Flowers of horror
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Flowers of horror |
| Original title | The Day of the Triffids |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Steve Sekely |
| script |
Bernhard Gordon Philip Yordan |
| production |
George Pitcher Philip Yordan |
| music | Ron Goodwin |
| camera | Ted Moore |
| cut | Spencer Reeve |
| occupation | |
| |
Flowers of Terror (Original title: The Day of the Triffids ) is a British science fiction horror film from 1963. Directed by Steve Sekely ; the main role played the future Dallas star Howard Keel . The science fiction novel The Triffids by John Wyndham served as a template . Except for the basic idea - the blindness of almost all people and the appearance of the Triffids - the film plot has little in common with that of the novel.
action
Short version
As in other regions of the world, a meteor shower appears over London . Many people admire the spectacle, but no one suspects that it is the beginning of a nightmare. All people who saw the meteor shower go blind . City life has come to a standstill and the blind people are disoriented. However, some people have been spared blindness because, for various reasons, they did not see the shower. As a further consequence of the event, a previously inconspicuous, rare plant species developed the ability to multiply at tremendous speed and grow into gigantic proportions. In addition, it is now able to move independently and to spray poison with a spike. The plants known as triffids band together in ever larger groups and begin to attack and kill people.
In two separate storylines that were never connected to each other, the film tells of the experiences of two groups. At the center of one is a seaman trying to get to safety from London from the impending collapse of civilization. His path, in the course of which five other people join him, leads him via France to Spain. The other group consists of a researcher couple on a remote island off the English coast who are trying to develop a remedy for the plants.
Long version
An extensive meteor shower that can be observed worldwide has unexpected consequences: all people who have seen it are completely blind. Since hardly anyone wanted to miss such a natural spectacle, only a few people are not affected by it. One of these is the seaman Bill Masen, who had to undergo eye surgery in London and therefore spent the night in a hospital with a bandage over his eyes. The next morning, his doctor, Dr. Soames, who briefly describes the state of affairs to him before he throws himself to death out the window . The marine biologists Tom and Karen Goodwin, who spent the night investigating a lighthouse on a rocky island off the coast, are also unaffected . Via radio and radio, they too can find out what happened, and also that the meteor shower had another effect: A new, gigantic plant species is spreading all over the country. It can uproot itself and move on its own, and it has a poisonous sting. Since the announced supply ship does not arrive for obvious reasons, the couple is stuck on the island. This is especially to the chagrin of Tom, who has become increasingly dissatisfied with his situation and his work and has become more and more addicted to alcohol and therefore actually wanted to leave the lighthouse and island.
Masen has now left the hospital in London. He wants to take the train to the coast in the port city where his ship is anchored. Everywhere in the city he encounters people blindly groping their way through the streets. When he arrived at the station, he found out that there were no more trains. There he picks up the twelve-year-old orphan Susan, who ran away from her boarding school . Since she hid in a locked freight car on the train for the night, she can still see. Both continue on their way with a car. On the way they get to know one of the aggressive plants for the first time. On the ship, both of them heard about the rapidly deteriorating situation worldwide via radio messages, from ships that sail the oceans without a driver, from aircraft that are still in the air but will soon crash because no one on board can see. Since a conference to deal with the situation is to take place in Paris in the Palais de Chaillot , Masen decides to take part. He and Susan set off for France in a boat while the port city goes up in flames, as there is no one there to put out a fire.
The first plants have also appeared on the rocky island. The Goodwins must fight off a first attack. Tom supposedly succeeds in killing one of the plants, which later turns out to be able to regenerate in an unobserved moment and then disappear. After all, the Goodwins have previously seized a piece of the plant in a container, so they can begin investigating whether there is a means of effectively combating the danger.
When they arrived in Paris, Masen and Susan were unable to locate the intended meeting because no more radio programs were broadcast. You come across Christine Durrant and accompany her to her villa. Christine was in a car accident with the older Coker siblings the day before the event. Nothing serious had happened to all three of them, but they were still given a strong sedative and slept through the night. They now look after around 40 blind women in Christine's property. Masen and Susan join in, where he can make himself useful in the house with his technical knowledge, while Susan befriends the patient Bettina. Masen actually thinks the situation in France is hopeless. He wants to move to Spain because he sees better chances there of surviving the foreseeable collapse of civilization. Christine countered: She could not leave the needy people in her small nursing home to their fate.
