 Hello and welcome to another episode of Frightfully Forgotten Horror Movies, but before we get started, what are we drinking? V for Vienna! Nice. It's a Vienna Lager. Today we're going to bring to you 1960's Village of the Dam. This movie is directed by Wolf Riela, he's actually a German director, and he did lots of stuff, but we're going to mention one short that he did called... Jesse! Jesse! Check it back out, Jesse! Jesse! It's based on the 1957 novel The Midwidge Cuckoos by John Windham. George Sanders is in this, and he's in a shit-lot of stuff. One of his last movies we've got to mention is Psychomania, or the Death-Wielers. He was also Mr. Freeze in the original Batman series. Barbara Shelley is in this, and she's kind of a horror movie icon, too. She was in Quarter Mass and the Pit. Rasputin the Mad Monk. Hahahaha! Rasputin. and she's in Dracula the Prince of Darkness. Village of the Damm starts off with her main character, Gordon Zellaby. He's talking on the phone with his friend. Suddenly gets all kinda woozy and just collapses. Then it shows different members of this small town, guys riding a tractor just passes out. Woman's ironing just leaves the ironing on and passes out. Burn up her favorite dress everyone in the whole village, just for no reason And goes unconscious Alan Bernard who's on the phone earlier with Gordon goes to the village to see what's going on And he runs into a policeman they get talking the policeman says yeah I'm looking for this bus that never showed up at his destination We don't know where it is and they go but further down the road and the bus is in the ditch policeman gets on his bike to go check it out and Bails on his bike like you did a whole bunch of times last year Yeah, and he wasn't even drunk no anyone that goes past this point Just goes unconscious for no reason they bring in the whole military They got guys with gas masks on the guy with the rope passes out and drag them back in Yeah, flying big planes not much happening in the village in fact nothing's moving at all The plane just Was up out of nowhere everyone wakes up and it's like nothing happened But two months later all the women in the village are suddenly pregnant even women that are still virgins right the doctors are I Won't tell anybody They don't believe the fact that they're still virgins one woman's husband just got back finds out she's pregnant He wasn't there to conceive. He's all fuming at the table He's all drinking all that whiskey We didn't see this pub this awesome looking pub I want to drink there so bad British neighborhood pub It's packed up with all the men because all the women are giving birth at the same time over at the hospital And back in the day while the men didn't go to the hospital Drank They know what's coming All these children are born on the same day and they all kind of have these weird same strange features Also starting to grow really fast and learn like four times faster than the average kid One day Gordon is in one of the rooms of the house talking with some people Loud shrieking screams and they run in find his wife Anthea with her hand in a pot of boiling water turns out that she must have gave the baby Some milk that was too hot and it burned the baby's mouth The baby took his revenge on her three years later We see Gordon starting to study these kids a little more right this oriental puzzle box that you need to go through like ten Steps to open it up and he shows one kid and then he takes the box to another kid You didn't see and he knows how to do it for some reason they all seem to have this telepathic link The kids are walking across the street some guy in a car He narrowly misses one of the kids and the kids turn around The eyes start glowing and the guy just gets into a trance gets into his car and just fucking Floors it right into a brick wall and just the car blows up Like holy shit that guy's brother knows that the kids did that gets himself a shotgun and the kids see this and They make him turn the gun on himself and blow his fucking head off while Gordon and his wife are watching And they're stuck in a trance the military wants to dispose of these kids almost Gordon doesn't quite like this He wants to keep the kids alive and he wants to study them. Give me a year They reluctantly give him the year the townsfolk. They're all in the pub drinking and this isn't right This has to stop. You know, they all barge out with the torches and pitch forks and everything And go to the schoolhouse to I guess end the kids kids fucking turn the tables on them Burn themselves alive like fuck finally the kids need to start branching out and spreading Yeah, and they need Gordon to help them do this That's where we're gonna end the plot you want to see what happens at the end of Village of the Damned and What Gordon's gonna do about all of this keep watching. So why should everyone watch Village of the Damned? I think we got to start with the story story is probably one of the best sci-fi horror stories ever. Yeah, I completely agree. It's up there with the thing You mentioned the thing outpost 31, right? There's nowhere