The Midwich Cuckoos is a story of insidious enemy invasion, slow and unstoppable from within. Written in 1957 by John Wyndham, it was filmed in 1960 as Village of the Damned, with a remake following in 1995.
The sleepy English town of Midwich lies off the main road in the countryside, not very near other towns, with no industry to distinguish it. In the night, inexplicably and unnoticed, a large silver dish appears next to the old Grange building causing every villager to enter a deep sleep. Outside, people are baffled by an invisible energy dome over the town that bars them from entry - one step over the line and they too collapse in sleep - as do cars and planes. The army is called in but find the next day however, the ship and its dome have disappeared - the town awakens and the incident hushed, you wouldn't want the villages of Stouch or Trayne to gossip and disparage Midwich. These events are only the beginning, as nine months later, every one of the 65/70 women in Midwich becomes pregnant - the young and virginal to the widowed. Moral indignation must be put aside as all women, married or unwed are now in the same predicament, and not by natural causes. They are right to feel they are mere incubators, as each gives birth to a blond, metallic-gold-eyed child - evenly half boys and half girls - who grow and learn at an accelerated rate. These children do not belong to their parents. By the time they are teenagers, their powers of group thought are well out of control, as they are in many of the other towns across the world who are also experiencing this phenomenon.
We've seen many imitations of this terrifically original plot, but for 1957 it would have been very unsettling. At times a cautionary tale of how fear of, or acceptance of, outside forces shapes a community, it could be seen as a Cold War allegory. This dread deepens though, as it becomes clear the children's force is unstoppable, and humans are simply a nuisance. There is quite the feeling of being closed in, as the villagers must maintain this secret lest they become a focus of derision and curiosity by their countrymen - upholding normality is first priority. Leaving town is not an option the children will allow and any attempt to control them fails.
In the end, I did feel (like Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids) that it became too talky, much in the way British science fiction films from the 1950's relied on talk rather than action.
Overall a solid, enjoyable read based on human reaction rather than aggressive domination - a classic novel of aliens in our midst and the most terrifying result: we are powerless to stop our destruction.
My other reviews of John Wyndham:
1959 / Tradeback / 220 pages
Comments