British ultra-downer about the aftermath of nuclear war. On the shortlist of the most depressing movies ever made. Remember how The Day After had just a few faint rays of hope? There were some nods toward humanity’s capacity for goodness here and there. There was even a dollop of a suggestion that civilization could rebuild, perhaps.
Well, this film has none of that. 
This made-for-TV movie is darker, uglier, and grayer (and gorier, for that matter—clearly, the BBC was more permissive of charred corpses and fresh bloody amputee stumps than American television). It’s so bleak it feels carcinogenic. Writer Barry Hines and director Mick Jackson drop you in ash and then fan black smoke in your face. And unlike The Day After, which only covers a short period after the bombs drop, Threads covers years of societal de-evolution and the long-term horrors of radiation poisoning. Along the way, characters to whom we’re attached disappear and die in stark moments presented without ceremony or swelling string music. It all leads up to one chiller of an ending.
Highly recommended to those fascinated by the nuclear angst of the Cold War years. Just be ready to have your day ruined.