to go because of it's storming out you kind of feel like that here even though you're in a village And there's the expanse everywhere around that you can leave It's almost as if the kids aren't letting anybody go anywhere makes you feel claustrophobic Even though it isn't always open fields and everything, but it still feels claustrophobic Yeah MGM was supposed to shoot this in America with like American actors and politics got involved in because the plot Contained virgin births at the time that was kind of like oh, we don't want to touch that, you know the church will get mad Right who the fuck cares so they actually had to go and shoot it in Britain. I think it works better Well, it takes place there anyways So it works a lot better and the movie is only an hour and 15 minutes long So it really packs a punch to takes place over multiple years Within an hour and 15 minutes crams it all in perfectly exactly. Yeah, this thing is so good The characters are great Gordon's character arc from the start of the movie to the end of the movie from a loving doting father To somebody who decides to end things. Yeah. Yeah, it's great I was happy that he's gonna be a father the kids get born and they're kind of weird But he still loves the kid and then everyone else wants to kill the kids He's the only one sticking up for him. Yeah, but at the end. He's the one. It's like ah fuck. They gotta go For a 1960 film the deaths in this are actually pretty cool You know and even though you don't see everything that happens the fact that it's implied is pretty shocking actually let the guy Blowing his head off. Yeah, the shot of him putting the shotgun under his chin is enough to like on then you hear it You see everyone's reactions to it pretty shocking even though you don't see it Exactly and the fact that nobody can move or help probably even work is terrifying Yeah, you're forced to watch even though you don't want to these kids are fucking evil, man There's also a moral debate too. How are you gonna bring these kids up? What are you gonna do with them? What's the right thing to do? Found it funny that nobody chose to let them develop and grow and live their lives and see what happens It's either let's use them to our benefit as part of like a military action or kill them fearing what you don't understand Hey, that's exactly what this movie is about how like town It's like a witch hunt because it's beyond their control. They feel like they have to end it But what if these kids could really benefit society? They don't even want to think about that They just want to think about let's let's end it because we don't understand it So it's a real neat moral debate in this. It's almost as if the kids are Bringing up the parents the kids are in charge the kids are in charge totally and the parents have to do what they say Them being kids they need to be brought up. They couldn't live on their own. No. Yeah, and so I like that too There's the dynamic there the movie looks amazing Like you kind of forget that it's a black-and-white film because it shot so well Even though it's black-and-white you can almost see the colors just because it's lit so well like the countryside You can see the green even though it's black and white. There's no real dark scenes in this movie Which is interesting because it's a horror movie. Yeah, usually you'd expect a lot of dark Yeah, seedy scenes right bright it all happened in the daytime Which I've always liked to because you know bad things can happen during the day this movie did have a sequel and it was called children of The Damned it's good, but it's okay. It's not as good. It's not as poignant Yeah, this movie and there was also a remake that was done by horror movie legend and master John Carpenter Which actually isn't all that great Surprisingly also it doesn't surprise me too because this movie is good enough like this movie I think is a masterpiece. It doesn't need to be remade exactly even someone as good as John Carpenter remaking it There's nothing that you can really make better or build upon or do better. It's just kind of like yeah Leave it. It's not like the thing where the thing needed an update. This doesn't need an update. No not at all It seems phoned in. Yeah. Yeah, you just kind of okay. Let's do it Let's fulfill the contract obligation and just be done. Yeah, it's got some great actors in it No, Christopher Reeves in it. It just has this kind of like made for TV feel to it where it's no spark You know if you haven't seen Village of the Damned definitely check it out. I'm surprised. It doesn't make more lists or anything It's fucking fantastic. Exactly. Yeah, you know, it does everything Perfectly. It's a great story. I can't think there's not one thing I could Say this flawed about this movie at all definitely up there with the greats Yeah, even if you're one of those people kind of like a black and white movies Fuck check it out. You won't even notice it's in black and white. It's it's a masterpiece and I think everyone's got to see it Until next time keep drinking Now you're thinking I hope there's not shepherd's pie in my knickers