December 8, 2007

The Day of the Triffids

BBC's 1981 television adaptation of The Day of the Triffids was available as a freebie at Netflix so I picked it up. I really didn't know anything about it, but I knew that it falls under the category of sci-fi cult classic. I figured it would look old, but still be interesting and worth watching for its cultural value.

Triffids are a plant-animal that sting animals and then eat them, much like spiders or insect-eating plants do in reality. Only Triffids seem to possess some mediocre level of intelligence and can move around. When an unexplained astral phenomenon leaves most of the human race blind, the Triffids start having a free lunch. Conveniently, there's no explanation for where Triffids came from (they are a magically introduced new species) or the astral phenomenon either.

The statements I later saw comparing it to 28 Days Later are apt. However, I really liked 28 Days Later and felt let down by The Day of the Triffids. What I didn't like about this TV series was that there wasn't a whole lot of direction. I've been led to understand that is how the novel was as well, but I felt for the time involved something more should be accomplished. The ending left things a little too open as well. The screeching music could be very annoying too.

Posted by josuah at December 8, 2007 4:35 PM UTC+00:00