Ces êtres venus d'ailleurs

When You consider starting Your Review with... "Well... It COULD have been worse!" You know You are in trouble!

Obviously, the owners of the TITLE rights, wanted to cash in... And made a "SEQUEL" that really bares extremely little resemblance to the original film!

Sadly, as was more often than not the case with movies from the 60s and 70s, when a sequel was made, the results were almost always woefully inferior to the original! Sorry to say that CHILDREN is no exception! Absolutely every PLOT development is utterly and excruciatingly predictable! Production values range from barely passable to simply awful. Acting is either very flat or way over the top!

To be honest... I really wanted to like CHILDREN... But despite really making an effort to do so... I debated giving it 3***... But ultimately decided to be a tad generous ...and ended up bestowing it with 4****. IMDb says that LESS than 9% of viewers rated it 9 or 10 Stars... So, apparently, most people tended to agree with me pretty much!

Not really a sequel to the original classic, but rather its own story with its own things to say. This is, in fact, a powerful allegory about our violent world, the suspicious nations that make it up, what those nations teach their children by way of example, the state of religion in the modern world, etc. Very smart, and beautifully shot in glorious black and white. If you're looking for a horror movie, you might be disappointed, but as an allegorical fantasy it's top of the line.

Although it is often referred to as a sequel to "Village of the Damned", the plot differs in enough ways to make the claim seriously questionable. No mention is made of the events in the first film. The only real similarity is that the story concerns six children who are perceived as a threat to mankind because they possess strange telepathic and mind-control powers.

Unlike the first film, however, the children are of different nationalities (not identical blonds, as the children in the first film) and they do not mature at an accelerated rate.

It's as if the basic premise (six superintelligent kids who are a threat to mankind) was reworked into a new story. The children are explained as being "quantum leaps in evolution" (not alien offspring, as in the first film). And yet the story never clarifies why they were all born at approximately the same time in different parts of the world (coincidence?). When one sympathetic government agent asks the children, "Why are you here?", the children reply "We don't know."

A line of dialogue by a major character, stating that the children are here to help mankind, was later edited from the film. Too bad.

Mankind, rather than the kids, are portrayed as the bad guys. Despite some confusion over these basic plot elements, director Anton M. Leader does deliver a clear message concerning the hate, fear, and intolerance which society feels towards anyone who doesn't "fit in", as well as the greed for power which nations feel in their efforts to gain dominance over each other.

Six children from six different nations, each gifted with superior intellects and telekinetic powers, are tested by scientists keen to discover the limits of their capabilities. Inevitably, the children come to the attention of shady government types who wish to exploit the children for the purposes of national security, or failing that, destroy them. In fear, the children join forces and take refuge in a derelict church, where they are forced to strike back at those who might wish to do them harm.

Children of the Damned is generally considered to be a sequel to the excellent Village of the Damned; however, when viewed like this, glaring anomalies prevent it from being a fully satisfying experience. Children of the Damned is therefore best viewed as a standalone project; seen in this way, the film is more than worthy of any sci-fi/horror fan's time—an intelligent, thought-provoking piece that raises religious, ethical and philosophical debates and which, depending on how the somewhat ambiguous ending is interpreted, also delivers a prophetic warning: unless humans can overcome their innate distrust and fear of that which they do not understand, there can be no hope of survival for mankind.

Opinion about which of the 'of the Damned' films is better is seriously divided, but given the choice, I would always go for the freaky, blonde-haired and undeniably malevolent mutants of 'Village' over the normal looking, multi-cultural, and possibly benevolent saviours of mankind from 'Children'. Guess that's just how I roll...

Children of the Damned has generally been considered grossly inferior to Village of the Damned. I beg to differ as the point of both movies is quite different. In Village of the Damned the children were the result of alien insemination (presumably) and were simply evil. In Children of the Damned they are the result of a jump in evolution and they, themselves, are unsure of who they are and why they are here. The mystery is cleared up however when Paul makes a very eloquent speech near the end of the movie where he states that they have realized that they are here to help mankind. This speech no longer exists on the video version. It apparently was edited out at some point. However without it the ending makes no sense. The dropped screwdriver is played as a tragedy in the movie which contradicts the impression that the children are evil. In fact what the movie is about is a religious theme about how mankind kills its saviors.