Customer Reviews

Die, Monster, Die!

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know some people will groan about this, but I feel this movie has never gotten the credit it deserves. Mostly because there is a tendency to look with prejudice upon it's leading man, Nick Adams, because of the slow-down in his carreer just before his untimely and mysterious death at age 36. My father was a big naysayer of Nick Adams. His prejudice stemmed from Adams' participation in Rebel Without A Cause, a film my father saw as encouragement for youth to openly oppose their parents, without showing the parents' side of the story. However, if you watch Nick Adams at work, and keep an open mind, whether it's in one of his most famous films, like Rebel Without A Cause or Mister Roberts, or in his now legendary television series, The Rebel, you'll see a talented actor who was at ease in front of the camera. In spite of his young features (at times described as baby-faced) Adams had a screen presence that was strong and capable. Over time, my attitude of him has turned from thinking of him as a so-so player, to that of an underrated actor of whom life ended before something better came along. After you've viewed enough B-grade and lesser horror films, you begin to appreciate when a qualified and talented actor is given the lead in one of these films. And in Die Monster Die, Nick Adams was perhaps at his best during that slow-down period of his life. It's certainly one of the better B-grade horror films he was forced to work in at the time. And it's one of the better releases by MGM in its Midnight Movies collection.

If you look at the title alone, you're likely to pass on this one, thinking Cheese all the way, but don't let the title stop you. I think this was one of the most original science fiction/horror films to come out of American International pictures. It's based on an H.P. Lovecraft story called The Colour out of Space. It does, of course, take poetic license in order to make a movie-length script, but it keeps enough of the original story in order to feel and taste like H.P. Lovecraft. Boris Karloff alone is worth the movie. His portrayal of a wheel chair bound quasi-scientist obsessed with using a radioactive meteor discovered on his land to make a better world is wonderful gothic material. The film has gothic painted all over it, from the sprawling English country side, to the thunderstorms, to the ancient torture chambers in the basement of Karloff's rambling English manor. These gothic feels combined with the science-fiction theme are exactly what make this movie feel like an H.P. Lovecraft story.

The film features a wonderful, if brief performance by Freda Jackson, perhaps remembered best for her cackling performance in The Brides of Dracula, where she hunkered down over a freshly filled grave and coaxed a new vampire victim through the surface of the moist dirt with loving, motherly whispers.

This movie also introduced one of the loveliest British starlets of the time to the big screen, one Suzan Farmer, who can also be seen in Dracula, Prince of Darkness. She plays the somewhat confused and uncertain lover of Nick Adams' character. Their scenes together seem to be filled with genuine emotion, giving just the right feeling of two lovers caught up in deadly mystery.

And MGM did a wonderful job with this low-cost DVD. This film is presented in Wide Screen, enhanced for Wide Screen Television (which is the same thing as Anamorphic Wide Screen). Whatever print they used for this film was beautiful. The colors are deep and lush, the scenes clear and crisp with very little show of wear over the years. The only extra is the Theatrical Preview, and the scene-selection option. But who cares for anything more! After all, if extras are more important to you than the film, you should save your money and buy film-history books. I for one salute MGM for offering us these affordable gems in a nice quality DVD.

If you're a Nick Adams fan, then buy the movie for his strong leading man performance. If you like good quality, B-grade science-fiction horror, I don't think you'll be at disappointed in this movie. And if you're a Boris Karloff fan, it's a must-see. And, if you're a Vincent Price film nut, as I am, you'll be excited to hear that MGM has released two other beautifully rendered DVDs at the same low price staring this legend of the horror cinema; The Abominable Doctor Phibes, and the sequel, Doctor Phibes Rises Again (both under the Midnight Movies titles). Plus! Watch for Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum coming out very soon from MGM.

I have always liked this film, even though checking through reference books one may find critical comments. It is true that a mistake was made in changing H.P Lovecraft's setting from New England (which of course was the deeply-felt source of all of his horror concepts) to England itself. And the story does not do full justice to his brilliant original, which is a classic of horror-literature. But that aside, the film is extremely atmospheric, and has strong performances by Karloff and all the other actors (including Nick Adams, who despite odd casting does a decent job as a modern American adrift in a strange old-world setting). And on top of that it has one of the eeriest scenes in all horror films, where Nick Adams and the beautiful Susan Farmer sneak into a greenhouse, which is a source of mystery throughout the entire film, and discover a menagerie of mutated monsters, illuminated only by flashlight. This scene is a high-water mark in monster special FX, even though it is very brief. Definitely worth owning in a DVD quality release!

