2026-05-18
★ 8/10
Spooky world building with a local anchor. This movie is genuinely creepy, and while this particular version of it doesn't give itself that much time to elaborate on certain themes, it still gives you more than enough leeway to understand how creepy and scary these children really are. The effects are pretty darn good for a movie made in the late 50s and they hold up pretty well given what they attempt to do. The casting and direction is solid and while the ending is a bit uneven, it is a magnificent movie overall. This is one worth seeing.
BrideofBlob2026-10-04
★ 7/10
It has a very tedious first half hour with all the time jumps which for me made the narrative very non-entertaining. The opening was great though, I loved that, and I does get better throughout, I thought the performances were good, especially the child actors who manage to be genuinely creepy villians (and it's a rarity for a child to creep me out). The cinematography was decent enough with a noticeable high point during the aforementioned opening, and the atmosphere was very strong throughout the second half. Some interesting concepts were explored too that are really quite thought-provoking and mature for a horror film of this era. I understand it's influence on the genre and it's undeniable classic status and I did like it, but it could've been better.