This is a well-told film that lacks post-1994 incredible special effects expenditures and massive overspending. What it has is a very solid story line, a number of memorable scenes and a feel of realism about it that adds a great deal I suggest to its eerie sci-fi atmosphere. Its central character, Bill, a career seaman played expertly by Howard Keel, is a man facing an nightmare. The film begins in a small typical and beautifully-presented small London hospital where he has to wait one more day before removing bandages to ensure that his vision will return to normal. Banter with a lovely nurse and his doctor turn into a prescient strangeness the next morning--when Keel awakes to find the hospital abandoned, all floors silent amid signs of damage and swift departure...Telephones are not working either. He removes his bandages to find a world without people. We learn, through his adventures and those of a couple in an isolated lighthouse off the coast, where the husband does scientific experiments and drinks too much, that a shower of meteors watched by billions, have destroyed their optic nerves and thus rendered nearly everyone blind. We soon learn that this is a worldwide phenomenon. In addition, a species of plants called triffids have developed from being small insect eating plants into towering and motile monstrosities that can sting and paralyze then absorb human beings as food. They spray small spores to propagate, are reproducing in millions and thus threaten all remaining human life. Keel picks up a young girl who can also see; and after escaping a crowd of the desperate in London and witnessing an attempt at an airliner landing turning into a massive explosion, they escapes from the city. Thereafter, their adventures deal with the plants' attacks, attempts to reach the continent and a rendezvous in Paris and then one in Spain; but the bulk of the film involves the couples' lonely battle with the triffids on their isolated island, and Keel's final escape from a doomed French haven with Nicole Maurey and the young girls as they make for a submarine pickup, the last scheduled for Europe's remaining sighted persons. The great task that everyone faces during the film is striving against all odds to find some way of defeating the plants as well simply escaping. The piece's screenplay by veteran Philip Yordan, adapted from a good John Wyndham novel, I find to be rather satisfying. Steve Sekely directed in swift-paced and intelligent style. The competent cast besides Keel, a most underrated leading man, include strong Kieron More and Janette Scott as the couple in the lighthouse, Mervyn Johns, Alison Leggatt, Geoffrey Mathews, Ewan Roberts, Janina Faye as the young girl picked up by Keel, Gilgi Hauser, pretty Carol Ann Ford, Colette Wild as the lovely nurse and Victor Brooks, among others. This estimable film was produced by Yordan, with George Pitcher as line producer assisted by Bernard Glasser. Rod Goodwin's musical score is powerful and well-above-average at all points. the cinematography by Ted Moore and Cedric Dawe's gritty art direction are also noteworthy. The film looks back I suggest to previous 1950s color sci-fi efforts; but its plants also became the model for the Star Trek "This Side of Paradise" spore-producing vegetation.. And its generally serious feel was copied many times thereafter, both the lighthouse sequence and the cross-country adventures of keep and his companions. But these achievements have seldom been approached let alone bettered. Anyone viewing the film today I assert should respond to its unusual realism; complaints about a lack of multi-million dollar graphics are undoubtedly more than misplaced. The storyline was a difficult one to capture in a brief film even in the 1960s. I suggest that the makers have done this exacting task rather admirably. Scenes such as the surrounding of an electrified yard by the carnivorous plants, the airliner's approach and crash, and the escape of Keel, Faye and Maurey from her house when it is taken over by convicts deserve critical acclaim. I judge this effort to be one of the most underrated of sci-fi films of all time.
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michaelRokeefe11 June 2000A meteorite shower lights up the sky and blinds all that watches it. Most of the world population must also deal with some rather weird plant life that can uproot itself and seek human nourishment.
Howard Keel plays a sailor recovering from an eye operation, thus not being blinded by the mysterious glowing display. He finds a young girl that slept through the starry shower. Together they seek out help and a solution to this very weird problem. A couple of marine biologist, stranded in a lighthouse, get a 'hands on' encounter with the rampaging stalks of terror.
An evenly paced movie considering the slow moving menace. This makes you ponder watering your plants. Very good movie.
Also in the cast are Janina Faye, Nicole Maurey and Janette Scott. -
grahamsj329 January 2005This film isn't particularly well-done, written or acted (Howard Keel is the only "name" actor in the entire cast), but it's still a favorite of mine because it is so hokey! A meteorite shower somehow blinds everyone who watched it's spectacular glory. Keel's character Bill, however, didn't see it due to his eyes being bandaged up. He finally unbandages his eyes and discovers a blind world. People are helpless. However, the meteor shower also brought the seed of the triffid to earth and they are beginning to grow. Unfortunately for earthlings, triffids kill people. Now add to the panic from the blindness the panic caused by the triffids and you have *real* panic everywhere. Of course, some people become animals, acting out depravity, and a little of that is shown safely within 1962 film guidelines. There are a few people who can see other than Keel but not many. Will someone come up with a way to stop the triffids before they kill all life on earth? Rent it and see.
