Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin' 60s - Volume 7: They're Damned, Man....DAMNED! by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

Part 2:

“They've all got these strange eyes”

Two months later, it had become quite evident that a significant section of Midwitch’s population were affected, which in turn impacted most of the rest of the community. You see, all females of child-bearing age fell pregnant, irrespective of marital status and even extending to those who were virgins. Now don’t forget that this was over 60 years ago and social mores, values and views of morality were quite different. The inexplicable rash of pregnancies resulted accusations of infidelity and extramarital sex.

There were residents who were surprised but overjoyed at the prospect of having children who because of age or other reasons had almost given up hope of having the chance of doing so. Other women, however were devastated to find out they were pregnant, especially if their husbands were absent for a considerable time. One can only imagine the consternation of those women who were virgins. Who would now believe them? We might also wonder at the thoughts and feelings of many of the boyfriend’s and husbands of Midwitch. Tensions were obviously very high and a cloud of despondency, confusion and suspicion descended over the village.

Not only was every woman of child-bearing age in the village expecting, all the pregnancies had dated from the day of the strange events I have just outlined.

The next bit of information that has come to hand concerns the progress of the pregnancies five months later. According to Dr Willers, the local MD’s records, the pregnancies were all going well and at that stage each fetus appeared to be at the 7th month of development even though the women were only in their fifth month.

Despite the rather unusual but positive medical news regarding the status of the pregnancies, we must consider the mental and emotional state of the expectant mothers. They must have agonised over whose baby they were carrying along with wondering what exactly they were bringing into the world.

This question was soon to be answered when all the women go into lobar at roughly the same time. A total of 12 babies are born, all weighing a bit over 10 pounds and all possessing odd scalp hair construction of a striking platinum blonde colour, narrow fingernails and strange disconcerting "arresting"eyes.