Exceptional studio publicity shot featuring the sultry Barbara Shelley. It was originally used to promote "Village of the Damned", a 1960 iconic British science fiction horror film by Anglo-German director Wolf Rilla.

Village of the Damned is a 1960 British science fiction horror film by Anglo-German director Wolf Rilla. The film is adapted from the novel The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) by John Wyndham. The lead role of Professor Gordon Zellaby was played by George Sanders. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the film rights in June 1957, prior to the novel's publication. Milo Frank was assigned to produce and John Lupton was announced as a possible star. By December, the title had been changed to Village of the Damned and Russ Tamblyn, who appeared as the lead in MGM's Tom Thumb (1958), was named as a possible star. In January 1958, MGM president Joseph R. Vogel announced the film would be among the movies made by the studio that year. Robert Stevens signed to direct.

The film was originally intended as an American production, to be filmed at the MGM studios in Culver City, California. Stirling Silliphant wrote a script with Ronald Colman slated as the lead, but Colman died in May, 1958. (His widow, actress Benita Hume, married actor George Sanders in 1959, and Sanders was cast in the role meant for Colman.) In September 1958, Michael Rennie said he was being considered for the lead. In October, Mel Dinelli was reportedly working on a script. In January 1959, Julia Meade signed to play a lead role. A sequel, Children of the Damned (1964), followed, as did a remake, also called Village of the Damned (1995). Given an 'A' certificate by the British censors, the film opened in June 1960 at The Ritz cinema in Leicester Square, London. According to director Wolf Rilla, it soon attracted audiences, and cinema goers queued round the block to see it. In December of the same year it was released New York and Los Angeles; it became a sleeper hit for MGM in the US.

American critics were also in favor of the film. The Time reviewer called it "one of the neatest little horror pictures produced since Peter Lorre went straight" and questioned the wisdom of MGM's low-profile release strategy. While not willing to call it a horror classic, Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "as a quietly civilized exercise in the fear and power of the unknown this picture is one of the trimmest, most original and serenely unnerving little chillers in a long time." The film received a small but positive mention in the Saturday Review which called it "an absorbing little picture that you may yet be able to find on some double-feature bill."

Author and film critic Leonard Maltin gave the film three out of a possible four stars, calling it "an eerie, well-made chiller." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93%, based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Chilling performances and a restrained, eerie atmosphere make this British horror both an unnerving parable of its era and a timeless classic." The climactic scene in which the children break down Zellaby's mental brick wall is #92 on the Bravo miniseries 100 Scariest Movie Moments.