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Usually, sci-fi horror movies featuring giant plants are pretty hokey (viz., The Navy Vs. The Night Monsters) and world calamity scenarios can often provoke a yawn rather than a shiver. But there's one still pretty obscure film that deals with these elements and does it so well that audiences have found it a fairly compelling and gripping film experience. In fact, once you give this flick a chance, you're likely to discover that...
By JEFF BERES Day Of The Triffids was filmed in 1962 and, by all appearances, the production tried to follow up the success of the previous year’s Gorgo. The basics of the two films are similar: American heroes battle outrageous monsters in an English production. While Gorgo was geared more toward a younger audience (I remember seeing it at the local theater when I was nine years old and loving it), Day Of The Triffids was a much darker production geared toward a mature audience.
Synopsis: A beautiful meteor shower over England causes all those who watch it to go blind. An American sailor (Howard Keel), who was hospitalized for eye problems, takes off his bandages and finds himself to be the only sighted person around. Until he meets Susan (Janina Faye), a young stowaway on a train who couldn’t see the meteor shower from her windowless car. At the same time, a pair of married scientists (Janette Scott and Kieron Moore) who work out of an isolated lighthouse, fight over his drinking and laziness. They, too, retained their sight because of their windowless home.
Along with causing blindness, the meteor shower turns a rare plant, a Triffid, into a mobile, self-replicating killing machine. While the Sailor and the girl try to survive, the scientists hurry to find a way to destroy the Triffids. So What’s Going On? First of all, this film works on an action/adventure film. Although Steve Sekely is listed as the director on the DVD, Freddie Francis is also listed on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). I wouldn’t be surprised if talented Mr. Francis did part of the directing because I was totally absorbed in the survival of the characters and their search for a way to kill the Triffids. But, after reflecting on the story, I had a big question: did the Triffids orchestrate the meteor shower to blind the people of Earth so they could take it over? Or did the two events (meteor shower and mutation of Triffids) occur independently?
The first Triffid we see is in a greenhouse. It didn’t land with the meteors. I think it was a newly discovered plant. Did it come from outer space? Since I’m too freaking lazy to watch the movie again, I took a look on the IMDB. One gentleman there, who read the novel the story was adapted from, said the Triffids were so far in the background of the plot of the novel that some folks thought they were an afterthought added at the last minute to help sales. The bulk of the story was about a blind world trying to rebuild itself. Well, anyway, that aside, the film still works. We’re thrust into the heart of things as the opening credits roll over the beautiful meteor shower. We then meet Howard Keel who’s had eye surgery and removes his bandages to find the entire population blind. This was perhaps the most frightening aspect of the film. The scenes of the blind groping helplessly through the streets of London were staggering (although I had the passing thought that Keel could have given everyone a tin cup and a hand full of pencils).
Howard tries to help a few people but is soon overwhelmed by the scope of the situation and he runs away. Keel’s character becomes an almost anti-hero since he spends a considerable amount of energy running away. At one point, he asks himself why he’s been chosen to survive over "somebody better." Hardly the typical John Wayne type hero. The starkest scene was at the London train station. The blind passengers panic and trample each other, which is what would probably happen in reality. One particularly weak gentleman bullies the young, sighted Susan to help him get around. Keel saves the young girl and together they…run away.
The next scene shows our first Triffid in the daylight. The previous Triffid scenes were shot in the dark and concentrated on the plant’s dominant root pulling it along like a club foot. Extremely effective and creepy. But once the plant is shown in broad daylight in a long shot, we lose a little of our fear. They were obviously built on wooden frames and pushed along by stage hands. They’re somewhat reminiscent of Audrey II in The Little Shop Of Horrors remake. But then the Triffid kills a dog. And that’s a Screenwriting 101 trick. Have the bad guy kill a dog and the audience will hate him (it.) We’re also privy, at this point, to what’s happening to planes in the air (they crash) and boats at sea (ditto.) Again, these scenes were chilling and were probably the brunt of the novel.
Keel and Susan now stumble upon a home for the blind run by a Beautiful Woman (Nicole Maurey) who refuses to leave her blind wards. As Keel and a Servant wander into the woods, they discover the Triffids are pollinating and multiplying at an alarming rate. A Triffid kills the Servant. When Keel returns to the house, it’s been taken over by Convicts. Keel sneaks Susan and the Beautiful Woman out of the house. At this point, the Triffids overtake the house. Keel, Susan and Nicole then…run away. Back to the scientists at the lighthouse. They’ve stopped bickering and are trying to find a way to kill the Triffids, one of which had crashed into their lighthouse/home. Janette Scott asks her husband "How do they move?" He replies "All plants move. But they don’t usually pull themselves out of the ground and chase you." Could be the logline for the film.
Now we move into the third act. Keel and company find an Ice Cream truck, I guess, which is really silly and I don’t know how they got away with that. They decide to head for Spain in the Ice Cream truck that plays music from speakers on the roof. I laughed as the boxy truck ambled it’s way up the Spanish hills until it stops at a road block. A man and his wife meet Keel and Co. and Keel thinks they’re saved till he discovers the man and his wife are blind. And she’s pregnant. They hear on the radio that rescue ships are coming the next day…but so is the baby. So Keel builds an electrified fence around the house.
That night, as the baby is born, Keel kills dozens of Triffids till the power runs low. He then attacks them with flames from a gas truck, keeping them at bay till the next morning when Susan notices the Triffids react to sounds. Keel, in his first heroic act of the film, takes the Ice Cream truck (ah, that’s what it’s for!), cranks up the music and leads the Triffids away from the house ala the Pied Piper of Hamlin. The others sneak to the coast to be rescued. Keel jumps off the Ice Cream truck before it runs off a cliff and is then rescued himself. But the Triffids still proliferate. So we cut back to our scientists who are at a loss as to what can kill the plants. The Triffids break into the lighthouse and back our scientists up the steps and into a corner. At the last possible second, the scientists find the way to kill the creatures by (Oops. Hit my word limit. You’ll have to watch the film to find out.). Thanks, Jeff. Although the ending is pretty standard sci-fi, it is exciting and that's really the strength of this film. One can snicker at monster plants in general and the idea of a world gone blind is a bit outré...but the constant movement and menace in the film keeps you watching it and enjoying it. This is an underappreciated little gem of a monster menace film and deserves your attention. Article copyright © Jeff Beres |
