Specialist engineers are due to arrive at the Aberdeenshire village of Pennan to assess a major crack in rocks above its only access road.
Residents were warned to prepare for a possible evacuation on Tuesday night after the 25m fissure appeared on the clifftops following heavy rain.
Villagers and visitors were asked to pack overnight bags in case the situation developed further.
The village, made famous by the film Local Hero, suffered mudslides in 2007.
Aberdeenshire Council's chief executive Colin Mackenzie said the local authority had people in the village and the safety of residents was paramount.
If you can't handle the consequences you don't live in a place like this
"It's not where the last landslip appeared in Pennan so the houses themselves are not particularly at risk but obviously if the road is blocked and if this landslip happened it would block the road.
"We want to make sure we have taken every step we can to advise the villagers and we've had our staff there this evening advising them of the possible threat."
Helen Fletcher Pennan Resident told BBC Scotland: "I've had the house for 12 years but it was a holiday home until I moved here two years ago."
"It was really serious last time and my house got a bit damaged but it's not nothing like on that scale now. We have been reassured by the council.
Hundreds of tonnes of mud and rock swept onto Pennan in 2007
"There was a landslide about two weeks ago on that road but it was passable."
Ms Fletcher added: "It's a clay-based rock so it's very unstable. They have been shoring it up but hadn't tackled that part of it.
"It's the nature of being here. You have to take the risk.
"If you can't handle the consequences you don't live in a place like this."
Steve Cowperthwaite and his wife Dawn Howard have been staying in the village to celebrate their wedding anniversary and Ms Howard's birthday.
"We were in the pub when we heard about the landslide threat," Mr Cowperthwaite said.
"We're a bit worried about being trapped here so we miss our flight. We will probably just stay put and see what the situation is like later."
Ms Howard added: "It was ok until the police came to the door. That scared me a bit more. But it's a beautiful place so I don't mind staying here for a while."
Pennan - and the village's red phone box - became recognised after Bill Forsyth's 1983 film Local Hero, starring Burt Lancaster.
In 2005, the Bafta-winning film topped a film critics' poll for the best use of locations in Britain.
The film saw the representatives of a US petro-chemical giant, who were seeking to build a refinery in a Scottish coastal village, come to find the gentler rhythms of the local life practically irresistible.
In 2007, severe landslides brought hundreds of tonnes of mud and rock into the village, leading to the evacuation of all the residents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8365494.stm
