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Day of the Triffids

Day of the Triffids

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A poor try at what the Avengers would have made really eerie
Review: 'Day of the Triffids' has great potential - the idea of the entire world, except for the sick, waking up blind; the population of the planet panicking; a temporarily blind man waking up one morning and finding the great capital city London in shreds, the blind shuffling around like zombies, grabbing young girls; the invasion of a refuge for the blind by violent, sexually deprived French convicts, the women forced to service them; or an airplane flown by pilots who can't see - all of this, with its intimations of the surreal, could have made a splendid episode of 'The Avengers'.

Sadly, this production of 'Triffids' is a failure, for two fundamental reasons. Firstly, its ambitions are too big for its budget. The special effects are poor; the models of burning cities, with their famous landmarks, look tacky and unbelievable, lacking the frisson 'Independence Day', say, is supposed to have brought; the squelchy monsters are clumsy, silly and only frightening because we have others' words, or rather screams, for it.

The second, related problem, is the direction. You didn't need a big budget to make 'Triffids' scary - by limiting its focus, by suggesting (by atmosphere, lighting, editing etc.) rather than showing, like Val Newton did in exceptional horror movies like 'Cat People', you could have made a genuinely creepy picture.

One of the major features of suspense is a skilled deployment of silence and the fearful anticipation it creates. Here blasts of music fill up every second of the film, as if the producers were afraid the audience would nod off; there is no attempt to introduce us slowly and fearfully to the monsters, which makes them unscary.

The action, which should increase the pulse of a horror or suspnse film, is cackhanded - there are too many static scenes of people standing against what are obviously blank backgrounds which the special effects team will later fill in (the same problem blighted 'The Phantom Menace'. The film cuts clunkily between two separate plots, which have no narrative connection, and only the slightest thematic reflection.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Flesh eating plants threaten survivors of a world in ruins.
Review: A new species of predatory plants, called Triffids, roam civilization's ruins after most of the world's population is blinded, the after effects of a strange meteor shower. A few survivors must fight to survive evading the Triffids which have taken advantage of humanity's misfortune and have begun feasting on human flesh. The movie manages to maintain some level of credulity until the end with its prepostorous conclusion and its revelation of a solution to the Triffid infestation. This is a first class B grade movie in the tradition of Angry Red Planet, material suitable for Joe Bob's monster movie show on TNT.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Movie All Vegetarians MUST See!
Review: A strange meteor shower blinds most of humanity, leaving them to stumble around while carnivorous plant monsters pick 'em off. A sailor (Howard Keel) wakes up after eye surgery to find that he is one of the few left who can see. The triffids rampage, devouring anyone they can get a hold of. Keel sets out to find others like himself. Along the way he comes across a little girl who can see. Together, they must flee the vege-beasts and locate any others who might be able to see. They take refuge in a house full of other survivors. It is full of blind girls who all happen to be beautiful. Well, along comes a truckload of machine-gun toting, escaped convicts and the party really begins! That is until the triffids arrive and eat everyone (except Howard Keel and company). Meanwhile, in a lighthouse, a couple are battling triffids of their own, while trying to find an effective way to kill them. Janet Scott is the wife of the drunken scientist who spends most of his time being a hateful turd. He rises above himself in order to save the world. I will not reveal the ending or the method that is found to exterminate the triffids. See it for yourself and be entertained...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: SHE LOVES ME, SHE KOVES ME NOT, SHE SLIMED ME!
Review: After a fantastic light show, given by millions of space fragments, a strange and wonderful thing happens. All the population of earth is struck with blindness, the glare from the lights have some how burned out the optic nervs of all whom have seen the show. this was done to ensure that the plant food would not run away, yes you guessed it, mankind is now the plant food(gives a new light to a vegitarian diet), this is a race to save onesself and the planet. be sure to take note of the way we over come our visitors, there are shades of "war of the worlds" mixed through this selection. also, in this note the strong family unity. It is most visable in two sceens. Most of all our stars, not only do they have spoors, slime, but they can move about, yes that is right, thay can up root themselves from their bed, and move around to reek havoc on a helpless world. this film is great, on see this with your sweetheart, and see if she wants flowers ever again.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More stinkweed than Triffid
Review: Allied Artists really hit into a double-play this month; ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS is my pick for most disappointing DVD of 2002, and DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS gets the award for WORST.

A truly excellent sci-fi classic, TRIFFIDS, a Cinemascope film, is released pan&scan from no better than a third-generation VHS master. The colors look horrible and the picture's unwatchable.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hey, so it ain't "War of the Worlds"....
Review: But, "Triffids" isn't a bad way to spend an evening. Monster plants. Cool effects (for the period). Brave hero. A damsel in distress PLUS a perky and disciplined child. Implausible plot elements.

What else can you want from a sci-fi film???

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Nothing Like the Book
Review: For one who loved the book, little if any resemblance, except for possibly, partially, at the very beginning. Poorly acted, and absolutely didn't follow anything in the book. Pity to write this, particularly after reading of the Producer/Director/Writer Philip Yordan's death at 99 the day after I saw the video. Incidentally, my copy of the video had a non-stop background of audio for a carwash liquid commercial, ad nauseum, for the entire 90 minutes of the movie. Irritating at the best. An example of poor reproduction of a movie poorly done that bore no resemblance to the plot of the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic
Review: For those of us who were pre-teens in the late 60's, movies like this were the reason we stayed inside the house on Saturday afternoons. You can't compare this movie with the horror movies of today - the special effects are minimal, the blood is non-existent and the cast isn't made up of box-office stars, but still the movie achieves a solemn creepiness and sense of dread and anticipation. One of the best of this genre.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: ANOTHER ANGRY FAN....
Review: I was already waiting for this DVD to arrive when I read the other reviews. Otherwise I would have cancelled my order. This is a fine British sci-fi horror shocker that is well done in color and capably acted. It's one of my favorites. What this Allied Artists company has done with it is astonishingly awful....I'm just sick over their utter gall to release this neglected gem in such terrible condition. It's so faded and poorly reproduced that you can't even enjoy it....


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOT WIDESCREEN!
Review: I was so excited to see an entity called Allied Artists releasing some great classic titles on DVD. My excitement ended when I put DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS in my DVD player. The movie was shot in CinemaScope and unfortunately, this transfer is pan & scan. The transfer is just downright horrible.

Image released a laserdisc of this title back in the 1990s which was presented in the letterbox format...so there is a widescreen master floating around somewhere.

I have also viewed another Allied Artists DVD of ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. It has obviously been duped from VHS as there are tracking errors present at the bottom of the screen!

These discs are too overpriced for the quality you get. Be warned!


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