Masen learns from Coker that the plants are a species called Triffidus Celestus , or Triffids for short. It had appeared surprisingly a few years earlier, but without spreading excessively or in any way attracting attention. It was believed at the time that it was brought to earth by a meteor. The number of plants in the vicinity of the villa is also becoming threatening, but Christine is still not convinced. Masen and Coker learn from a fatally injured pilot about a rescue center in Toulon in the south of France . It also shows that the plants are increasingly clustering together in larger groups and acting aggressively against humans. After such an attack, Coker dies, poisoned by one of the plants.
The question of staying or going is decided faster than expected. That same evening, a group of armed prisoners turned up who had escaped from a prison. They take over Christine's villa and force the women to attend a noisy, desolate, alcoholic celebration they hold in the house. With a trick, Masen succeeds in freeing Christine from the hands of the men after he was able to bring Susan to safety outside the property. Bettina, on the other hand, dies in front of the other three. Immediately afterwards, the Triffids overrun the building, destroying it and killing those present. Masen and his two companions are the only survivors to travel to the south of France. When they arrive in Toulon, they find that the pilot's information is no longer up to date. The port is on fire, a depot from which help can be expected no longer exists. The next destination of the three is Cádiz in southern Spain, where, to the knowledge of Masen, there is a base for the US armed forces. He relies on the fact that this is still in function.
In their lighthouse, Karen and Tom do not come to useful knowledge with their research, but the new goal has freed Tom from his creative crisis. The Triffids besiege the barricaded building, but otherwise leave the two people alone.
On their way to southern Spain, Masen, Christine and Susan encounter Luis de la Vega and his heavily pregnant wife Teresa. The couple got on relatively well on their estate, as Teresa had lost her sight many years ago and was used to the new situation for Luis. According to Luis, the base in Cadiz has already been evacuated. But since his radio has been broken for two days, he cannot report on the current status. Masen repairs the device and so the group learns that people can still be evacuated. The last ship, however, should leave the nearby port city of Alicante on the following day. The group decides to take the opportunity, especially since, as was also reported on the radio, increasingly larger groups of Triffids gather in their region and take action against people, so the situation is no longer safe. In order to survive the last night on the estate undamaged, the chain link fence surrounding the facility is energized by Masen. Meanwhile, with Christine's support, Teresa gives birth to a girl.
Indeed, a large number of Triffids soon gathered around the property. During the night, the electric fence proves to be too weak, but Masen can repel the attack by the plants with a tank truck that has been converted into a flame thrower . In the morning, however, the group cannot leave the property because it is besieged by the Triffids. By chance, Masen discovers that the plants react to sounds. By means of a truck with loudspeakers mounted on it, he succeeds in luring the Triffids away from Hamelin in the manner of the Pied Piper , while the rest of the group can get to Alicante in safety. Masen also reached a rescue boat at the last second.
On the rocky island, the Triffids began to storm the lighthouse and pushed the Goodwins into the upper areas. In dire need, Tom uses a high-pressure water hose, which is part of the tower's extinguishing system, and sprays the Triffids with seawater that was collected in a tank for fire fighting. To his surprise, the triffids that were sprayed with it immediately dissolve into their components. Despite all the arduous research, it is ultimately thanks to chance that an antidote against the Triffids was discovered. The final sequence shows Masen, Christine and Susan, how they, together with many other people, climb the stairs to a church. A voice from the off is confident that with the help of the sea water the Triffids can be destroyed, that humanity will survive.
Reviews
"An unusually lavishly lavishly equipped science fiction film for its time of production, but which suffers from its foolish plot."
"[...]; little plot in a thriller of beautiful creepy pictures. (Rating: 2½ out of 4 possible stars - above average) "
World premieres
- Great Britain: April 25, 1963
- USA: April 27, 1963
- Germany: August 23, 1963
DVD release
- Flowers of horror . Best Buy Movie 2000
Remakes
The Day of the Triffids is the first of three film adaptations to date of the novel by John Wyndham. A fourth has been in the planning for several years. After Sam Raimi was initially planned as a director, it was announced in early 2014 that Mike Newell would take over this part.
literature
- John Wyndham : The Triffids. Novel . (Original title: The Day of the Triffids ). German by Hubert Greifeneder , revised by Inge Seelig . New edition. Heinrich and Hahn, Frankfurt am Main 2006, 261 pages, ISBN 978-3-86597-036-7 or ISBN 3-86597-036-2 .
Web links
- Day of the Triffids in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Day of the Triffids . Information about the film on a website about B-Movies
- Day of the Triffids at reelstreets.com with information about the locations in London. (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Flowers of Terror. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV". (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 98.
- ↑ World premieres according to IMDb
- ↑ Mike Newell Sets His Sights On The Day Of The Triffids Article on a film industry news website, January 24, 2014, accessed May 15, 2014