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uds315 November 2001Another film-role immortalised in the line above, from the soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Show! Bit of a misnomer actually, SHE didn't fight the triffid, Kieron Moore did! All poor Janette did was to stand there shoving her hand in her mouth and screaming!
Well here's another sci-fi flick seems to have struck a sour note with many viewers. Yeah, there HAVE been many liberties taken with John Wyndham's original tale, doesn't mean though "Hey, three strikes you're out! Derided and laughed-at, much like RAISE THE TITANIC, many aspects of this film are clearly socially responsible and relevant today. How would YOU handle yourself in the situation Howard Keel finds himself in after the majority of the world's population is blinded by the light emanated from a meteor shower? The film was made for a 1960's outlook and acceptance, not new millennium desensitised and pseudo-enlightened audiences. Maybe the triffids WERE men in suits, they were damn good ones though. The fx where the triffids were seeking to gain entry to the lighthouse I thought were exceptionally good for their age. OK, so the film DOES also offer what is probably the WORST train pile up ever filmed (you never actually see it!) but give the makers a break. What did you EXPECT them to do? close Charing Cross station and have an eight coach steam train from Watford ram the buffers at 100 mph?
Many wonderful images from this film stick in the mind. That great scene where Mervyn Johns and Howard Keel stand on the edge of the quarry, watching the triffid spores becoming airborne. The triffid, as it lashes the back window of the Humber as Keel shepherds the little girl to safety. The stock-standard British stiff upper lip when the blinded crew of the airplane know they are doomed. The panorama of burning triffids when Keel rigs up the elctric fence then has to torch them before they break through. Even now so many years since I saw it, I can still hear that ice-cream truck as the triffids are led in pied-piper fashion away to their ultimate fate.
I can forgive 'Tommythek' his less than relevant comments. He at least admits to being "illiterate" and functioning at the lowest level. Others though are stupefyingly brittle and short-sighted. THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is top sci-fi entertainment, not quite a fully-fledged classic I agree, but I'll watch it anyday before I ever sit through CAST AWAY again! -
ShootingShark17 May 2005Bill Mason is sedated following an eye operation at a London hospital when there is a fantastic night-time meteor shower. He wakes up the next morning to find everyone who witnessed the shower is blind, and the world is quickly slipping into anarchy. To make matters worse, triffids - large, poisonous plants capable of slow, lumbering movement - are spreading like wildfire and attacking the helpless population. After rescuing a young girl who can also see, the two set off across Europe to search for the future.
Scary science-fiction thriller, adapted from a tremendous novel by John Wyndham, has all sorts of terrifying and inventive themes going on; the end of the world, alien invasion, the revolt of nature, the complacency and impotency of mankind - a brilliant story. The movie was not a major production but still does an impressive job of conveying the apocalypse, as Bill wakes up in a creepy deserted London spotted with pathetic figures bumping their way around. Ted Moore's photography is excellent, as are the special effects by Wally Veevers, and there's an ultra-loud score by Ron Goodwin which batters you about the head at all the scary moments. The unusual multicultural cast are good and Keel strikes the right balance of selfish practicality and compassion as Bill. The scenes set on the lighthouse with Scott and Moore were shot after the main production, by an uncredited Freddie Francis, but still work well. They do however commit the film's one main flaw, by deviating from the book and providing a weapon (in this case, sea-water), which kills the monsters. This aside however, this is an exciting and thought-provoking movie, reminding us of man's tenuous position at the top of the food-chain. -
lost-in-limbo2 June 2005A intensely colourful and bright meteor shower covered the sky one night blinding most of the world's population and making people defenseless to man eating plants called "Triffidus Celestus'' that were grown from meteor-borne spores. Though, there are some people that can see. An American seaman whose eyes were bandaged during the meteor shower is battling his way through triffids and helping out people. While, a couple in a lighthouse are fending off Triffids and trying to find a way to stop them.
John Wyndham's novel was brought to the big screen in this classic Sci-Fi with an A-grade story with b-grade effects, but it holds up fairly well. This is incredibly engaging kitsch with a nice idea that's very imaginative and it gives us a thrilling enough adventure. The film might be rough around the edges, but still it's rather effective because of a riveting story that we don't know what to expect and a solid lead performance by Howard Keel.
It's a film of two halves making it fairly uneven. The opening half creates such a grand apocalyptic feel, becoming quite unsettling at times with good location photography of an eerie London that captures such a mysterious vibe. It's indeed very atmospheric. While the second half slows down a bit and kinda goes berserk with its stars "The Triffids". It's rather amusing when they're moving about and springing out of nowhere, but because of that it drifts away from the edginess of the opening half and becomes rather padded.
