Village of the Damned (1960)
Horror, Science Fiction • 1h 17m
Director: Wolf Rilla
Cast: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Naismith, Jenny Laird, Sarah Long, Thomas Heathcote, Charlotte Mitchell, Pamela Buck, Rosamund Greenwood, Susan Richards, Bernard Archard, Peter Vaughan, Richard Vernon, John Stuart, Keith Pyott, Alexander Archdale, Sheila Robins, Tom Bowman, Diane Aubrey, Gerald Paris, June Cowell, Linda Bateson, Carla Cura, Lesley Scoble, Mark Mileham, Roger Malik, Elizabeth Munden, Teri Scoble, Peter Preidel, Peter Taylor, Howard Knight, Janice Howley, Paul Norman, Robert Marks, John Bush, Billy Lawrence, Denis Gilmore
About the film
In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.
- Alternative Titles
- Village of the Damned
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Director: David Lean
Director: Morton DaCosta
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray Nov 24th
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Bernard Rose
Scream Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray or Turbine 4K Blu-Ray
SF and Turbine also have the 2004 Audio Commentary with Bernard Rose, Clive Barker, Alan Poul and actors Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd and Kasi Lemmons
Director: Peter Jackson
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Both will look identical in motion but the Turbine looks marginally better due to a higher bitrate allocation by each cut being given its own disc, whereas Arrow had FiM seamlessly branch the two onto one. However, Arrow has both cuts in Open Matte (on Blu-Ray) and corrected the opening Universal logo's aspect ratio. https://slow.pics/c/McvVcYDG
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Criterion 4K Blu-ray also includes exclusive "Reborn Cut"
Director: Lam Nai-choi
88 Films UK or Vinegar Syndrome US Blu-ray (preference)
Different color gradings, 88 Films disc is encoded by FiM but Vinegar Syndrome encode (by Marcus Johnson) is more than robust
Vinegar Syndrome potentially has better audio than 88 Films, due to VinSyn possibly having EQ'd the audio mix after Fortune Star scanned the track in a way that makes it sound too hot, whereas 88 left it alone without addressing that issue. However, no direct comparisons exist
Director: Tobe Hooper
4K Blu-ray has both the original Dolby Stereo mix and a 5.1 remix.
HBO Max Streaming includes the theatrical version with original credits, goofs. 1080p with the 5.1 remix
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering, 1.85 ratio restored for US Cut; both US and International Cuts are 4K.
US Cut: 1999 WB DVD/Criterion 4K Blu-ray
No Blu-ray or DVD release until the Criterion 4K Blu-ray has presented the US in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The International Cut has never been presented in it's OAR of 1.66:1 in any home video releases.
The packaging on the back of the WB 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray.
Director: Lewis Teague
> disappointing US Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Director: Alexandre Aja
Theatrical Cut: Austria NSM Blu-ray
Director's Cut: France Metropolitan Blu-ray
Metropolitan got better picture (higher bitrate + better grain + more detail) than Lionsgate
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.