The Day Of The Triffids (1962)

When a shower of meteorites produces a glow that blinds anyone that looks at it hilarity ensues. As it was such a beautiful sight, most people were watching, and as a consequence, 99% of the world's population go blind. This chaos results in the escape of some Triffids: plants from outer space that had recently arrived on a meteor that are capable of moving themselves around and attacking people.

Trivia: The triffids inspired the E.T. plants of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When the film was finished it was too short, so the entire sequence where the triffids attack the lighthouse was added. The Day Of The Triffids was one of the movies mentioned in the song "Science Fiction Double Feature". This was the song played over the opening titles of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The lyrics that mention it are "And I really got hot when I saw Janet Scott/Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills".

I had never heard of this movie before hearing Science Fiction Double Feature and then I had no idea what it was. Normally triffids are small plants, no higher then a foot or two, but when they are subjected to the light display of the meteor shower they suddenly grow monsterous and mobile. The thing is that it is the lights, not anything else that triggers it because the first Triffids shown are inside the Royal Botanical Gardens greenhouse. This is a typical 60s horror film in that now it seems unintentionally funny. I think they really did intend for it to be a true horror film but I mean get real. These plants travel at the speed of a slow crawl, plus, they make a clicking noise when they are hunting. So basically, if you are walking along and suddenly you hear "click click click click" walk away really fast. Also if I was a scientist and I was trying to discover how to kill an alien, the first thing I would do would be to look around for obvious answers that you would least expect because they always seem to work (see War Of The Worlds). For those of you who haven't seen the movie and wonder what the heck I am talking about, well the triffids disolve in salt water, I mean like in less then a minute they are are big pile of green goo on the floor when you spray salt water on them. Oh and what is the deal with the convicts? There is a scene where a bunch of convicts get lose and what do they do? They go to the one house with seeing people and have a party. We are talking music and dancing and drinking and stuff and supposedly plundering and pillaging, but some of the girls who are being "held against their will" are dancing right along with the guys, I know, you are thinking they are being forced to, but some are dancing by themselves and looking like they are having fun.