Whether or not you like the style of the films AIP made in the UK in the mid-sixties will determine what you think of this. Nick Adams arrives in the cosy little English village of Arkham and discovers peculiar goings-on up at a big old house where Boris Karloff is creating strange mutated things in his greenhouse with the aid of a glowing green meteorite. Boris's wife is starting to mutate as well and she manages to go on the rampage and get her face melted before the whole thing ends predictably in flames. Daniel Haller's exercise in adapting Lovecraft was presumably filmed around Bray studios as the house used for the exterior shots is none other than Oakley Court, the location used for many a classic British horror film including The Reptile, Vampyres and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
As a piece of filmic Lovecraft the picture doesn't really work. If, however, you want a well-preserved widescreen slice of mid-sixties Brit horror then look no further. MGM's print has a few scratches but the colour photography in the opening scenes of the railway station and the village must look as good as (if not better than) when the film was first released. The special effects are what you would expect from this time period - psychedelic colour filters and rubber puppets twisted into funny shapes to simulate the greenhouse mutations. Good value for money, even if the only extras are a trailer and chapter selections.

Roger Corman's long-time art director, Daniel Haller, who later helmed a handful of cult films (Wild Racers, Devil's Angels) and innumerable TV series, got his first directorial shot with this entertaining if ultimately somewhat disappointing mixture of gothic mystery, occult, and science fiction elements. The screenplay by Jerry Sohl unsurprisingly bears only slight resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft's original story, although it's still pretty outre for 1965. (Sohl also penned a few Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Invaders scripts, not to mention Frankenstein Conquers the World and Curse of the Crimson Altar, the latter also starring Karloff and loosely based on Lovecraft.) The "frightened townfolk" beginning is laughably heavy-handed, although the middle section where we're slowly fed details about the bizarre goings-on at the Witley mansion is actually fairly absorbing. Unfortunately any suspense and air of mystery that's been generated is completely dissipated by the obvious, schlocky "monster on the loose" climax (did anyone really think audiences would be fooled into thinking that stuntman in the plastic mask was Boris?). Twerpy Nick Adams (who apparently fancied himself leading man material and took his inevitable career slide harder than most) exudes little charisma as the hero, although Suzan Farmer (Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Rasputin the Mad Monk) is appealing as Karloff/Witley's daughter Susan. There are a number of other positives: Paul Beeson's cinematography and the Witley mansion sets look great, of course; Freda Jackson (Great Expectations, Brides of Dracula), Karloff, and Patrick Magee (Dementia 13, Clockwork Orange, Asylum, etc.) lend some class to the proceedings; the cosmic stones and eerie mutant plants are effectively realized; there are a few credible shocks; and the brief gore FX are surprisingly over-the-top for a mainstream film of the era. But as much as I would like to love this movie, it really needs a better finish. (Apparently a crowd-pleaser though, Die Monster Die played the drive-in circuit for years, often filling out dusk-till-dawn shock-o-rama bills.) Definitely worth a look for Karloff completists and AIP junkies (like myself) who will watch and usually enjoy virtually anything with their logo on it. Lovecraft cultists and mainstream movie fans expecting an intelligent denouement are bound to be disappointed. Haller adapted Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror for AIP five years later with similarly variable results.
MGM Home Video presents the movie in an unspectacular but quite serviceable package. The trailer is letterboxed to 2.35:1 with overall excellent image quality marred only by some light speckling. Sixteen chapter stops and French and Spanish subtitles are the only other extras. The source print used for the feature is not exactly stunning but still quite a bit above average. The brightness, contrast, detail, and color saturation of the anamorphic widesceen (2.35:1) transfer are excellent throughout. The image is not razor-sharp, but still acceptably crisp (the slight softness of some shots seems to be resident in the source print). Physical damage is limited to some sporadic very light speckling. Overall quite satisfying for the very reasonable price.

