Most people still sufficiently value their individuality enough to be terrified by the notion of a hive-mind, or at least we can so hope. Weirdly, the town of Midwich gave birth to a hive-mind, when more than a dozen women fell pregnant under highly unusual circumstances. The kids are not alright and the adults are nervous (at least they should be) in creator-writer David Farr’s The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned, which premieres Thursday on Sundance Now.
John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos was twice adapted as Village of the Damned, so for American audiences they combined both titles, presumably to avoid confusion. Arguably, this might be helpful, because unlike previous adaptations, this Midwich Cuckoos does not look so much like Village of the Damned.
While family counselor Dr. Susannah Zellaby was in London, an uncanny blackout hit the small town of Midwich. Everyone inside the city limits passed out unconscious, even investigating authorities who entered wearing gasmasks. A few months later, every woman of child-bearing age finds themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Not surprisingly, this causes great distress in many households, until the authorities reveal the big picture.
The national government sweeps in to manage the situation, but Home Office rep Bryony Cummings is surprised every mother decides to keep their bundles of joy. The Midwich mothers grow close to each other, not that they have much choice. The government essentially confines them to Midwich, in exchange for footing all their bills. They also sponsor Dr. Zellaby’s group therapy sessions, which usually also include her own grown but not yet mature daughter, Cassie Stone.
The quickly developing children are intense, but most of the Midwich parents try to kid themselves into thinking they are still healthy and loving youngsters. However, Zoe Moran sours on her Midwich daughter, Hannah, after she uses her Midwichy mind-control to force her Midwich mom to injure herself. Unfortunately, neither Dr. Zellaby nor her domestic partner, Sam Clyde are ready to listen to her yet—but presumably he will soon, judging from the in media res prologue.
The trio of directors, Alice Troughton, Jennifer Perrott, and Borkur Sigborsson, do a nice job building tension, but they were undermined Farr’s terrible aesthetic decisions. Both the classic 1960 film and John Carpenter’s remake of Village of the Damned, get tremendous visual mileage from the eerily similar look of the Midwich children. However, they no longer have the same creepy blond pageboy cut, boys and girls alike. They still share the same cold, distant demeanor, but they now check all the required diversity boxes.
Somehow, Farr completely missed the point that the uniformity of the Midwich children makes them unsettling. They actually illustrate the notion that a lack of diversity is profoundly unhealthy, both in terms of physical characteristics and diversity of thought. In both films, the mere sight of the nearly identical children is enough to jangle viewers’ nerves. Farr denied the series directors that visual shortcut, forcing them to start fresh with each scene.
At times, it seems like Farr never fully understood his source material, whereas Troughton, Perrott, Sigborsson, and multiple cast-members largely did. The hive-mind is scary precisely because it is a collective that allows for no variations. Frankly, it is a story that speaks to our times, but Farr could not grasp its zeitgeisty potential. Most viewers will be better entertained re-watching the previous adaptations and related films, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either the 1956 or 1978 versions), when The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned starts streaming Thursday (10/17) on Sundance Now.