Throughout the story we follow an American seaman trying to get to safety and helping blind people on his way and then there's a couple stranded in a lighthouse. While the first of the two is definitely the most interesting, but after a while it starts to fizzle out and leads to anticlimax. While the sequences with the couple (there weren't many) were mostly dull because of the bland dialogue and her constantly screaming and him constantly yelling, but the set-up for them was interesting enough. However, the climax involving the lighthouse couple is tense and exciting.
The special effects were rather ordinary, cheap and shoddy. Visually wise it was quite stunning and vibrant, with the lights in the sky as the meteor shower were fairly hypnotizing. There was good composition with colour and lighting. Though, the plants don't look terribly great and will cause a chuckle, but still they are a sight to see, as they look wicked and rather horrendous in nature or maybe just plain ridiculous. Most of the violence happened off screen/implied. The music score was rather enforcing and good in keeping such downbeat mood. There are some incredibly well staged sequences and there are scenarios in the story that lacked logic and cohesion, but it didn't bother me too much.
Howard Keel was fairly spirited and witty in his role. There are some fair if mundane support roles from Nicole Maurey, Alison Leggatt, Mervyn Jones and Janina Faye. While Kieron Moore and Janette Scott as the couple were rather shallow in their portrayals and that's mostly because they aren't given much screen time.
The mysterious opening 45-minutes is engrossing and builds tension and uneasiness nicely. The pretty routine mid-section gets bogged down and is far less involving. Some interesting sub-plots add some life and another dimension in the slow mid-section. While leading up to the ending it has some bizarre visuals of the triffids and some entertaining moments. Though, when it came to the ending for me it just came across forced and hard to swallow.
It's really nothing fancy, but overall it's an entertaining effort with ordinary special effects and cheesy dialogue that seem to add a lot of charm too it all. -
guswhovian28 June 2020When a meteor shower leaves most of the world's population blind, a US Navy officer (Howard Keel) has to discover a way to fight the Triffids, dangerous plants that are capable of movement and killing humans.
This low-budget 1962 version of John Wyndham's famous novel pales in comparison with the much better 1981 BBC miniseries.
The main benefit of the film is Howard Keel. He acquits himself surprisingly well in the dramatic part, but I wonder what would have happened if he started singing a duet with a Triffid!
The special effects are passable, but there's a silly sub-plot about two marine biologists that seems shoehorned in. Veteran British character actor Mervyn Johns appears briefly, and it was fun seeing a pre-Doctor Who Carole Ann Ford as a French girl (her accent is terrible).
Overall, cheesy fun. -
rmax3048231 October 2013I saw this piece of mindless junk when it came out and enjoyed it immensely. It borrows heavily from "War of the Worlds," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and maybe "The Little Shop of Horrors." And it follows a pattern familiar to any fan of inexpensive science fiction stories.
First, there must be a scientist around to help discover the best way to destroy the illegal aliens. In this case, that would be Kieron Moore. The scientist usually has a pretty assistant. Right. Janette Scott, who really IS attractive.
There has to be a jack of all trades, too; somebody to keep the generators running, who knows how to fix a flat tire and run a boat, who is handy with radios and carpentry. Howard Keel knows all that stuff. He gets most of the screen time because the scientist, due to clumsy plotting, is stuck away on an isolated lighthouse off the Cornish coast. A GOOD lousy cheap science fiction movie would have put the scientist and the hero together in the same frame, with the scientist providing the advice and the hero providing the action.
The hero should pick up a girl friend along the way. Early on, Howard Keel picks up Janina Faye as a companion but since she's only twelve years old, that won't do. This is "The Day of the Triffids," not "Lolita." So Keel and Janina travel to France, where Keel is able to consort with Nicole Maurey, although little develops between them, and frankly I'd prefer Joan Weldon as an affiliate because she was a singer with the San Francisco Opera and because she looked just swell in an Army helmet as the scientist's niece in "Them!" Believe me, there is no turn on like a woman in battle dress.
Another part of any good rotten cheap story of alien invasions or monsters from the bowels of the earth, if they're British, as this one is, is that they feature some familiar American face, usually an over-the-hill star. In this instance, it's the baritone profundo Howard Keel but elsewhere it's Brian Donlevy, Gene Evans, Richard Carlson, Forrest Tucker, or even, improbably, Sonny Tufts who, by the 1950s, must have had only the hint of a liver left.