Enjoyable and atmospheric. Although this is not a great film (which is especially in evidence during the finale, which features effects that border on the goofy by today's standards) it is still an entertaining film and, in my opinion, worth owning. The locations are great - an English town and train station, and a spooky old Mansion - giving this film a moody edge. If you're a fan of B-Movies and a collector of the MGM Midnite Movies Series, you will find this a worthwhile entry. The visual quality of the DVD is very high and the packaging of the DVD is one more reason that this series is worth collecting. Each MGM Midnite Movie features fresh cover art, great back cover descriptions, and look great on the shelf since it is a coordinated collection. I also own Pit and the Pendulum, Fall of the House of Usher, Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and recommend them all. The other customer and Leonard Maltin REVIEWS will help you navigate and decide which of the MGM Midnite Movies are worth the risk of actually purchasing.

Veteran screenwriter Jerry Sohl and scene designer/fledgling director Daniel Haller expand Lovecraft's "colorful" short story into a typical feature-length AIP shocker, with mostly good results.

Nick Adams visits his fiance Susan Farmer's ancestral estate in the country, where he is not welcomed with open arms. Farmer's father, Boris Karloff, has a feared and hated name in the region, for reasons no one will disclose. Karloff himself tries to send Adams away upon his arrival, but Farmer won't hear of it - nor will her mother, the sickly and sequestered Frieda Jackson, who sent for Adams in the first place.

Standoffish Karloff is hiding something, and even Jackson isn't fully sure what it is. It has something to do with a meteorite that permanently blasted the nearby heath some years ago, and is somehow killing Karloff's household. Jackson wants Adams to take Farmer away from the unhealthy environment.

But Adams discovers from town doctor Patrick Magee that Karloff's family has always been twisted with a bizarre space-cult religion, which in some way has something to do not only with their penchant for undiagnosable wasting illness, but also seems to have created an unknown poison that is sucking the vital life force out of the entire area and gives birth to mutations.

It isn't long before Adams discovers the hidden source of Karloff's family's - and the town's - woes: Karloff has been keeping the meteorite in his diseased progenitors' religious shrine, where its unearthly cosmic force continues to ravage anything in the vicinity. Before the story is out, most of his household will succumb to it - in colorfully hideous fashion, by way of disintegrating facial makeups and sundry other mutations - and Adams will have a nasty time delivering poor Susan Farmer (and himself) to safety.

The movie is uneven, and takes a while to get going. There are a lot of stalking-through-the-mansion shots. But director Haller's experience as an artistic scene designer shows, and the film is indeed extremely colorful and atmospheric. There are some clever puppet effects used to show mutated plant-creatures and lesser changed animals. Jackson's disintegration is a great moment, very creepy and unsettling. And Karloff undergoes a final unlikely mutation himself, transforming from a wheelchair-ridden irascible old man into a silvery-greenish, bald, athletically powerful alien attacker - which makes no logical sense whatsoever, but is great fun to watch.

A typical movie of the studio and the time, but elevated by a good cast, decent script, and terrific production design and cinematography.

And with that emphatic plea, we find our young hero coming off a train into a standard village with standard drinkers and standard gossipers and scoffers.

A very unfriendly town: whenever our hero (played by Nick Adams) he says "where's the Whitley place" no one helps him, everyone scoffs at him and no one explains why. Usually there's a person in these kinds of movies that explains the evil that is in the inevitable spooky mansion on the hill but not this time. Quite annoying to the viewer as well as the hero.

Boris Karloff plays a man who has discovered a meteor from space in his backyard which has killed many living things in its path due to extreme radiation. He wants to use that radiation to make better gardens but instead creates horrors and death.

The movie is predictable and does not play well as a Roger Corman film would. The dark and stormy night is fine but when creatures in a greenhouse are discovered, their origins are not explained.

The weird psychedelic colors and such in the beginning are a bit much.

And, director Daniel Haller is no Roger Corman but you can see some of the Corman feel in this picture -- the mansion, the colors, the cute babe who must be rescued from the evil scientist gone mad father. Not much of Lovecraft here, a bit hackneyed but fun to watch Karloff play it straight.

