Dan Cross I can't understand the low rating this interesting film has on IMDb either! I just watched it for the first time, and I found it very entertaining, compelling, atmospheric, and ahead of its time. The most interesting aspect of the film is not the cold war intrigue but the war between the old and new generations. The children (with the guidance/power/control of a growing, glowing alien brain) rebel against their military-industrial complex parents. The parents attempt to fight back, resorting to physical violence against their own kids twice in the movie. In the end (mild spoiler alert here) the kids get the upper hand. One of the most interesting lines for me comes at the admittedly heavy-handed preachy ending (what 50's sci-fi film would be complete without a pedantic lecture about the dangers of man and science going too far?). But here, the leader of the rebellious alien-allied children says something about how ALL the children of the world joined together to oppose the military buildup. "You mean all the children in Russia and Prague too?" says one of the military leaders. And this, a full 10 years before Prague spring and the Democratic Convention Riots. Someone saw the youth revolt coming!It's a great looking film too. The landscapes are so bleak and eerie, and the children's faces are so interesting and ambiguous. So much is done with silent looks in this movie! And forget about whatever silly TV shows you might have seen the actors in, the performances are good. Russell Johnson (aka, The Professor) is a great physical actor here, and Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester) is good too. The best performance though is the leader of the children, Michel Ray, who is impressively understated and subtle for such a young actor. This is a smart, well made movie, much better than Invaders from Mars (which has a rating on IMDb exactly twice as high as The Space Children). I say you should definitely give it a chance.

mark.waltz If you instantly think of the 1961 cult classic "Village of the Damned" and its 1964 follow-up, "Children of the Damned", then you are not alone. This is definitely a C-grade variety of that plot with a bit of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" thrown in. A whoosh through the sky gets the attention of a child whose parents are arriving at a nuclear plant where a missile is ready for testing. The parents do not see this strand of something moving through the air, so when the boy disappears to go exploring in beach-front caves, he encounters a strange group of children and a little tiny blob of something that somehow gives them directions to sabotage the launching of this missile. A sign from God? Visitors from outer space? Hopefully not that creepy flem-like blob from a recent Steve McQueen movie that swallows its victims whole and has that ghoulish song about that thing that creeps and glides across the floor.It all unravels in 69 minutes, thankfully enough time to eat a bag of popcorn and laugh at the silly adults who are at first unaware of how the children are acting different all the time. A father chases his son over rocks, repeating over and over how he's going to break his neck when he finds them then literally becomes a frozen pop-circle when he sees the blob. Scientists wonder how the children break into the locked military base, then simply tell them to "scat!" without further investigation. And when the blob, which has gotten bigger, starts batting a single eye, don't be drinking your soda, 'cause you'll douse your TV screen with another sticky substance as you accidentally spit it out in laughter.I know the writers of this movie probably meant well in the nuclear era of the late 50's, but the unintentional humor takes this film all over the place. Throw in such TV sitcom actors as Russell Johnson, Jackie Coogan and a toupee-less Raymond Bailey, and you'll find yourself snickering. When Bailey (Mr. Drysdale of "The Beverly Hillbillies") confronts the eye-batting blob and pleads to be let in on the secret, this film hits its nadir. No fan of "The Addams Family" will take Coogan (Uncle Fester) seriously as he disciplines a child. A biblical quote at the end tries to explain it all but just adds to the ridiculousness of it all.

zetes This film has an abysmal 2.7 rating on IMDb. It's not really that bad, but it is a pretty big disappointment coming from a director who made The Incredible Shrinking Man the year before. This is a smaller, less ambitious film for sure. A meteor lands in a cave on a beach and its alien essence possesses a bunch of children (I think - it's kind of vague what kind of influence the thing has on the children) who then help it stop their fathers from launching a nuclear warhead into space. It's pretty cheesy, but not badly acted for this kind of movie (the kids in particular are far from awful). The sets are very cheap looking. At one point a flashing light causes the shadows of the actors to appear on the matte painting of the sky in the background. It's more forgettable than detestable.

danger_bird1971 I have yet to see this movie un-mstied but would love to as I think it's a pretty damn good movie. This is one of the rare cases of mst3k being way off the mark in choosing this movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved the episode and their were some great riffs but I couldn't help but think that this movie was not nearly as bad as Mike, Crow and Tom (or any of these reviewers here) made it out to be. I will admit thought that on first watching it I did feel that the kids were being somewhat (but not completely) controlled by the alien but on repeated viewings it does appear that that is certainly not the case. I really need to see the unedited, un-mstied version, this is a b-movie classic in my humble opinion.