moonspinner55 Review of The Day of the Triffids

The Day of the Triffids (1963)

After a meteor shower, confusion reigns...on-screen and off!

[5/10 · 28 January 2011]

John Wyndham's novel "Day of the Triffids" becomes low-budget British-made monster movie without the proper finance to really sort out what promises to be a good mystery. The morning after a colorful meteor shower has lit up the evening skies over London, a high percentage of the population wakes up completely blinded; even worse, the landscape has been littered with a type of carnivorous flower seed--Triffidus Celestus--which makes The Venus Fly Trap look like child's play. A band of survivors with their sight still intact fight back against the man-eating plants, which apparently have the knowledge and the strength to break down barricades and crash through windows. Unfortunately, even with a handful of scientists featured in the scenario, we learn very little about the Triffids beyond their appetite for flesh and blood. Instead, we get macho heroics from sailor Howard Keel, and an antagonistic romance-on-the-rocks between an unhappy couple in their laboratory. Still, for fans of the genre, the framework of the plot is an intriguing one, and the sound and visual effects are both good. ** from ****