The story? These man-eating plants are somehow activated by a meteor shower that turns everyone blind except those who, like Keel, were unable or unwilling to watch it. The shabby looking things are crawling all over the planet eating people. They're attracted to noise, perhaps because they themselves can only produce a staccato clucking sound like that of a pair of dice being shaken in a cardboard container. How does the scientist figure out a way of destroying them? No power on earth could drag the answer out of me but if you've read H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds" you know it's not going to turn out to be a ray gun. Final scene: Crowds climbing the steps to a church while chimes of triumph ring on the sound track. The originality is stunning. -
bkoganbing30 January 2007I recommend everyone read Howard Keel's somewhat rollicking posthumous memoirs and read what he has to say about his participation in this science fiction cult classic.
Keel's career was at sea when he signed for this film. A big budget biblical spectacle, The Big Fisherman, was crowded out of existence by the bigger budgeted Ben-Hur. There went Keel's hope for a post musical career. He signed to do this British production and got the money up front so he did it.
He knew he was in a stinkarooney about a meteor shower that blinds nearly all the world's population. At the same time the meteors bring the spores of these carnivorous plants which when they grow can uproot themselves and move about, something like the Daleks in Doctor Who. They're doing a grand job destructing all life about them, especially human life. They spray a deadly poison, fatal on contact.
Howard Keel was in hospital having eye surgery as it turns out the night of the fateful meteor shower. Next morning when he's scheduled to have the bandages removed, he finds he's one of the few people who can see in all London. He saves another sighted person, Janina Faye, and moves on to France, where they in turn pick up Nicole Maurey.
Always meeting up with the giant size Triffids who are just pigging out on sightless humankind. Eventually they end up in Spain.
One day, the producers simply announced the film was over. The money people had taken a powder. Keel and the rest of the cast left the film. A year and a half later, money was found so another story line was filmed involving Kieron Moore and Janette Scott who discover how to destroy the Triffids. Keel was in fact supposed to do it. They integrated the Moore/Scott footage into the film and released it.
The Day of the Triffids became a cult science fiction classic, but not a favorite experience of Howard Keel. I can't say and spoil how the Triffids are destroyed, but in his memoirs Keel says the producers could have saved a lot of money if they had simply let him perform a biological function on them.
Now that would REALLY have been a cult classic. -
The Day of the Triffids starts with a brief narration that talks about carnivorous plants, the Venus Fly Trap in particular & that a new species has been discovered & named the Triffid. The planet Earth is experiencing a once in a lifetime event, it is being bombarded by a shower of meteorites that burn up before they reach the Earth surface but illuminate the night sky with bright flashes of light... However naval officer Bill Masen (Howard Keel) can't witness the spectacle as he has recently undergone an eye operation & the bandages need to stay on until the morning. The morning arrives & Bill takes the bandages off himself & finds Dr. Soames (Ewan Roberts) who says he is blind, as is everyone else who looked at the meteorite shower the previous night. Unfortunately that accounts for just about the entire population of Earth, if that wasn't enough to cope with the new Triffid plants uproot themselves & kill any living creature they can sting with their tendrils. Together with a young girl named Susan (Janina Faye) Bill sets out to find help & safety...
This classic British Sci-Fi/horror was directed by Steve Sekely (& apparently an uncredited Freddie Francis) & still holds up pretty well even today, over forty years after it's initial release. The script by executive producer Philip Yordan based on the novel by John Wyndham moves along at a nice pace, entertains & the basic story has a timeless quality about it. The fact that nearly the entire human race has been blinded & therefore make easy prey for the Triffids is quite a creepy one when you think about it. The character's are fairly likable if a little bland & forgettable. There are some good scenes in The Day of the Triffids particularly a fog enshrouded sequence in a forest where a car stuck in mud is menaced by a shadowy Triffid & the opening scene with the night watchman in the conservatory. The parts in the lighthouse with Karen (Janette Scott) & Tom Goodwin (Kieron Moore) stick out like a sore thumb as they never interact with any of the other cast members, rumour has it these scenes were shot by Francis because the original length of the film was too short. The climax of the film felt rushed & both too convenient & happy. The special effects in The Day of the Triffids vary greatly, considering when it was made most of the optical effects are acceptable although the Triffids themselves are the biggest disappointment coming across very fake looking & distinctly unscary or unthreatening. You can't take some of the attack scenes seriously which lessens the films impact overall & even the opening shots of a fake Venus Fly Trap look terrible, couldn't the filmmakers find a real one? Technically apart from the dodgy effects The Day of the Triffids is OK with decent music, cinematography & solid production values. The acting is alright although Keel makes for a somewhat bland hero who it's difficult to root (!nice pun!) for. The Day of the Triffids is still definitely worth a watch if your a Sci-Fi fan but modern audiences may find it a bit too dated. The British TV station the BBC made The Day of the Triffids (1981) as a six part TV series which is meant to be even better than this. -
planktonrules15 September 2017Last night I watched an episode of the old "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". In "The Price of Doom", you had a decent story and some very good actors...and a creature that looked like it cost $3.48 to make...at the most. Because the 'monster' was so ridiculously bad, it was hard to enjoy the show. It was so bad that famed sci-fi author Harlan Ellison disavowed responsibility for this episode and he asked his name be stricken from the show!!
