Product Details

• Actors: John Duttine, Emma Relph, Maurice Colbourne, Eva Griffiths, David Swift
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: November 6, 2007
• Run Time: 157 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000TSTEO6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,762 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Day of the Triffids" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If the notion of being pursued across the countryside by monstrous, ambulatory stalks of rhubarb strikes terror into your soul, then this British TV adaptation of sci-fi novelist John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids will be right up your hedgerow. If not, well, perhaps its more campy elements will carry the day. As adapted (and significantly abridged) by Douglas Livingstone and directed by Ken Hannam, the story is serialized in six parts, each about 25 minutes long. In the first, we meet protagonist Bill Masen (John Duttine), who knows all about the rhubarb… um, the triffids… having spent some time working among the folks who harvest their valuable oil extracts. Seems these strange plant thingies, whose origin is most mysterious, can not only walk (albeit at a pace that makes The Lord of the Rings trilogy's Ents seem like Olympic sprinters) but kill, subduing victims with their whip-like stingers and then consuming the rotting flesh; indeed, one of the triffids almost nailed our hero, which is why he's hospitalized when we first see him. Next thing you know, some kind of toxic celestial event has lit up the skies and blinded everyone who dared look at it, leaving most of the population sightless and stumbling about the streets of London (and everywhere else); only those who missed the calamitous light show, including Bill and soon-to-be love interest Jo (Emma Relph), can still see, while the triffids, who multiply in frightening numbers, proceed to lay waste to everyone else. There are some interesting ideas developed along the way, including the inevitable breakdown of civilization as the survivors struggle to begin anew while dealing with the implacable triffids. But the execution of said ideas is lacking; shot on video, the show has a flat, rather cheesy look, along with low-rent special effects (the triffids are laughable), less than stellar acting, and dialogue straight out of a soap opera. In the end, the fact that this Day of the Triffids is considered better than the 1962 film adaptation with Howard Keel is probably its principal attraction. --Sam Graham

Product Description

All humans eat vegetables. But what if we were the helpless ones, and the plants were eating us? Following the Earth's close encounter with a comet, a meteor shower strikes Britain's population blind. Bill Masen, recovering in a London hospital from a vicious plant attack, is one of only a few people to survive with his eyesight intact. But the world he emerges to has altered terrifyingly into a nightmare where man-eating plants -- the triffids -- are gathering in force!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BBC adaptation that is faithful to the original novel... September 9, 2007

By T. S. Sofia

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

NOTE: As I own the 2/4 region version of this film, my review deals with the substance of the story (NO spoilers!). I have preordered a copy coming from Amazon and will update my review immediately after receiving that one.

This is a six part mini-series based on the book by John Wyndham, first broadcast in the UK in 1981 and subsequently shown on PBS (where I first saw it). The Day of the Triffids is quite the father to "28 Days Later", in that it is an end-of-the world-as-we-know-it tale, but it has a good deal less gore and offers up a romance between the leads John Duttine (as Bill Masen) and Emma Relph (as Josella Payton).

The plot centers on two main elements: the introduction of a complex, new form of plant life that provides a highly profitable type of oil and the appearance of a massive meteor shower that is eagerly viewed by most of the inhabitants of the world.

As this is a BBC television production, the sense of a play unfolding and the accents of some of the characters may not appeal to some American viewers. Yet, the dialogue is crisp and the emotional interplay very human in a situation where the world seems to have gone mad. The special effects are minimal but fairly convincing (remember this was made over 25 years ago).

This is one of my favourite science-fiction movies of all time. The actors do a very solid job of bringing the characters to life, there is a very real feeling of dread as the veiled nature of the triffids becomes apparent and the responses of various peoples to the crisis rings true throughout.

It should be noted that an earlier effort at adapting the book for film starred Howard Keel (many will have seen this courtesy late night movies). That version ended up quite a mishmash and strayed very far from the source material - I would assign it just two stars.

I highly recommend The Day of the Triifids done by the BBC.

NOTE: Received the Region 1 version from Amazon. It is a near exact copy of the other; again highly recommend this disc!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As Wyndham Meant It March 9, 2008

By Joshua Koppel

Format:DVD

As Wyndham Meant It
I have a soft spot in my heart for the movie starring Howard Keel but it was not very true to the book. This mini-series is much truer. The first obvious difference is that the Triffids are already around and farmed as a cash crop. While true to the book the pacing is changed so that cliffhangers and other tense moments fall right at the end of each episode but none of these changes affect the feel.
Howard Keel starred in a movie where the main point was fighting the Triffids. It was man versus monster. This version is much less about fighting Triffids and much more about humanity learning to deal with having been temporarily knocked down a peg (after all, newborns will not be born blind). It is about planning for a rough couple of decades and not the end of the world. The acting is decent and the few necessary special effects are well handled. When it was all over I really felt like I had just watched Wyndham's classic. Check it out.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY IT'S HERE September 13, 2007

By Josef H. Buerger III

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

THIS [THE ORIGINAL BBC VERSION] IS FAITHFUL TO JOHN WYNDHAMS BOOK. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR OVER 20 YEARS TO GET A PROFESSIONAL COPY OF IT. WHEN I FIRST SAW IT IN 1985, I MADE A VHS COPY WHICH I WORE OUT IN 10 YEARS! I WISH THAT THEY HAD REMASTERED THE SOUND [DOLBY DIGITAL] AS WELL AS THE PICTURE. IT'S APPROACH [LIKE MOST MOVIES FROM THE UK] IS RELATIVELY LOW KEY [IT'S NOT A SHOOT EM UP!]. IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS PRESENTATION BEFORE, GET IT FOR YOUR LIBRARY. IT'S HEAD & SHOULDERS ABOVE THE 1962 MOVIE BEARING THE SAME NAME. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!