Village of the Damned

One Friday mid-morning in the small British town of Midwich, all living creatures simultaneously and mysteriously pass out - with anyone wandering into that specific geographic area befalling the same fate - just as mysteriously only to regain consciousness en mass mid-afternoon. Major Alan Bernard with the military, one of the lead first responders in witnessing what happened, can surmise that it was not caused by something airborne or psychological, such as mass hysteria. His personal connection to the situation is that his sister and brother-in-law, married Anthea and Gordon Zellaby, Midwich residents with Gordon a military scientist, were among those affected. The next major event two months later is that a baker's dozen fertile women in town become pregnant at the same time, including Anthea, in some instances the woman not sexually active at the time. With Dr. Willers, the town's physician, monitoring the health of the women, the fetuses and the subsequent children, he finds the women and children in question are all healthy, but that the children all have certain similar physical characteristics and are growing physically and mentally far faster than normal. While it is generally now believed that the children are not totally of this world, Gordon is able to convince the military to allow him to study the children as a collective. But when some deaths occur that are assumed to be caused by the children as a collective in working together for their survival in being telepathic, Gordon has to decide how best to handle the situation, especially difficult as the children have been up front to him that they can read his mind.