A Few Words About A few words about...™ Village of the Damned -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Village of the Damned (1960), directed by Wolf Rilla, and its sequel Children of the Damned (1964), are classic British horror, both based upon the novel The Midwich Cuckoos, by John Wyndham, who also wrote The Day of the Triffids.

It has previously been available as a "double bill" DVD, but this new Blu-ray, from Warner Archive totally supplants the earlier effort, as it's a magnificent rendering of the film on Blu-ray.

We'll have to wait for Children, before we can donate the earlier release.

Gorgeous black & white cinematography, a score by Ron Goodwin.

Strangely, the last time I thought about this film was around Christmas, when I received this greeting:

For those who have not experienced this film, just go with it.


Image - 5

Audio - 5

Upgrade from DVD - Absolutely!

Pass / Fail - Pass

Highly Recommended

RAH

 

[Robert Crawford]

It scared the crap out of me back in the early 1960's as a little kid. I'm really looking forward to watching this again on BD as an upgrade over my DVD.

 

[dpippel]

So glad to hear that it's been done right. A classic film by any measure that time has not diminished in the least. Day one purchase for this guy!

 

[aPhil]

Placed my order prior to reading the review, but now I'm even more excited.

 

[Randy_M]

My order is also placed

 

[haineshisway]

Can't come fast enough, damn your eyes.

 

[bujaki]

I saw this in 1960 (10 yrs. old) and learned to survive by keeping a poker face and a very closed mind to outer suggestions.

 

[Johnny Angell]

View attachment 47354
RAH

Oh damn! Now I've got another Xmas classic to put into the rotation.

 

[dana martin]

oddly, because Robert mentioned it, I am wondering if WB owns the rights to The Day of the Triffids , since it was an Allied Artist Film in the US , would love to see that get a proper release as well, so much Great British Horror still missing on this side of "the pond"

 

[Robert Crawford]

Amazon pricing dropped to $17.97 for this release.

 

[haineshisway]

I will say that this is a fantastic transfer, a glorious transfer, stunningly beautiful. The luckout with this is that 98% of the opticals (fades, dissolves, and wipes - not the eye shots) are cut in short so the ONLY drop in quality is the actual length of the actual optical as it cuts in and out. Therefore, this looks fantastic - the clarity is astounding, the contrast is great, there isn't a damn thing that's not great about this. The film is the film and I happen to think it's a five-star classic with a perfect run time of seventy-seven minutes. I could not be happier and I love this movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I will say that this is a fantastic transfer, a glorious transfer, stunningly beautiful. The luckout with this is that 98% of the opticals (fades, dissolves, and wipes - not the eye shots) are cut in short so the ONLY drop in quality is the actual length of the actual optical as it cuts in and out. Therefore, this looks fantastic - the clarity is astounding, the contrast is great, there isn't a damn thing that's not great about this. The film is the film and I happen to think it's a five-star classic with a perfect run time of seventy-seven minutes. I could not be happier and I love this movie.

I agree with you Bruce! The disc looks fabulous and I'm in the middle of watching it again with the audio commentary. A great job by Warner.

 

[John Maher_289910]

Mine arrives, today. Pretty much my favorite movie of all-time. Cannot wait to watch this Blu-ray!

 

[Randy Korstick]

oddly, because Robert mentioned it, I am wondering if WB owns the rights to The Day of the Triffids , since it was an Allied Artist Film in the US , would love to see that get a proper release as well, so much Great British Horror still missing on this side of "the pond"

Warner doesn't own triffids. I forgot the exact story on this one but there are some issues preventing it from being released.

 

[Robert Crawford]

oddly, because Robert mentioned it, I am wondering if WB owns the rights to The Day of the Triffids , since it was an Allied Artist Film in the US , would love to see that get a proper release as well, so much Great British Horror still missing on this side of "the pond"

The audio commentary mentions "The Day of the Triffids" as the same author wrote the same source material for both films.

 

[Dick]

Warner doesn't own triffids. I forgot the exact story on this one but there are some issues preventing it from being released.

This fell into PD, and an expensive restoration would be required to bring back the colors and clarity, ideally using the O.N. I believe there is someone out there who is trying to get it restored, and as I understand it is a funding issue that keeps that from happening. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[John Maher_289910]

I agree with every word of haines' post, on this release. Superb!

 

[John Sparks]

There are a lot of us that only want the movie and really don't care for the extras. But in this case, we have TWO extras...two versions of the movie that maybe some of us have not ever seen...that's me! So, for $10 a movie, we are getting one hellava deal!!!

Those of us that have thousands of movies in our collections and something as special as this is a no brainer to upgrade and purchase.

Can't wait to view this in my HT in all its black and white glory!!!

 

[haineshisway]

There are a lot of us that only want the movie and really don't care for the extras. But in this case, we have TWO extras...two versions of the movie that maybe some of us have not ever seen...that's me! So, for $10 a movie, we are getting one hellava deal!!!

Those of us that have thousands of movies in our collections and something as special as this is a no brainer to upgrade and purchase.

Can't wait to view this in my HT in all its black and white glory!!!

Two versions of the movie??? There's only ever been one version of Village of the Damned.

 

[dpippel]

Technically there are two versions if you count John Carpenter's 1995 remake, which is (thankfully) not included on this WAC release of the 1960 film. Or perhaps John is talking about the sequel, Children of the Damned, which is also not included here. Both films were on the 2004 DVD. Maybe that's what he's thinking of?