SusannahThe Day of the Triffids
October 14th 2007 09:10
The Day of the Triffids (1981)
Starring: John Duttine, Emma Relph, Maurice Colbourne.
Directed: Ken Hannam
A man wakes up alone in a hospital. There are no hospital staff around, and it is silent outside. He has no idea what catastrophe could have befallen humanity while he was asleep. No this is not 28 Days Later, but the made for TV, BBC production of British writer John Wyndham’s 1951 novel, The Day of the Triffids.
The man who woke up in hospital is Bill Masen (John Duttine), a Triffid farm worker who had been blinded by a Triffid sting. He wakes up in what he thinks is the middle of the night, and narrates the history of the Triffids to a tape recorder (which he will send to his friend) as he waits for morning and for his bandages to come off.
We learn that Triffids are a form of carnivorous plant that can walk, and that it shoots a two metre sting from within its flower, with which it kills its prey and then waits for the flesh to decompose before it can feed. Supposedly genetically engineered by the Russians, attempts were made to eradicate the killer plants before it was discovered that they produced a valuable oil that could be used for fuel.
Ironically, as Bill removes his eye bandages to discover that he can see, he also learns that nearly everyone else was blinded by a mysterious light show in the night sky the night before. It soon becomes apparent, as the newly blinded world panics, food becomes scarce, and killer plants maraud, that they are now in a post-apocalyptic world.
Bill meets others who are sighted like himself, including Jo Payton (Emma Relph), and Jack Coker (Maurice Colbourne), a man who believes it is the sighted’s duty to help the blind survive, while the other few remaining sighted are torn as to whether the state of the world has now become a survival of the fittest. Interesting questions are raised as to the form a new society should take, especially as to ensuring the survival of the human race. The stakes are raised when an additional threat of a mysterious new disease, possibly man-made, starts to kill the survivors, forcing them to flee London, into the Triffid infested countryside.
Originally screened in 6 half hour episodes, The Day of the Triffids is also packaged as six half hour episodes on the DVD, complete with credits after each episode. Although, from the look of the series, it was obviously made in the nineteen eighties, the special effects are actually pretty good. The Triffids are pretty scary, the storyline is gripping, and although at a running time of three hours, you feel compelled to watch it through to its conclusion in one sitting.
The acting is good as well. Although you feel sorry for the blind people, you feel even worse for those who can still see, as there are just too few of them to help so many helpless people. There is one particularly scary moment, reminiscent of a zombie film, where Bill and Jo are in a car, surrounded by blind people who have swarmed on them at the sound of the vehicle: the blind attempt to pull Bill and Jo from the car, all the time demanding that they help them because they can see.
There is also the implication that the three disasters: the Triffids, the light show, and the mysterious disease were all man-made weapons of various kinds, suggesting that humanity is to blame for the state to which it has reduced itself.
Starring: John Duttine, Emma Relph, Maurice Colbourne.
Directed: Ken Hannam
A man wakes up alone in a hospital. There are no hospital staff around, and it is silent outside. He has no idea what catastrophe could have befallen humanity while he was asleep. No this is not 28 Days Later, but the made for TV, BBC production of British writer John Wyndham’s 1951 novel, The Day of the Triffids.
The man who woke up in hospital is Bill Masen (John Duttine), a Triffid farm worker who had been blinded by a Triffid sting. He wakes up in what he thinks is the middle of the night, and narrates the history of the Triffids to a tape recorder (which he will send to his friend) as he waits for morning and for his bandages to come off.
We learn that Triffids are a form of carnivorous plant that can walk, and that it shoots a two metre sting from within its flower, with which it kills its prey and then waits for the flesh to decompose before it can feed. Supposedly genetically engineered by the Russians, attempts were made to eradicate the killer plants before it was discovered that they produced a valuable oil that could be used for fuel.
Ironically, as Bill removes his eye bandages to discover that he can see, he also learns that nearly everyone else was blinded by a mysterious light show in the night sky the night before. It soon becomes apparent, as the newly blinded world panics, food becomes scarce, and killer plants maraud, that they are now in a post-apocalyptic world.
Bill meets others who are sighted like himself, including Jo Payton (Emma Relph), and Jack Coker (Maurice Colbourne), a man who believes it is the sighted’s duty to help the blind survive, while the other few remaining sighted are torn as to whether the state of the world has now become a survival of the fittest. Interesting questions are raised as to the form a new society should take, especially as to ensuring the survival of the human race. The stakes are raised when an additional threat of a mysterious new disease, possibly man-made, starts to kill the survivors, forcing them to flee London, into the Triffid infested countryside.
Originally screened in 6 half hour episodes, The Day of the Triffids is also packaged as six half hour episodes on the DVD, complete with credits after each episode. Although, from the look of the series, it was obviously made in the nineteen eighties, the special effects are actually pretty good. The Triffids are pretty scary, the storyline is gripping, and although at a running time of three hours, you feel compelled to watch it through to its conclusion in one sitting.
The acting is good as well. Although you feel sorry for the blind people, you feel even worse for those who can still see, as there are just too few of them to help so many helpless people. There is one particularly scary moment, reminiscent of a zombie film, where Bill and Jo are in a car, surrounded by blind people who have swarmed on them at the sound of the vehicle: the blind attempt to pull Bill and Jo from the car, all the time demanding that they help them because they can see.
There is also the implication that the three disasters: the Triffids, the light show, and the mysterious disease were all man-made weapons of various kinds, suggesting that humanity is to blame for the state to which it has reduced itself.
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