Reactions
Given an 'A' certificate by the British censors the film opened in June 1960 at The Ritz cinema in Leicester Square, London, according to director Wolf Rilla (interviewed in 2003 by the BBC), it soon attracted audiences, with cinema goers queueing round the block to see it. The 18 June 1960 edition of The Guardian had this to say:
The story is most ingenious and it is told by Wolf Rilla (director and co-author of the screenplay) with the right laconic touch.
Positive reviews also appeared in The Observer (by C.A. Lejeune): "The further you have moved away from fantasy, the more you will understand its chill"; The People (by Ernest Betts), "As a horror film with a difference it'll give you the creeps for 77 minutes"; and Dilys Powell in The Sunday Times on 20 June 1960:
Well made British film: the effective timing, the frightening matter-of-factness of the village setting, most of the acting, and especially the acting of the handsome flaxen-haired children (headed by Martin Stevens) who are the cold villains of the piece.
The American critics were also in favour of the film. Time magazine, December 1960:
Apparently assuming that a picture with only one star (George Sanders) of second magnitude could not possibly be any good, M-G-M is hustling Village around the neighborhood circuits without even bothering to give it a Broadway send off, it is missing a good bet. Based on a clever thriller (Midwich Cuckoos) by John Wyndham and made in Britain for around $500,000. Village is one of the neatest little horror pictures produced since Peter Lorre went straight.
Positive reviews also appeared in the New York Times (by Howard Thompson) "as a quietly civilized exercise in the fear and power of the unknown this picture is one of the trimmest, most original and serenely unnerving little chillers in a long time" and Saturday Review (by Hollis Alpert) in January 1961: "An absorbing little picture that you may yet be able to find on some double-feature bill."
Pittsburgh's Loew Penn Theatre ran Village of the Damned from 18 January 1961, even in the UK the film was still playing in cinemas such as the ABC Regal in Levenshulme, Manchester in March 1961, on a double bill with The Hand (1959) starring Derek Bond.
Read more about this topic: Village Of The Damned (1960 Film)
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