This is a classic telling of John Wyndham’s frightening tale of carnivorous plants that suddenly become murderous. This creepy and gripping story is made even more frightening by the fact that almost the entire population of Earth has been blinded by the intense light from a meteor shower, rendering them helpless against the Triffids, the eponymous carnivorous plant of the title.

Only a few people survive the mass blindness, such as people who were unconscious or a little girl who fell asleep in the guards van of a train or a sailor whose eyes were bandaged up for an eye operation. This film tells both their story and their attempt to find out what has survived of civilisation in Europe and the attempts by some unlikely and flawed scientists to find some method of countering the Triffids.

There have been a number of versions of Mr Wyndham’s story that have been filmed, but this one from 1962 is what I would call the classic version. It’s much more fast paced timescale wise than the BBC TV version of 1981 starring John Duttine and covers a lot more narrative ground in a shorter amount of time than that version.

In this cinema version, made approximately 11 years after the publication of the novel, I think that certain scenes have been incredibly well done, especially the scene in the Moorfields Eye Hospital and the French château scene where altruistic sighted people realise that they cannot save their blind charges from either the Triffids or the breakdown in society. If you are a fan of old British cars then this will give you somewhat of a treat as there is a great scene where the hero, Bill Masen played by Howard Keel, commandeers and abandoned Humber Hawk car and sets off to find if anyone from his navel base has survived both the blindness and the Triffids.

This is a great version of a great story and I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed it.