gavin6942 Scientists discover that there are six children who each have an enormous intelligence. The children are flown to London to be studied, but they each escape their embassy and gather in a church.While this sequel will never have the sort of cult following the original has gained, it is not bad in its own right. What it does is create a story that spans nations, making a not so subtle argument about the advantages of working together rather than being at odds with one another. Coming out in 1964, this was no doubt a jab at the Cold War.There is also the theme of self-preservation. One character remarks that if the children are allowed to grow up and have children of their own, they would some day inherit the earth. This would be an affront to humanity. Or at least humanity as we know it... evolution, which may be great on the whole, looks terrifying to those who are left behind.

Robert Thompson (justbob1982) Version I saw: UK DVD box set release Actors: 6/10Plot/script: 6/10Photography/visual style: 6/10Music/score: 6/10Overall: 7/10Children of the Damned is widely known as a not very good sequel to 1960's Village of the Damned. I found that it had definite problems, and was generally weaker than the original, but it seems to me to be a perfectly good film in its own right.It's not a conventional sequel either. While close enough that it might reasonably be accused of plagiarism if it did not credit the original (and the John Wyndham book upon which it is based), the two share no characters, and have different directors and writers. In addition, the plot of Children makes no reference whatsoever to the events of Village, and in fact, the miraculous powers of the mysterious, eerie children obey different rules too. Children of the Damned is not even based directly on a book at all: Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos' has no sequel. In almost every respect, they are effectively completely separate tales.The directing is pedestrian and, while the script has some good lines and commendable pacing, its Cold War paranoia theme had been done before and better in the likes of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It also exhibits some uncertainty as to its genre, beginning as a buddy detective (weak) comedy, then edging into spy thriller, before the sci-fi/supernatural elements take over. While this is not necessarily a disaster (witness From Dusk Till Dawn's exuberant mish-mash of genres), it does not bode well.The acting is possibly the biggest problem. As I have said, the two main characters at the start interact like buddy detectives, but their banter is not very funny, for a start. More significantly, the cut-glass 'received pronunciation' English accents common in film and TV at the time were OK for Village's wealthy rural setting, but seem incongruous for inner-city London.Finally, while it is disguised by a new plot device of making the children almost mute, they are evidently less well-drilled, losing the most eerie qualities of the wonderfully atmospheric Village of the Damned.Finally, I was very disappointed by one detail that underlies the story. The children initially inspire fear and suspicion because of their uncanny intelligence, and the implication seems to be that they are right in this. Intelligence is the best of things, not the worst, and I frown upon anything that portrays it so blatantly as dangerous and scary.

Toronto85 Children of the Damned may be a sequel to 'Village', but it really is a very different story all together. In COTD, the children are not evil little alien minions like the ones in 'Village'. It is very hard to tell if the children are the bad guys in the movie. They don't kill humans in this one unless they are at risk of being attacked by those same humans.Like the original, the kids are very intelligent and keep to themselves. The children in COTD lack in the spooky department though. They were much more effective in Village of the Damned with their blond hair, the way they spoke, and even their movements. Of course doctors want to find out what these kids are. They eventually discover that they are human. They test the cells of one of the boys they kill. It is human, but a much more advanced one. The cells are advanced by a million years.Children of the Damned lacks at building up the characters. In Village, there were root-able characters but in this one it's all so straight forward. The "human" characters are actually the bad guys in COTD, so we never really relate to them or want them to succeed over the children. I also thought this one dragged on a little much compared to Village of the Damned. It's a decent sequel, but a pretty average watch. It failed to keep my attention throughout.5/10

JoeKarlosi 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 ****