31 Days of My Favorite Horror Books – Day 20 – THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS by John Wyndham
For the month of October, I will be writing brief essays about my 31 favorite horror books.
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“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”
That right there is one of the greatest opening lines in all of genre fiction.
THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is best known in the United States as a cheesy movie and a reference in the opening song of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. But the actual novel is a fantastic piece of sci-fi horror that has a large following in the U.K. After a meteor shower leaves most of humanity blind, they then fall victim to large, walking carnivorous plants (the Triffids from the title).
While this may sound a little out there, this novel is really the starting place for the modern zombie genre. Remember how 28 DAYS LATER and THE WALKING DEAD have the same opening with the main character waking up in the hospital? That’s how THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS opens, both 28DL and TWD were referencing this book. The general post-apocalyptic grim tone, combined with humanity turning on each other, and the slow-moving man-eaters created the template of what we think of as a zombie story but this book came out in 1951.
Looking for more Halloween reading? Check out the newest titles from Deadite Press:
NO GIG IS TOO SMALL by Andre Duza