I mention all this because "Day of the Triffids" is pretty much the same experience as watching "The Price of Doom". It had a neat script, very good acting and monsters that were so laughably bad...even by 1960s standards. As a result it seriously took me out of the experience and made the film quite silly.
In this near future film, meteorites strike the Earth and inexplicably make plants, triffids, turn into malevolent flesh- eating monsters. At the same time, most of the folks on the planet go blind...so it's up to a few to figure out how to survive and fight off the incredibly ridiculous creatures!
Good script, good acting, dopey monsters...nuff said about this one. -
Hitchcoc17 September 2001When I got my driver's license, I headed off to a nearby town to see a movie. This was it. I loved it. It has really received a bad rap. The story begins with a city full of blind people--Stricken by a meteor shower which has also brought spores to earth--the spawn of Triffids--flesh eating plants. While the plants are not sighted or masterfully created, the quest by Howard Kiel and his young counterpart, and the horror they encounter, is quite good. I found it anything but boring. It speaks to the realities of the created situation, and the acting is good. There is a nice subplot of a depressed lighthouse keeper and marine biologist and his wife/associate who seek an answer. It was quite suspenseful and well paced. Some real questions are asked and answered. It's not a masterpiece, but it holds up very well after all these years.
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Aaron137523 August 2009This movie was a favorite of mine as a child, mainly due to the killer plants. However, it had the other interesting plot point of nearly everyone going blind as well that made this one rather interesting if not really dated at this point in time. Still nothing like a good monster movie from the early 1960's to really make for enjoyable popcorn cinema. I am not sure exactly how all the mess started in this movie, but I do remember it having sort of the same type of catalyst as the movie "Night of the Comet" and other science fiction horror movies of a meteor shower or comet cutting through the sky and leaving behind zombies, dried up humans in search of blood, or in the case of this movie blind humans and killer plants. The plant monsters look okay, not great, but better than the computer generated ones from the movie "The Ruins" anyway. There are survivors of this nightmare who were able to retain their sight. I think they just did not watch the event that caused the mess in the first place and they must try to avoid the plant monsters and sometimes the panic stricken blind people who are pretty much going to be plant food. Interesting movie, and good old school science fiction horror.
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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 ****
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BaronBl00d5 May 2001Reading the previous reviews for this film were like watching a tennis match. One reviewer made a valid negative point(or serve) whilst another made a positive point. Back and forth....back and forth. Those people that read the book seemed to be in general much less happy with the film than those who had never read the book. I can understand that, but looking at films and their adaptations of books must sometimes be done with a more discerning eye. And, of course, sometimes the adaptations of books are so horribly done that nothing but a feeling of resentment, disappointment, and hate can be achieved from the viewer. I have not read the John Wyndham novel..yet. I will. But as sci-fi films and horror films go, The Day of the Triffids is an enjoyable flawed..very flawed film. I have such concrete memories of seeing this as a child and after watching it again after at least twenty years, scene after scene came back to my consciousness. The vivid, colorful meteorite showers over a London backdrop, the night watchman working in the greenhouse, the crowds of sightless people begging for help from those that could see, and the battle between life and death on a remote lighthouse island. The special effects are not very good, the plants look...well..a bit preposterous. The acting is not very grand either. C'mon, what did you expect with Howard Keel in the lead...Shakespeare? Actually Keel is decent as is the cast for the most part. The biggest flaw in the film for me is the script....which has little cohesion as it jumps from one thing to another and then another. The ending was vastly unsatisfactory as it really abruptly ends. Maybe there was no money or good thoughts left. But notwithstanding all of this, The Day of the Triffids is a fun film and a trip down Memory Lane for me.
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Zod-228 October 2002Review contains minor spoilers.
It was the intriguing premise of Day of the Triffids that got me interested in seeing the movie. I've never been a big fan of 50's and 60's horror movie but when I heard that Triffids was about a meteor shower that left most of the population of Earth blind and populated it with man-eating flowers I had to see it.
For the most part the film is executed well if you can accept the F/X limitations of a film made in 1962. The problem is that the film seems to forget what it's about, Triffids overtaking the Earth! Much of the movie is about Bill Masen and Christine Durrant trying to get to a safe zone with other people with sight. Unfortunately they do this pretty much without interference from Triffids.
