Midnight Madness alumnus Joe Dante comments on the trailer for Children of the Damned (1963), the movie that was made immediatelly after, Village of the Damned, but was not a sequel. It was about the same problem of children with fearsome psychic powers.
While the children of Come Out And Play appear to prefer getting their hands dirty, the Damned Children prefer to supervises the destruction of adult society.
Mr. Dante has more on why he thinks Children of the Damned is undervalued re-imagining of Village of the Damned.
COME OUT AND PLAY screens: Thurs., Sept. 13th, 11:59 PM RYERSON Fri., Sept. 14th, 3:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10 Sat., Sept. 15th, 6:45 PM SCOTIABANK 11
Director Joe Dante is not only one of the fiendish master mind behind Trailers from Hell, he's also a Midnight Madness alumnus. He directed a segment in the horror anthology, Trapped Ashes, which screened at Midnight Madness 2006.
As the first among TFH gurus, Dante comments on a lot of films, but one film, he commented on twice: Mario Bava's classic giallo,Blood and Black Lace. and an excellent movie to watch in anticipation of Berberian Sound Studios, a movie that plays with giallo history and conventions.
James McNally has already covered giallo in depth at our Vanguard sister blog, so I'll just say that giallo is an Italian crime film genre that is generally more lurid than straight detective stories--and possibly more honest in its way. It often has weird or psychic phenomenon elements. And giallo influence the development of both slasher horror like John Carpenter's Halloween, sexy thrillers like Brian de Palma's Body Double and even artsy psychodramas like Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.
It's somehow fitting that a giallo film would get two slightly different takes.
Here's Dante's most recent commentary:
And here is the original commentary, if you are curious to hear if he says anything different and to see the transfer quality for yourself.
