What to Watch — Halloween: Village of the Damned

Watch out, George Sanders! There’s something not right with those blonde kids! TCM has planned during its expanse of horror movies on Halloween, Monday, a perfectly bizarre tale of alien offspring: Village of the Damned. A British town’s female inhabitants start bearing emotionless children nine months following a strange occurrence during which all inhabitants of the locale –human and animal– pass out. The incident is investigated by people from outside the town who discover that everyone who entered the village’s perimeter during this “time out” fall unconscious. 

Village of the Damned (1960)

The 12 children are born to all child-bearing women in the town around the same time and have similar features. They are also developing at a faster-than-normal rate. Their eerie eyes often upset normal people and they begin using their collective telepathic powers to not only read minds but control them in some cases.

Like many old horror movies, Village of the Damned is not scary in the same sense that we use the word for movies today. There are no monsters jumping out from around corners or bloody axe murders. Instead the film is just disturbing by the simple suggestion that such beings could exist. The children are also unsettling in their appearance, which is also a simple aberration from the norm. Sanders is enjoyable as ever as one of the brood’s “fathers” who ultimately will save the earth from their destruction.

Just think of a brick wall to protect your thoughts.

• Village of the Damned is set for 8 p.m. ET Oct. 31 on TCM.