I enjoyed Day of the Triffids it had a little bit of suspense, a couple of good, but short, action sequences and the Triffids were very well done, but under-used (they are rarely shown attacking anyone). The film is also marred by it's quick resolution and a tacked on "Hollywood ending". Day of the Triffids is for fans of the genre and those who have a affinity for film in general. It's also a good sci-fi horror film for younger children, although they might get bored. Day of the Triffids gets a 6 out of 10. -
HelloTexas1125 March 2008'The Day of the Triffids' is a film that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and one I still enjoy watching. It is essentially a low-budget sci-fi horror film, but on another level, it's a post-apocalyptic story and a study in how people react to a breakdown in society. One night, a strange, brilliant meteor shower causes blindness in anyone who witnesses it, which as it turns out is virtually the entire population of the Earth. Only those people who for whatever reason had no opportunity to watch the display are spared (submarine crews, for example.) Bill Masen (Howard Keel), an American naval officer, is in a London hospital after an eye operation with his eyes bandaged that night, so the next day, he discovers he has retained his sight but practically no one else has. There are scenes of confusion and anarchy wherever he goes; the bus depot, outside in the city streets, and at the train station, where there is a train wreck and he meets up with Susan (Janina Faye), an English schoolgirl who had been hiding in the baggage car the night before and so can see as well. Concurrently, triffids (tall, ambulatory, deadly plants) begin roaming the towns and countryside, killing any humans they come in contact with. A side story takes place in a lighthouse on a remote island, where a scientist and his wife try to figure out a way to kill the creatures. Bill and Susan cross the channel and the rest of the film chronicles their attempts to be rescued, encounters with various people, and confrontations with the triffids. Along the way, they meet up with Christine (Nicole Maurey), a sighted French woman, who joins them on their quest. Keel, the former star of MGM musicals such as 'Show Boat,' gives a somewhat indifferent performance. It's fair to say his film career was in sharp decline at the time, and one definitely gets the impression that he took the role in a low-budget sf thriller strictly for the paycheck. But oddly enough, he seems right for the part, as he provides a kind of laidback authority to the proceedings, which are themselves strangely low-key much of the time, given the traumatic circumstances. In fact, aside from the requisite scream here and there, the three principles do not seem terribly concerned about their predicament. This might have to do with the film being a British production and the customary British understatement about even such matters as the end of civilization. There is a certain charm to 'The Day of the Triffids' and in how Bill, Christine, and Susan become an ad hoc family of sorts. Periodically throughout, the triffids provide a jolt of surprise and suspense but mainly the mood is melancholy, which is unusual for this kind of movie. Not surprisingly, the special effects are less than stellar yet adequate for the most part. 'The Day of the Triffids' is an enjoyable little film that holds up well, more than forty years later.
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bygard27 April 2007John Wyndham has always been one my favorite of the 'classic science-fiction' writers. And 'The Day of the Triffids' is a classic in itself both as the original book and this film version. The story is very simple, yet effective with many great 'what if' situations. So, what if most of the population goes blind? Well, if it's caused by a psychedelic meteor storm and giant plants on roller skates the situations can be very hairy. And also fun to watch. Just like H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds was, to which Triffids owe more than a little. If you also happened to like the original 50's versions of 'The Blob' or 'The Thing from Another World' and haven't seen this one yet you're in for a big treat.
Everything is as it should be in these movies. The acting is average but solid enough and the mutants are on wires, wheels and who knows what. The triffids aren't seen very clearly most of the time, which thankfully adds some mystery into them and lets watcher's own imagination fill the gaps for a menace.
The action is cleverly divided to a couple of different places and groups of people allowing some nice variation on the danger and mood. Usually some sort of deeper metaphoric level can be found even in the silliest of old SF-flicks, be it fighting against communism or what ever. This story almost feels like some sort of a tribute to the British during difficult times of WW2, lightly entertaining but warm hearted. A charming classic and free of pessimism of the later times. -
tavm11 August 2012The reason I'm now watching this British horror movie from the early '60s is because since I've been reviewing films and TV appearances of the original "Dallas" stars in chronological order for the last two months, I'm presently at 1962 with this, Howard Keel's contribution to my list that I've just mentioned. He plays an American Navy man in England with bandages in his eyes when a meteor shower blinds many of the public wandering outside the European countries which includes France and Spain as well. He eventually also finds a pre-teen English girl and a French woman who also managed to avoid the blindness of that night. Oh, and yes, there are monster plants of the title killing anyone they encounter abounding around. I'll stop there and just say that despite the pretty ridiculous premise I've just described, I found myself liking the acting and therefore somewhat caring for the characters. That also includes a married couple in a lighthouse tower who are scientists that have no contact at all with the other characters. One of whom, Janette Scott, is quite luminous in her beauty and does some great screaming when the occasion is provided. As for those plants, well, I thought when shown at night some effective chills were provided but when shown in the daytime, the cheesiness was in abundance. So when I watched this on YouTube, it was on a program called Cinema Insomnia hosted by a Mr. Lobo who did plenty of sketches that were amateurishly funny and had also some vintage commercials, and various trailers that also provided some enjoyment for me. So in summary, I enjoyed The Day of the Triffids for some scares and unintentional humor which was good enough for me.
