The Day of the Triffids (1962)
Directed by Steve Sekely, Freddie Francis

Film Review

John Wyndham classic sci-fi novel The Day of the Triffids is pretty savagely massacred in this lacklustre B-movie adaptation, which dispenses with the drama, tension and subtle Cold War allegory of Wyndham's novel and instead contents itself with cheap thrills of the kind that relegate it to the bargain basement of 1950s-style sci-fi flicks.  Although the film has been ridiculed for its special effects, these are actually not bad for the time and are far from being the film's weakest point. What ruins the film is not the special effects or the slightly hysterical over-acting or the woefully lacklustre mise-en-scène, but a screenplay so dire that any resemblance to a novel by John Wyndham is purely coincidental.

Unlike the previous Wyndham adaptation Village of the Damned (1960), which is generally well-regarded, this one shows little respect for its source novel and is simply content to take the basic ideas and work them into a trashy disaster movie.  Worse, the writers also had the audacity to solder on a facile, moralising happy ending that is more likely to induce a severe bout of projectile vomiting than any quantity of undercooked kebabs.  Given how abysmal the screenplay is, it is surprising that the film holds up as well as it does.

The film was directed by Steve Sekely, a renowned Hungarian filmmaker who failed to make much of an impact after moving to the West to escape anti-Semitic brutality in his own country.   Freddie Francis, famous for his horror offerings for Hammer and Amicus, was hired at the eleventh hour to direct a few additional scenes when the film's producers felt it was too short.  Fortunately for his career, Francis was not credited for his work on the film.  

Although considered a classic among some sci-fi enthusiasts, the 1962 version of The Day of the Triffids is a pretty indigestible feast, in which the nature of the threat is completely undermined by the totally unconvincing characterisation and some execrably bad storytelling.   Compared with the excellent 1981 BBC TV adaptation (which boasted some impressive effects, a great script and superlative performances from John Duttine and Maurice Colbourne), it is shallow, clunky and harrowingly unexciting - British sci-fi at its near-worst.

Film Synopsis

One night, the sky is lit up by the dazzling spectacle of meteorites burning up in the atmosphere.  The following morning, Bill Masen, an American naval officer, wakes up in hospital after an eye operation to find that everyone around him has lost his sight.  Bill soon realises that this is a global phenomenon - the blazing meteorites of the night before have rendered almost the entire human population blind.   Then Bill becomes aware of an even greater threat.  A new species of carnivorous plant, the Triffid, has gone on a killer rampage, hunting and devouring the defenceless humans.  A couple stranded on an island try to find a way to destroy the Triffids, but their attempts prove futile.  It really does look as if this is the end for mankind...