January 31, 2006

January 2006 Triple Feature Picks: Violent Vegetation by Mike C

I’m dedicating this month’s trilogy pics to Raw Vegan Horror Filmmaker Scott Goldberg to celebrate the release of his film “The Day They Came Back”. Scott only eats raw veggies, which seem harmless enough until you consider this month’s Trilogy Pics. Here are three films that want to us to question what’s at the bottom of our salad bowls.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978): Yeah, I’m going with the remake on this one. The story is still the same: An unknown species of plant begins growing wild. Some people just don’t seem themselves anymore. Could there be a connection? Sure the original 1950’s version would the obvious choice for this month’s pics, but this remake is often overlooked. Plus, this is the one where a pod person gets punched in the face and the results are…can I say…”sappy”? The writers transposed the setting from a small town to the big city of San Francisco, but while it might seem less believable there’s a lot they actually do with this that works. After all, it’s a lot easier for those pesky pod person to hide, isn’t it? Easier for them to spread slowly, unnoticed. It adds a great level of suspense and an extra dose of paranoia. I know I complain about remakes all the time, but this is one of the few that, while probably just as unnecessary, manages to get things right. Keep your eye out for some strange cameos by Robert Duvall, and Kevin McCarthy (from the original film).

HABITAT: This film fits into this month’s theme, but I’m not sure I’m actually recommending it to you so much as I am saying, “Hey, pop this one in the DVD player for a few minutes and get a load of some kind of neat stuff for a few minutes”. I haven’t seen it in years, and I remember it being pretty hard to sit through. But parts of this movie I’ve always remembered. This film has it’s fans that claim it’s a vastly underrated work of sci-fi. I’m not so sure about that. There’s a whole lot of environmental hokum about the ozone layer having been completely destroyed, yadda yadda. The film really gets strange when Hank Symes has an accident during an experiment that transforms him into plant lifeform, which gradually begins to take over the house his family lives in and certain members of his family. Alice Krieg (STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT) gives one of her typically weird performances as the wife slowly consumed by her husbands new form. There’s some pretty cool scenes where the house attacks invaders by giving them horrible allergy attacks…that kind of thing you don’t soon forget.

DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962): I had a teacher in high school who said this film scarred her. She couldn’t get near sunflowers because they reminded her of the creatures from this movie. This is another film that has it’s fans and haters. It’s based on a novel by John Wyndam, and there was a remake in 1981 by the BBC that is more faithful to that novel. Even so, this one is a step above your typical silly 60’s sci-fi. The premise alone is a little disturbing: A beautiful meteor shower over England blinds anyone unfortunate enough to have looked at it. This leads to the accidental release of nasty, whip-snapping, poison spitting, er, sunflowers called a Triffids. If you’re idea of fun is watching actors stumble around “blind” and get eaten up by plants this is your movie.