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kitellis-9812110 August 2018"Plants! Green things that live in the soil. Some are carnivorous. That means they eat meat - the flesh of dead creatures. Meat, I tell you. Meat! Plants that eat meat! We don't know how. We don't know why. Elsewhere, Howard Keel is wearing a blindfold. Let's zoom in on it now. A blindfold, I tell you. A blindfold!..."
I may be paraphrasing the film's narration a little - but not much. Honestly, it's that bad! This was a film very much of its time, and it has dated horrendously. In another review, of either Clash of the Titans or Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, I can't remember which, I waxed lyrical about the glories of the "good old days" of moviemaking before the advent of CGI. I expressed scorn and contempt for modern audiences who are unable to appreciate and enjoy old movies, particularly those featuring the best that special effects had to offer in a pre-computerised age - because those are what I grew up on. I have immense respect for the early pioneers of SFX, and their work still has a special place in my film-buff-soul.
But although I remember enjoying Day of the Triffids as child, I am honestly appalled at how bad it is by today's standards - and I'm not talking about the clunky and embarrassing effects. I'm talking about the god-awful script, heinously bad acting, and all-round-abysmal storytelling. What a dire movie! I couldn't stick with it longer than 20 minutes before giving up in disgust.
My love and nostalgia for old movies has finally found its limit, and it's called Day of the Triffids.
Note: Enjoyment not helped by the worst quality transfer I've ever seen, which was grainy, washed-out, faded, and distorted due to not being presented in the correct aspect ratio. The audio also sounded like a 19th century wax cylinder!
Glad it was free on Amazon. -
ma-cortes3 August 2020Fantastic, frightening and entirely creepy film dealing with people around the world are treated to a spectacular meteor shower resulting in most of the world blinded and the dangerous carnivorous Triffids set loose . In fact , they were called Triffids because they had a three-pronged root . They fall upon a group of scattered survivors (Janette Scott ,Kieron Moore) to fight this plant invasion and the madness following , while the Triffids are now growing rapidly and consuming more and more humans . In London, Bill Masen (Howard Keel) misses the show as he is in hospital with his eyes bandaged . He removes the bandages himself and soon realizes that he one of the few people with sight as everyone who observed the meteor shower is now blind . Bill finds himself in a nightmarish world where he believes himself to be the only sighted person left . Along the way the Triffids have discovered a taste for rotting, human flesh. The remaining blind are helpless and many fall prey to the Triffids' lethal whipping sting. The Triffids are on their way - devouring humans, and most off the planet thinks it's a joke - but is not . To help stop the invasion, a group of hold outs fight this invasion of killer plants . But it's not just the plants which need to be eradicated! . Instead they are space aliens whose spores have arrived in an earlier meteor shower. Society has broken down and Bill rescues a young sighted girl . Their challenge is not only to survive in this new world but to survive the onslaught of triffids , flesh eating plants that are coming to devour the human race . Man eating plants! Spine chilling terror!The triffids are coming! The triffids are growing! The triffids are killing!Beware the triffids... they grow... know... walk... talk... stalk... and kill! ... suddenly the hideous crawling things are everywhere... and no one can escape!
From one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time about a meteor shower causing permanent eye damage and suddenly appearing the feared Triffids . This is John Wyndham's famous story well adapted by Steve Sekely concerning a world dominated by monstrous , as a terrible catastrophe has struck the population of Earth by stinging plants catching the imagination like the best of HG Wells . In the footprints of ¨Invasion of the Bodysnatchers¨ and ¨The Thing¨ comes this piece of kitsch filmmaking from 1962 . From the nightmare novel that made the world shudder was shot this acceptable movie , though with dated special effects . It displays tense , suspenseful , and terrifying scenes when the starving Triffids attack . As well as a moving and thrilling musical score by Ron Goodwin and supported with "additional music" by composer Johnny Douglas who actually supplied more music than the main composer . The motion picture was professionally directed by Steve Sekely (Lake Placid Serenade , Waterfront , Lady in the Death House , Women in Bondage , Revenge of the Zombies , Behind Prison Walls) and uncredited Freddie Francis .
