'The Midwich Cuckoos' is Here in Time for Halloween

It took over two years for the newest adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos to arrive in the U.S. after it aired and streamed on SkyMax in mid-2022, doubling the length of its title along the way to become The Midwich Cuckoos: Villiage of the Damned (possibly as a reminder of the two movie versions from 1960 and 1995). Based on the 1957 John Wyndham novel, the tale is famous enough in the U.K. that most have absorbed it via the cultural hive mind, even if they haven’t read the book or seen the earlier versions. For Americans who are less aware, it’s the story of a community that hosts a clutch of mysterious and scary children. 

The “Midwich” of the title is not a village but a tidy, comfortable market town within easy reach of London. Series creator David Farr has updated the story with care and thoughtfulness. It features a strong cast, led by Keeley Hawes as child psychologist Dr. Susannah Zellaby and Max Beesley as chief of police DCI Paul Haynes. The series hints at current events, addressing issues of government surveillance, reproductive choice, and forced birth, and then steps back as the story unfolds. 

It is a complex and demanding series with seven episodes of about one hour each. However, two significant storylines stand out: Sam Clyde (Annika’s Ukweli Roach) and Zoe Moran (Aisling Loftus), who’ve just moved to Midwich and are excited about their new home. The other is the story of Susannah, whose attempts to nurture and protect make her a collaborator until she takes on the responsibility to protect Midwich and, you suspect, much more.

As in the novel, one evening, the Midwich horses and birds start acting strangely, and electrical power is disturbed, culminating in what becomes known as the Blackout. That evening, Susannah heads home after a mediocre date in London, anxious to be with her fragile adult daughter Cassie Stone (Synnove Karlsen). When she finds all trains canceled, she returns by cab and finds the village in crisis, with the army keeping people away. It seems every resident (including the animals) suddenly fell asleep, waking at dawn to a chorus of beeping cell phones. Only one casualty, Paul Haynes’ pregnant wife; however, every woman of childbearing age who woke up from the Midwich Blackout is pregnant.

That includes Sam and Zoe, who moved in the day of the Blackout, believed themselves infertile, and got lucky when they “christened” the new house before they crashed; however, they're horrified and torn when tests reveal what she's carrying has none of Sam’s DNA, and there will be a legal process to recognize him as the father. At least one woman believes it’s God’s plan, but others are shocked and terrified, like realtor Mary-Anne Phillips (Rebekah Staton), who hasn’t had sex in years, or the local high schoolers. Cassie describes the experience in mystical terms to Susannah: a visitation. However, there's no mass panic*. 

(*We assume those naughty little zygotes are dulling their hosts’ brains.) 

Susannah is hired to lead the women in group therapy, observed by a team led by MI-5's Bernard Westcott (Samuel West) and Bryony Cummings (Cherrelle Skeete). Everyone signs a copy of the Official Secrets Act; however, the women who told Susannah they want to opt for termination discover they can’t sign the paperwork, muscles refusing to respond and pens rolling away. They also can't leave the town, unable to go beyond the city line, save for one: Amrita Chohhan (Annika Rose), following an affair with straying politician Stewart MacLean (Mark Dexter). People can enter, though, like Paul’s sister-in-law, the heavily pregnant Jodie Blake (Lara Rossi), grieving her sister. 

In an extraordinary scene, the women give birth simultaneously, combining the drama and tenderness of Call The Midwife with The X-Files, as a newborn turns his head to glare at the camera with a malevolent, adult expression. (In a nice touch, the show highlights that the government pays all the families, making them complicit.) The passage of time is meticulously balanced between the every day and the scary unknown. The new parents are doing their best, and endearingly, they form a support group. While other families grow closer from their shared experience, Sam and Zoe find themselves isolated by doubt, restricted by the community they don’t understand. (It’s hard not to see the COVID lockdown parallels.) 

All of this works thanks to the exceptional acting of the young cast, who flip from genuinely scary to genuinely sweet in the blink of an eye, pulling our attention every time they’re on camera, whether acting as one being (which in a sense they are) or interacting like any other kids. Susannah is hired to perform tests on the children as they reach primary school age and discovers they all have ESP and communicate telepathically. As the years pass, they develop more, sometimes puzzling powers, like being able to force adults to hurt themselves.

Susannah’s daughter Cassie receives an odd email that refers to an event in Russia in the 1970s, where a group of gifted children sadly died in a rocket attack, and you know soon enough this is a significant clue to ... well, that would be telling. With its extensive cast and dense storylines, The Midwich Cuckoos can sometimes move a little too slowly. But when it fires on all cylinders, it combines horror, reflections on parenthood, the importance of choice, and the need for community in a potent cocktail.

The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned is available to stream on Acorn TV and Sundance Now. New episodes are released weekly every Thursday through November 2024.