I love killer plant movies. Unfortunately there are only a few. The original Day of the Triffids (1963 – Howard Keel) was good cheesy fun even if it wasn’t very coherent (they tacked on a subplot to up the running time). Both Little Shop of Horrors are hilarious even if they do feature dentists (my personal phobia) – the 1960 version is available on Instant Netflix. There’s a good plant story in Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors but that movie is unfortunately unavailable on DVD in the US. Much more recently The Ruins provides a nice departure from the standard slasher or torture porn.

WATCH: The Day of the Triffids (1981) – “A brilliant meteor shower blinds most of the population, making them vulnerable to attack by triffids: ambulatory, carnivorous plants accidentally freed from a lab. Still able to see, Bill Masen (John Duttine) and Jo Payton (Emma Relph) team up to fight the menace. As they discover more sighted survivors, they find that civilization is crumbling around them from the triffid attack. This chilling BBC miniseries is based on John Wyndham’s book.”

This is a very well done BBC miniseries (though I’ll talk about an even better one tomorrow). It is certainly a much more literate adaptation of John Wyndham’s book than the movie was. All six episodes are available on instant Netflix though the drawback is that you have to sit through six openings, sets of credits, and recaps. Barring that, this is a very good and thought-provoking look at the collapse of society. Danny Boyle reprises these themes in a very similar fashion in 28 Days Later. The Triffids are fun but are actually secondary to the apocalyptic themes – more of a catalyst than an antagonist.