Children of the Damned

Children of the Damned is a 1964 British science fiction horror film, shot in black and white. Anton M. Leader directed it, with a cast that includes Ian Hendry, Alan Badel, Barbara Ferris, and Alfred Burke. Thematically, it follows Village of the Damned (1960), and again involves a group of children who possess psychic abilities. Unlike the earlier film, this one allows for the interpretation that the children represent a purer, more evolved form of humanity rather than an evil, alien force.

The story begins when a UNESCO team, studying child development, identifies six children from different countries—China, India, Nigeria, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These children all display extraordinary intelligence and can complete a difficult brick puzzle in exactly the same amount of time. British psychologist Tom Lewellyn and geneticist David Neville become particularly interested in Paul, a London boy whose mother, Diana, insists she was never touched by a man and clearly hates her child. At first, the men dismiss this as hysteria, but they eventually discover that all six children were born without fathers and possess telepathic powers.

The children are brought to London for collective study but escape from their embassies and gather in an abandoned church in Southwark. They use mental control over Paul’s aunt to help them survive there. Meanwhile, the Army and Intelligence Service debate whether to destroy them. The children demonstrate telekinesis and build a machine that uses sonic waves as a weapon, killing several government officials and soldiers. However, the Army realizes the children only fight back when attacked. After psychologist Tom Lewellyn pleads with the group to return to their embassies, the children obey—but murder embassy and military officials before returning to the church.

Lewellyn urges the government to treat the children fairly. But his team of scientists examines a blood cell from one of the children and finds it differs from an ordinary human cell, suggesting the children are non-human and will eventually threaten the human species. When authorities try to take control, the children defend themselves. As the situation escalates toward a final confrontation, one scientist reconsiders, proposing that the children’s cells are actually human—just advanced by a million years.