There are other version about this story as ¨The Day of the Triffids¨ (1981) series by Ken Hannam with John Duttine , Jonathan Newth . ¨Day of Triffids¨ series (2009) by Nick Copus woth Dougray Scott , Joely Richardson, Eddie Izzard , Brian Cox. -
Philby-313 December 2006I'm afraid this film of John Wyndham's 1951 novel has little to recommend it. It starts off well enough with Bill Masen (Howard Keel) waking up in hospital in London the morning after a spectacular meteorite show, taking off his eye bandages to discover almost everyone has gone blind watching it. The consequences of this are well indicated in an understated, British, sort of way. When the End does come, the Brits will patiently queue up for their turn to die. Then the film deviates sharply from the book and adds in a parallel plot which never intersects with the main one about an alcoholic marine scientist Tom Goodwin (Kieran Moore) and his despairing wife Karen (Janette Scott) who are stuck in a lighthouse surrounded by triffids, a flesh-eating plant energized and turned very nasty by the meteorite shower.
Bill and Susan (Janina Faye) the young girl he rescues from a train wreck dodge a few triffids and head off to France (the book stays in England). A nice French lady Christine Durrant (Nicole Maurey) has opened up her elegant château to victims, but the bad guys (escaped convicts) arrive and Bill, Susan and Mme Durrant head off for Spain where they meet another nice, but blind couple in an elegant hacienda about to have a child and discover a way of dealing with the triffids. Meanwhile, back at the lighthouse, the triffids invade, Janette Scott does some really impressive screaming (immortalized in the Rocky Horror Show song) and hubby finds another use for seawater (cheaper than Scotch I guess).
I feel for John Wyndham who lived long enough to see this travesty produced. His story received some justice in a BBC series with John Duttine in 1981. PD James's "Children of Men", filmed excellently by Alphonse Cuaron in 2006, owes something to the Wyndham novel. There are some improbabilities, but like PD James he starts off from a perfectly reasonable premise what would happen if 99% of the population were struck blind.
The talented Moore who did the cinematography on several of the early Bond films does not get much opportunity here (though he wisely keeps the triffids in the shadows) ; the acting is wooden, except for Janette Scott, and the direction by Steve Sekely mostly unimaginative. The script, by the blacklisted Bernard Gordon, does have its moments but, no, sorry, this film is pretty well a total write-off; watch the BBC version instead. Or, or course, read the book. -
Coventry20 August 2004Day 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! -
lee_eisenberg23 September 2005"The Day of the Triffids" is not like any other sci-fi movie. It all begins with Bill Masen (Howard Keel) in a hospital with bandages over his eyes. There is an impressive light show outside, but the staff reminds him that he needs to keep the bandages over his eyes. The next morning, no one comes to remove the bandages, so Bill removes them himself, and finds the whole hospital a mess. It turns out that everyone who watched the light show has gone blind. So, the already blind people become the leaders of the world.
However, that's only half the story. The other half is that the light show has sent rays to these plants called triffids, which come to life and start eating people. So now, people are blind and have to flee the unseen enemy.
Personally, I think that they could have just made it so that people went blind; if they'd done that, the movie would have been a lot more interesting. The part about the plants coming to life made it kind of silly. But even so, it's a most interesting movie.
P.S.: I'm currently in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the semester, and I was quite surprised to find that my host family has a Russian version of the book on which this movie was based. -
tenthousandtattoos12 August 2007Eh, stop bashin this movie! So it's dated and cheesy and is now a "cult B-film" so what?? It's classic 60's cheesy sci-fi, so whack it on the playlist for your next creature feature night, it's a blast! Watching the chick in the lighthouse gnaw on her fist between girly squeals is worth the 10 bucks alone (in fact, if you are brave, or silly, or both, try the Triffids drinking game-a shot every time a woman squeals...)
Triffids starts with Earth being bombarded by meteorites that burn up in the atmosphere but illuminate the night sky with a kaleidescope of light...a "once in a lifetime spectacle!" However navy man Bill (Howard Keel) can't watch as he has recently undergone eye surgery and the bandages need to stay on until morning. However, this meteor show has blinded anyone who watched it. Unfortunately, that means everyone!! Disasters abound now with a blinded population...but wait for it...the meteors also released the Triffids, man eating plants that can "uproot themselves and walk around, and inflict a fatal sting!"
So it's up to our lucky few who can still see (namely Navy dude, a little girl he finds along the way (Nicole Maury) and a couple trapped in a lighthouse, played by Jeanette Scott and Keiron Moore (she the hapless, fist-gnawing squealer and he a rabid alcoholic - c'mon, who baulks at the notion of only drinking ONE bottle of scotch a week?) Anyway, our sozzled scientist is busily trying to nut out a way to defeat the evil space spawn before he runs out of booze. Jeanette looks kinda nice, and screams a lot (or did I mention that already...?).
I love these old, low-budget flicks - in this film, we see an airliner crash, a shipwreck, and a train crash disaster, and they all look fake, but that's the fun, and part of the draw these old movies have for die-hard old sci fi and horror flick fans like me! The triffids are some of the weirdest, funniest creatures to ever infest the screen...enjoy!