Die, Monster, Die!

It looks fantastic and it is fantastic: the 1965 Sci-Fi Horror DIE, MONSTER, DIE (a British-American co-production) is loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Colour Out of Space’ and stars Boris Karloff (in one of his last roles) as patriarch Nahum Witley, who uses the radiation of a hidden meteorite to mutate plants and animals… with unforeseen consequences…

The film was directed by the American Daniel Haller who, five years later, sat in the director’s chair for another Lovecraft adaptation: THE DUNWICH HORROR (starring Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee). For DIE, MONSTER, DIE! the script (by Jerry Sohl) had been especially written with Karloff in mind despite the fact that the then 76-year old horror icon’s health was already in a fragile condition. Thanks to the script, Karloff’s character was able to move about in a wheelchair.

The story begins with the arrival of Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams) in the little English town of Arkham (how very Lovecraftian…). Stephen, an American scientist, has come to Ole Blighty thanks to an invitation he received from his English fiancée Susan Witley (Suzan Farmer), whom he met and fell in love with while she studied at the same university overseas. However, the residents of Arkham seem to be a rather unwelcoming bunch and no one wants to tell Stephen how to get to the Witley family estate… Worse, no taxi is willing to give him a ride and even when he attempts to hire a bicycle the guy who runs the business refuses outright. With no other option than to walk the entire stretch along a country road on foot and with a heavy suitcase, the visitor finally reaches the imposing looking estate but can’t help noticing that it is surrounded by a blackened land, with flora and fauna looking strangely withered. Inside the house, Stephen is made just as unwelcome by Susan’s father Nahum though thankfully, his fiancée will have none of it and, overjoyed, shows Stephen to his guest room. She then introduces him to her bedridden mother, Letitia (Freda Jackson), who is friendly and welcoming towards the unexpected guest though Stephen wonders as to why the obviously ill woman lies partially hidden by her bed canopy. Letitia then reveals the strange story of her former housemaid Helga, who one day disappeared without trace after having fallen mysteriously ill.

Later on in the dining room, while Stephen attempts in vein to strike up a conversation with the grumpy Nahum, butler Merwyn (Terence De Marney) suddenly collapses. Nahum reassures the perplexed Stephen that everything will be fine but a few hours later he is forced to admit that his butler has died… without giving any cause of death nor allowing Stephen to see the corpse. That same night, Susan spots a cloaked figure outside the window of her room and when Stephen investigates, he doesn’t spot a cloaked figure but Nahum who, despite being wheelchair-bound, is digging a grave in the nearby woods to bury the corpse of Merwyn. As if this isn’t strange and unsettling enough, things are set to get stranger still, in fact, much stranger! Unable to retrieve any information from a reluctant Susan, Stephen decides to visit the local doctor, Dr. Henderson (Patrick Magee) in Arkham though he too is irritated by the visitor’s questions. Eventually, Stephen is able to talk Susan into investigating both Nahum’s greenhouse (which projected a peculiar green glow the other night) and the old man’s basement with him. What they are about to discover is an unspeakable horror they could never have imagined in their wildest imagination…

Visually, the film is a treat thanks to cinematographer Paul Beeson and BFI’s new Blu-ray print comes across as razor-sharp. Karloff, despite his old age, delivers the goods as one has come to expect of him although Nick Adams, purely from a physical viewpoint, somehow doesn’t look like someone who belongs on the set of a Lovecraft movie. Suzan Farmer doesn’t have all that much to do except acting either loved up or frightened.

Most of the Bonus Material (apart from the obligatory audio commentary) consists of conversations and interviews plus a discussion of the film with Karloff’s biographer Stephen Jacobs, while actor/screenwriter David McGillivray and writer Ken Hollings take a look at Nick Adams career. There’s also trailer and image gallery plus an illustrated booklet (first pressing only) and best of all, an oddity of a short film, namely THE PEACHES (UK 1964, 16 min) narrated by Peter Ustinov and starring Juliet Harmer as a clever and beautiful girl who indulges in her fetish for fruit (in this case, peaches) until she moves to the big city where her existence and her fetish take on truly absurd forms.