Day of the Triffids is a unique movie-experience and it became one of my personal favorites right from the first viewing. This film actually is a cinematic mystery to itself since you can't figure out how to rate it: trash or terrific? Watching the Day of the Triffids is like seeing two movies rolling into one. It's a compelling and unsettling apocalyptic disaster-movie but as soon as the killer vegetables kick in, it more looks like an amateur Edward Wood science fiction mess. Or in other words: for as long as no special effects budget is required, the film offers story-driven eeriness. I'm particularly amazed by the amount of ingeniousness this film features! The plot is based on a novel by John Wyndham and tells the story of a disastrous meteor shower spectacle, of which the intensity blinds the entire world population. The few people who missed this event (like protagonist Howard Keel who was in the hospital for an eye-operation) are the only ones who still have hope to survive, since giant man-eating plants (called Triffids) grow from the meteor craters and feed on the helpless blind humans.
The boisterous lightshow indicating us a meteor shower is happening is cheerfully cheap and becomes unintentionally hilarious. But and that's what so impressive the sequences that follow this unearthly event are some of the best scenes of mass-hysteria ever shot on film! People at London station who suddenly turn blind and cause incidents and mayhem. There even is downright fantastic sequence showing the hysteria in an about-to-crash airplane because the pilot suddenly lost his eyesight. These sequences are what makes 'Day of the Triffids' so unique! As the story continues, a small group of surviving heroes tries to flee to Spain chased by the ugly Triffids trying to eat them. Yet another courageous couple is stuck in a lighthouse, annihilating Triffids and saving their watered marriage at the same time! You can't get passed the weirdness of this film, every time it tends to get exaggeratedly cheesy; a new ingenious twist is added. Result: a fascinating film from start to finish! I pity my few fellow reviewers here who can't seem to look beyond the poor production values and therefore totally miss the uniqueness of the entire finished product. True, the giant plants are awful and the noises they make resemble to those of a broken vacuum cleaner. And yes, the acting is a bit embarrassing at times and the dialogue isn't exactly top-notch. But always keep in mind you won't ever see such an incredible amount of creativity and amusement in nowadays cinema. Highly recommended!
The boisterous lightshow indicating us a meteor shower is happening is cheerfully cheap and becomes unintentionally hilarious. But and that's what so impressive the sequences that follow this unearthly event are some of the best scenes of mass-hysteria ever shot on film! People at London station who suddenly turn blind and cause incidents and mayhem. There even is downright fantastic sequence showing the hysteria in an about-to-crash airplane because the pilot suddenly lost his eyesight. These sequences are what makes 'Day of the Triffids' so unique! As the story continues, a small group of surviving heroes tries to flee to Spain chased by the ugly Triffids trying to eat them. Yet another courageous couple is stuck in a lighthouse, annihilating Triffids and saving their watered marriage at the same time! You can't get passed the weirdness of this film, every time it tends to get exaggeratedly cheesy; a new ingenious twist is added. Result: a fascinating film from start to finish! I pity my few fellow reviewers here who can't seem to look beyond the poor production values and therefore totally miss the uniqueness of the entire finished product. True, the giant plants are awful and the noises they make resemble to those of a broken vacuum cleaner. And yes, the acting is a bit embarrassing at times and the dialogue isn't exactly top-notch. But always keep in mind you won't ever see such an incredible amount of creativity and amusement in nowadays cinema. Highly recommended!