VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED / CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED

Village of the Damned / Children of the Damned (1960)

Starring: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley
Director: Wolf Rilla

Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen

Movie: * * *
Disc: * * *

If you haven’t seen these two 1960s sci-fi horror movies yet, then the chances are you probably know the storyline (children with supernatural telepathic powers) from either the 1995 inferior remake by John Carpenter - also titled Village of the Damned - or a spoof on The Simpsons.

THE DISCS: This is how you do it: two movies on one single disc for the price of one - plus extras! So what if the one movie is a near classic (Village of the Damned, 1960) and the other its somewhat dreary sequel (Children of the Damned, 1964) – and that they’re both in Black & White? The point is that the world would be a better place (sort of) if all movies got the treatment these two movies got. (And it isn’t even one of those dreaded double-sided discs one is always so afraid of smudging when handling them.)

Okay. the extras are a bit on the minimal side: audio commentaries by a knowledgeable film historian and a screenwriter of the second movie plus trailers, but they’re better than a lot of other discs out there. Also, the image – especially for such old movies – is amazingly crisp. Sound is decent too for movies this old.

WORTH IT? Good disc, decent price. However, be forewarned: if you’ve seen these movies as a kid and remember being scared by them, the truth is that they’re simply just not that scary anymore by modern standards.

RECOMMENDATION: Check it out if older SF is your bag.