The Day of the Triffids Year: 1962 Director: Steve Sekely Written by: Philip Yordan Threat: Plants Weapon of Choice: Saltwater Based upon: novel - The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham Color/B&W/3D: Color Language: English Country of Origin: UK IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
I had only sort of heard of this one until Rish brought it over one night to watch. It seems to me that this is exactly the sort of film that was popular in the drive-ins of the '60s but that wouldn't stand up well today. Evil alien plants? It was done better in any of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies. But I shouldn't discount this one wholly. It had its bits.
So there's a massive meteor storm one night that apparently is seen everywhere on earth. Anyone in a position to see the metors (or the light from the meteors?) is blinded. All hell breaks loose the next morning when most of civilization crumbles because suddenly no one can see anything. Oh, and the meteors carried the seeds of highly carniverous plants that delight in eating anything on two legs. Also, there's a subplot about a couple abandoned in a lighthouse on an island that only has a sort of peripheral relationship to the rest of the movie and was done far better years later as the Doctor Who episode "The Horror of Fang Rock."
I like apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic movies. It's a fun theme to dwell on. Those that start with mass hysteria and morph into some sort of alien plant life problem really don't work though. It seems like they had one quarter of a good movie and one quarter of a mediocre movie. Glue those together with some filler and you get a feature length movie that is at times confusing and at other times just plain stupid.
I really ought to read the novel. It can't be this bad.
There probably isn't a real reason to see this. And if you happen to be old enough to remember seeing this in your childhood, keep it that way. Don't let your adult eyes tarnish that memory.
Posted: September 11, 2006

Rish's Reviews
I know dong about "Fang Rock," but I know it's my fault we rented this film.
I used to have an Irish friend whose movie opinions were even stronger than mine (Blair Witch sucks), and when the Japanese film The Eye was coming out, he said it sounded like a ripoff of Day of the Triffids. I asked him about that movie and he described it as something very, very cool.
I imagine he hadn't seen it since he was a lad.
I really wanted to see this one. I picked it up mostly because it was based on a book by John Wyndham, who also wrote the book Village of the Damned was based on. This is one that should've remained a book, though.
I like the British-ness of it all. But that's me. It was not very good. Part was due to the tremendously small budget, but parts of it just didn't work. Plants, unless they're cacti, really aren't that scary.
The subplot tyranist mentioned about the lighthouse wasn't bad (good lookin' woman), but it felt like it was added later to pad out the runtime.
Even after seeing it, my fondest memory of this flick is the line in Rocky Horror's Science Fiction Double Feature that goes "And I really got hot, when I saw Janette Scott; Fight a triffid that spits poison and kills." I admit that the song is better than the movie,* but the movie is better than Triffids.
One thing's for sure, this was the worst DVD transfer I have EVER seen. It was such a crappy transfer, it reminded me of suffering through Sleepaway Camp and Amityville Horror's repugnant VHS versions in the early days of the site.
You know, it's possible you could make a very good, very spooky, very effective version of this story (perhaps the novel is truly great, I don't know), but it would take work. I feel lucky I don't have to attempt it.
I'd Recommend It To: People with inch-high expectations.
*Should we review Rocky Horror?
Posted: September 19, 2006

Total Skulls: 17

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?