Die, Monster, Die!

Not to be confused with Die, Monster, Die.

Die, Monster, Die! (British title: Monster of Terror) is a 1965 science fiction horror film directed by Daniel Haller, and starring Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Freda Jackson and Suzan Farmer. A loose adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Colour Out of Space", its plot follows an American man who, while visiting his English fiancee's familial estate, uncovers a series of bizarre occurrences.

Die, Monster, Die!
Theatrical release poster by Reynold Brown
Directed by	Daniel Haller
Written by	Jerry Sohl
Based on	"The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft
Produced by	Pat Green
Starring	Boris Karloff Nick Adams Suzan Farmer
Cinematography	Paul Beeson
Edited by	Alfred Cox
Music by	Don Banks
Production company	Alta Vista Productions
Distributed by	Anglo-Amalgamated (UK) American International Pictures (US)
Release dates	27 October 1965 (1965-10-27) (U.S.) 20 February 1966 (1966-02-20) (UK)
Running time	80 minutes^[a]
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

American International Pictures theatrically released the film in a double feature with Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965).^[4]

Plot

Stephen Reinhart, an American scientist, travels to Arkham, England to visit his fiancée, Susan Witley, whom he met while she was studying abroad in the United States. He arrives at the Witley estate, where he is met coolly by Susan's father, Nahum. Susan's bedridden mother, Letitia, however, is welcoming of him. She invites Stephen to speak with her, but remains partly hidden by her bed canopy, which obscures her features. She offers Stephen a box containing a gold earring that she says belonged to her maid, Helga, who recently fell mysteriously ill and disappeared.

Over dinner, Stephen asks Susan and Nahum about a blackened patch of land near the estate that appears decimated. They state it was caused by a fire, though Susan adds that no one has been able to fully explain what occurred there. Moments later, the butler, Mervyn, collapses. Later, while Susan brings her mother dinner, she is startled by a cloaked figure that appears in the window. Late that night, Stephen and Susan hear mysterious noises emanating from the basement. When they go to investigate, they are met by Nahum, who nervously informs them that Mervyn has died. Later that night, Stephen witnesses Nahum burying Mervyn's body in the woods. When he follows him outside, he observes a strange light glowing from the greenhouse.

At dawn, Stephen leaves the estate and is followed by a cloaked figure who attacks him in the woods, but the individual quickly flees. Back in the village, Stephen meets with Henderson, the town doctor, who is reluctant to speak to him due to his association with the Witleys. Henderson's secretary informs Stephen that Susan's grandfather, Corbin Witley, died in Henderson's arms, but the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.

Stephen confronts Susan about the goings-on, and the two go to investigate the greenhouse; inside, they discover plants and flowers grown to an abnormally large size. In a potting shed, they discover a machine emitting radiation, along with several large, caged creatures. Stephen finds pieces of meteorite stone that he suspects are also emitting radiation. Susan remarks that both her mother and Helga frequently worked in the greenhouse.

While Stephen goes to investigate in the basement, Susan confronts her father about the discovery they made in the greenhouse, realizing that he has been experimenting with radioactivity to mutate plant and animal life, resulting in dire consequences, such as Letitia and Helga's disfigurements and illnesses. Nahum confronts Stephen in the basement, where he has located a large chamber containing a radioactive meteorite. Upstairs, Stephen, Susan, and Nahum find Letitia's room empty and in disarray. Shortly after, Susan and Stephen are attacked by a grossly-disfigured Letitia, whose face has decayed significantly.

When burying Letitia in the family cemetery the next day, Nahum explains how he obtained the meteorite: It fell from the sky, landing in the heath near the estate, and triggered a lush growth of plants around it within one day. Nahum intended to use the meteorite to create a foliage-rich landscape. That night, when Nahum attempts to destroy the meteor in the basement, he is attacked by a cloaked, axe-wielding Helga. She attempts to kill him, but accidentally falls to her death in the chamber, landing on the meteorite. Nahum, now highly-exposed to the meteorite, suffers radiation burns that grossly disfigure him. He chases Stephen and Susan through the house before bursting into flames, setting the Witley mansion ablaze, with Stephen and Susan narrowly escaping to safety.

Cast

• Boris Karloff as Nahum Witley
• Nick Adams as Stephen Reinhart
• Freda Jackson as Letitia Witley
• Suzan Farmer as Susan Witley
• Terence De Marney as Merwyn
• Patrick Magee as Dr. Henderson
• Paul Farrell as Jason
• Leslie Dwyer as Potter
• Harold Goodwin as Taxi Driver
• Sydney Bromley as Pierce
• Sheila Raynor as Miss Bailey
• Billy Milton as Henry

Production

ht was shot in February and March 1965 at Shepperton Studios under the working title The House at the End of the World.^[5] Location shooting for the town/village of Arkham was done at Shere, Surrey, while the Witley mansion was Oakley Court, Water Oakley, Berkshire.^[6]

Release

In the United States, American International Pictures released the film on 27 October 1965 as the first feature on a double bill with Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965).^[4] In the UK, the film was shown to the film trade on 4 February 1966 and released on the 20th the same month, supported by Roger Corman's film The Haunted Palace (1963), which is also based on a Lovecraft story.^[7]

Critical response

G. Noel Gross, writing for the DVD review website DVD Talk, writes: "The plodding plot would be more painful if the flick were longer, but the intriguing meld of gothic horror and contemporary sci-fi is hard to pass up".^[8]

Comic book adaptation

• Dell Movie Classic: Die, Monster, Die! (March 1966)^[9]

See also

• List of American films of 1965

Notes

1. The film's copyrighted runtime in the United States was 72 minutes,^[1] though its standard running time is 80 minutes.^[2][3]

References

1. "Die, Monster, Die!". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021.
2. Smith 2015, p. 152.
3. Die, Monster, Die! at the American Film Institute Catalog. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
4. Lucas, Tim (2007). Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. Video Watchdog. p. 600. ISBN 978-0-9633756-1-2.
5. Rigby 2004, p. 147.
6. "Filming Locations for Die, Monster, Die (Monster Of Terror) (1965), in Berkshire and Surrey". The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
7. Kinematograph Weekly vol 583 no 3044, 3 February 1966
8. Die, Monster, Die! : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video
9. Dell Movie Classic: Die, Monster, Die! at the Grand Comics Database

Sources

• Rigby, Jonathan (2004). English Gothic: a Century of Horror Cinema (3rd ed.). London: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 978-1-903-11179-6.
• Smith, Gary (2015). Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-476-60530-2.

External links

• Die, Monster, Die! at IMDb
• Die, Monster, Die! at AllMovie
• Die, Monster, Die! at the TCM Movie Database
• Die, Monster, Die! at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Die, Monster, Die! at Rotten Tomatoes