One of my favorite scifi books “The Midwich Cuckoos” (1957) by John Wyndham. I re-experience it every few years by watching the the 1960 B&W movie, or by listen to the audio books, or even radio play.
“The Midwich Cuckoos” is better known by title used in its two movie adaptations - “Village of the Damned”. The story is an alien invasion accomplished by impregnating unsuspecting women. This idea has been used many time since, but I like Wyndham’s version best.
In the story, everyone in the small village of Midwich blacks out. The military investigate but can’t find the cause. And anyone who walks with a certain zone also blacks out.
When the towns people recover, they soon discover all the women of child bearing age are pregnant. Months later (but less than nine) the women gives birth to identical babies with slightly enlarged heads, pale hair, and yellow eyes. The children grow abnormally fast (at 8 years they look like young teens). And more seriously, develop psychic powers to influence the behavior of their mothers and towns people.
The 1960 movie starts off well but the ending rests on the shoulders of a character played by George Sanders, who I don’t think is very good.
There was a 1995 remake directed by John Carpenter and starring Christopher Reeve (in the Sanders role) and Kirstie Alley. The movie is schlocky and Carpenter added some needless jump scares. (Early on a man blacks out standing at a barbecue grill, and he falls onto the grill. Carpenter makes a point of showing his charred face later.)
While Reeve is “ok” in the movie, Alley is terrible - laughable in fact as a stern government operative. (Oh! Mark Hamill plays a kooky orient as well!)
With a subject of childbirth, the book and both movies focus more on the reaction of the male characters. I’ve heard of a 2022 series from Britain Sky Max which uses the title of the book. It stars Keeley Hawes in the Sanders role. It’s suppose to focus more on the womens reactions. But I can’t find it available anywhere.
This week I came across a radio play of Cuckoos. It’s pretty good except the ending is vague, and unless you’ve read the book or seen one of the movies, you might not know what happened.
https://archive.org/details/john-wyndham-the-midwich-cuckoos-1982