The hero also makes a trip to a doctor's office in the village (mid-film) and the doctor also explains nothing. A complete waste of time and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Karloff has done better than this and his command of the situation is overshadowed by the overacting of Nick Adams. The plot plods along painfully, but the infusion of horror and sci-fi and the acting power of Karloff, nearly 80 in this film, makes the viewing palatable.

Based on a Lovecraft tale, Colours from Out of Space. Recommended for Karloff fans but not a lot here. An American International picture.

Boris Karloff's sinister presence cannot save this disappointing H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. "Die, Monster, Die!" plods along until its effective climax, with mad scientist Boris disintegrating in classic fashion. The AIP production is somewhat reminiscent of Karloff's 1936 sci-fi thriller "The Invisible Ray." Though he was determined to keep working, the aging horror icon should have been more selective in his choice of projects.

Maybe I'm unique here, but this movie is the perfect movie to watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon while lying on the couch. When I was a kid, this movie used to play often on Saturday's "creature feature." I miss those days so much, and watching this movie brings me back again. To the days when I didn't have to work and I could actually really enjoy my Saturdays. I could watch this movie a hundred times and still not get sick of it. If you like the genre of late 60's horror movies, then you will not be disappointed with this one. Enjoy!

Many have tried to take the works of H.P.Lovecraft and turn them into money making films. To date, only one has succeeded to the extent it made a return on its investment and became a hit with the fans (THE RE-ANIMATOR). This gem made in 1965 does a fairly decent job and is much better than I recalled.

During the sixties, many of us grew up with the late night horror host, screening some good horror films as well as many a low budget classic. We never cared if they were good or bad, we tuned in to see the antics of the host and to see anything relating to horror. A large number of those films came from American International Pictures, or AIP. The Poe tales made by Roger Corman starring Vincent Price, colossal beasts and giant monsters all formed our impression of horror. This movie is one of the more subtle films they made.

Sixties star Nick Adams plays Stephen Reinhart, an American who has traveled to England at the request of the mother of Susan Witley (Suzan Farmer), a young woman he met and fell in love with. The townsfolk are completely inhospitable to Stephen as he looks for a way to the Witley estate. Ending up on foot, he arrives to be welcomed by her father, Nahum Witley (Boris Karloff), if welcome means telling you to leave at once.

Susan arrives and Karloff is convinced to allow the young man to stay one night. She takes him upstairs to meet her mother Letitia (Freda Jackson) who has been awaiting him. Bedridden and prone to a dislike of light, hiding in the shadows of drapes round her bed, Letitia speaks alone to Stephen, begging him to take Susan away.

Of course Susan refuses to leave her mother and Karloff scowls with each glimpse of the young American. During dinner the conversation is more one sided than anything and ends when Karloff's man servant falls to the floor. Hiding something from all in the house, Karloff says he can manage things (even while in a wheelchair) and the young couple leaves.

Twists and turns and shadows on windows lead to Stephen going into town the next morning to find out just what is going on. Attacked on the way, he is undeterred and makes his way to a doctor he finds listed in the phone book. The doctor (Patrick Magee) gives him no information but his assistant does. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Stephen returns and with Susan's help discovers the secret hidden at Witley manor.

Sure, this movie has been around for over 40 years now but no way am I going to give away the answers here. To find out what is going on in the creepy mansion you're going to have to rent or purchase the film (it is vastly available; I purchased mine at Big Lots for only $3).

The sets are well made, the acting decent enough for a low budget picture and the atmosphere is well maintained in this gem. The special effects may be a little lacking for today's audiences, but if you keep in mind this was a movie made with little to no money and done back in '65, it's not half bad.

Karloff remains an icon in the world of horror cinema. Even here with little to do and stuck playing most of his part from a wheel chair (he was 77 when he made this movie), he turns in a performance that feels true and not forced.

So this movie may not be the mega blockbuster of the year or of the year it was released. It is a fun, eerie little piece of horror fiction that is sure to be enjoyed by fans of the genre, or even those who have not become fans yet. Rather than gory effects, this movie bases its scares on fears of the time. It's a nice little time capsule that is a must for Karloff and horror fans.