Convinced there are more children out in the world, a UN study finds the other remaining children and brings them to a secure church in London for study, only for the continued misuse of their powers to force the world to rid themselves of the children.This one turned out to be quite enjoyable if only slightly flawed overall here. What really stands out here is the film's rather enjoyable and exciting action scenes that are wisely kept to a few needed spurts here rather than placed throughout the film as a whole. The race around downtown London and on through the different back-alleys and side-streets looking for the children while she's in turn followed by the agents that leads into their church hideout makes for a fine time, as does the different attempts to barnstorm the church and try to appeal to them, which is quite a fine series of actions here with the attempts broken up by having the children forcibly bringing the intruders to harm themselves, stopping them with the implementation of a loud, boisterous weapon and finally by talking in vague threats about what's going to happen to intruders in the future. The finale attempt to see what to do with them makes for quite a fun time here with this one really getting the action out here in regards to the military utilizing their weaponry here in grand order and launching a full-scale attack against them in a flurry of explosions, shelling and gunfire that culminates in the deadly bombing that brings the church down in quite a spectacular manner here for a thrilling finale and one of the films' best scenes overall. This, though, is really all that really works here as this one does have a few small flaws with it. Much like the original, this one seems quite uncomfortable with blatantly exclaiming how the children came about, as this one provides no explanation whatsoever for what happened to bring these children along, why those events were completely ignored after what happened previously since this one is decidedly concerned with continuity as this manages to take place in that same universe quite distinctly, so being able to skirt around the issue as clumsily as done so here is a big distraction. As well, the big issue of how the different nationalities are represented here seems to contradict the first one where whole villages were targeted so this one-from-around- the-world makes no sense. Likewise, the finale here with the continuous arguing about the children's importance in helping the nations of the world destroy each other is never really tied into this one or why it should mean anything other than being completely ignored by everyone which in turn forces the children into action every time out, and to continually force the issue each encounter makes them simply asking for their consequences more than anything else. This here is really the main thing hold this one down as it is.Today's Rating/PG: Violence and violent acts against children.

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.

Anton Leader directed this semi-sequel to "Village Of The Damned" that stars Ian Hendry as a sympathetic psychologist in charge of studying six children of high intelligence and different nations who have gathered in a church for an unknown purpose. The military is also involved, and have surrounded them, unsure of how to proceed, as the threat is undetermined. Needless "sequel" doesn't even refer to the events of the first film, despite the title, and is also quite dull and uneventful. It does have fine acting, and some interesting ideas of course, but doesn't handle either of them well, and result is a misfire; stick with the superior "Village" instead.

'Village Of The Damned' ( 1960 ) ended with the Midwich children blown sky-high by a bomb in a briefcase. Four years later, 'Children Of The Damned' appeared. As John Wyndham had never written a follow-up novel, it was left to John Briley ( later to write 'Gandhi' ) to concoct an original work. Psychologists Colonel Tom Llewelyn ( Ian Hendry ) and Dr.David Neville ( Alan Badel ) are investigating the backgrounds of a group of children from different countries, all of whom possess incredibly high levels of intelligence. The mother ( Sheila Allen ) of one tells them she was a virgin when her son came into the world. When she bawls him out, he forces her to walk into the path of a lorry.The children escape from custody, taking refuge in a derelict church in London. Attempts to force them out meet with little success - the children use their powers on the adults each time. Finally, the army is brought in...Not as good as 'Village' but nevertheless a solid British sci-fi film. Strangely, the first film's events are not mentioned. The Midwich children had blonde hair, these are dark. Their eyes still turn white whenever they use their powers though. The Midwich kids were believed to be aliens - no-one in 'Children' considers this possibility. Instead they are said to be the next stage in human evolution. Not evil as such, they only kill when threatened. Exactly what they are doing on Earth is never revealed. Asked to explain themselves, one says enigmatically: "To be destroyed!". How did they manage to build a solar-powered machine that kills by amplifying the sound of the church organ? A difference of opinion arises between the Hendry and Badel characters. Llewelyn thinks the children should be allowed to live, Neville believes they pose a threat to Mankind and need to be destroyed. Once again Ron Goodwin's music is wonderful ( particularly effective is his use of an electric organ whenever the children use their powers ). The director, Anton M.Leader, later worked on American shows such as 'Get Smart!' and 'Lost In Space'. He does a good job overall, building suspense to a shattering climax as the army accidentally destroy the church ( and killing the kids in the process ). No further films in the series appeared. Some mistakenly regard Joseph Losey's 'These Are The Damned'( 1963 ) as part of it, but apart from the idea of deadly children ( radioactive, not super-intelligent ) they have nothing in common.