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Day of the Triffids, The (1981)
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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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05.14.08
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This is much better than the 1968 movie, though I don't know how it compares to the book by John Wyndham, which I haven't read. Bill Masen (John Duttine), recovering from temporary blindness, wakes up to find that the majority of the world is blind. And taking advantage of this are the triffids, these huge iris-like plants that are able to crawl. They kill their victims with a toxin from this whip cord that comes out of their "mouths" and then wait for the body to decompose so they can absorb the nutrients. Rather than them coming from space with the passing of the meteors which caused everyone to go blind, these strange plants were created years before by mankind, in order to produce an oil that can be used. In fact, we see these cheesy newsreels about the plants that make them more silly than dangerous. And ironically, the reason Masen was in the hospital to begin with was that he was working on a Triffid farm and was temporarily blinded by one of them.
Masen meets up with Jo Payton, a young blonde woman who can also see, and they encounter a few survivalist type groups and are coerced into working with one, basically being leaders for groups of blind people. Eventually they take refuge at a lighthouse and live there for five years as the Triffid population grows--and waits--outside the electrical fence that surrounds their compound. The biggest threat, however, isn't from the Triffids but other humans who insist "they know best".
After watching this I realize how much the movie 28 DAYS LATER is influenced by this (it's almost the same movie, only with plants instead of pseudo-zombies!).
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Rating: 6.5 out of 10.0 - 8 votes cast total
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