The Day of the Triffids (1962 film)

Promotional image for The Day of the Triffids (1962 film)...

• The Day of the Triffids (1962 film)
• The Day of the Triffids (1981 and 2009 BBC serials)
• The Day of the Triffids (1951 novel by John Wyndham)

Summary

After meteors enter Earth's atmosphere, blinding much of the planet's population in the process, plantlike creatures known as Triffids emerge from the craters and begin to take over. Military officer Bill Masen, one of the few sighted people left alive, meets with other survivors in England and tries to find a safe haven from the vicious vegetation, as scientist Tom Goodwin desperately seeks a way to defeat the leafy extraterrestrials.

Details

• Release Date: 1963
• Country/Language: UK, English
• Genres/Technical: Science Fiction, Horror
• Runtime: 1 hr 33 min
• Starring: Nicole Maurey, Howard Keel, Janette Scott
• Director: Steve Sekely, Freddie Francis
• Writer: John Wyndham (original story), Philip Yordan and Bernard Gordon (screenplay)
• Producer/Production Co: Allied Artists Pictures
• View Trailer: (1962), (1981), (2009)
• TVTropes: (film), (2009)
• IMDB: (1963), (link), (2009)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: (none) (equivalent to a "G" or "PG" for mild violence)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)

Not based explicitly or implicitly on any of Lovecraft's creations, but rather on John Wyndham's "Weird" fiction. The hints that the vegetable Triffids are possibly intelligent and flew to Earth from another world without a spaceship are common "Weird fiction" tropes, and would fit in well alongside Lovecraft's fiction.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

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Synopsis

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)

After meteors enter Earth's atmosphere, blinding much of the planet's population in the process, plantlike creatures known as Triffids emerge from the craters and begin to take over. Military officer Bill Masen, one of the few sighted people left alive, meets with other survivors in England and tries to find a safe haven from the vicious vegetation, as scientist Tom Goodwin desperately seeks a way to defeat the leafy extraterrestrials.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• The film version of the Triffids has a vulnerability to water (obviously "borrowed" from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds) which was not in the original novel; this poorly-received change was added at the insistence of the film's producers in order to give the film a happier ending.

Associated Mythos Elements

• fiction: based on the novel The Day of the Triffids (fiction) by John Wyndham
• setting: Cthulhu End Times
• race: Triffids

Keeper Notes

• In many ways, this story can be thought of as an ancestor of the modern "zombie apocalypse" tale, with slow-moving animate plant-monsters standing in for the living dead, and can be used as a more "Lovecraftian" alternative to the standard "zombie apocalypse" tale.