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Saturday November 2nd 2024

The Damned (These Are The Damned) | 1963

The Damned filming location: George III Statue, Weymouth, Dorset
The Damned film location: King and the leather boys hang out in the seaside town: George III Statue, Weymouth, Dorset | Photograph: wikimedia / Chris Talbot

This strange, creepy sci-fi, about a bunch of ice-cold kids kept sealed underground, was Hammer Films' attempt to add a touch of class to their Gothy horror image by hiring American expat director Joseph Losey, who went on to make such classics of British cinema as The Servant and The Go-Between.

The seaside town, ruled by King (Oliver Reed) and his not-too-convincing gang of leather-jacketed delinquents, is Weymouth, about seven miles south of Dorchester in Dorset, on the famous Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site known for its unique geology.

The Damned filming location: Town Bridge, Weymouth, Dorset
The Damned film location: Joan finds Simon on his boat: Town Bridge, Weymouth, Dorset | Photograph: wikimedia / Chris Talbot

The much more successful sinister conspiracy thread of the story sees Simon (Macdonald Carey) and King's sister Joan (Shirley Anne Field) stumbling into the underground bunker in which the strange children are held, in caves within the cliffs on the Isle of Portland to the south of the town.