davidcarniglia A very watchable mash-up of sci-fi and horror. That spaceage bugaboo, radiation, gets tossed in rather artfully via a meteorite in Karloff's backyard. The suspension of disbelief is cloaked in both supernatural garb, as Karloff's Whitley initially assumes that the stuff was sent from 'the other side', and the psuedo-science of the Whitley clan's 'research.'Die, Monster, Die! is a sort of updated Frankenstein. Karloff, as Dr. Frankenstein, messes with the forbidden fruits of science, to produce, in this case, not just one monster, but enough for the insect, animal, and (sort-of) human worlds as well. Some of the grotesque combinations are hideous; I agree with those who point out that the special effects are well done. The snail-like thing in the potting shed is completely creepy; the mutated Karloff, with the green glow and mummy-like face, works as both demon and alien.The sets also work well. The house itself, in good gothic fashion, functions as a major character. The dungeon/laboratory is especially haunting; with those expressionist murals on the walls that seem to writhe in the quivering candlelight. Looks a lot like the sets from The Pit and the Pendulum. I'm also reminded of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with its exotic stuff in the greenhouse also growing nasty things.As entertaining as Die, Monster, Die! is, I just find too many holes to rate the movie higher. You could practically ditch Nick Adams' character completely; he doesn't really add anything, except to act as Susan's savior. Even Susan's extraneous. Why does she seem clueless about what's going on in the house? She lives there after all. Except for the scenes with her mother that establish her identity, she may as well be an outsider. The plot would work better if we had the story from Karloff's point of view. Then we could concentrate on the various mutants/monsters. As it is, they seem to just show up randomly to spook Stephen and/or Susan. We never get to see Karloff using the green stone thingie for his malicious 'experiments.' It is cool that the green stuff mutates him as he destroys it. Sort of a 'sins of the fathers' curse from beyond, or beyond space. An ambitious film, let down somewhat by non-mutant characters who act witless, and a series of incidents thrown together (mutated?) into a plot. Still plenty of fun.

BA_Harrison Adapted from the H.P. Lovecraft story The Colour Out of Space, Die, Monster, Die! opens with the arrival of American Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams) at the English village of Arkham (a name that will no doubt be familiar to fans of Lovecraft). As is usually the case in such films, the locals are far from friendly, refusing to help him reach his destination, the Witley house, where his university sweetheart Susan (Suzan Farmer) lives with her mother Letitia (Freda Jackson) and father Nahum (an aged Boris Karloff).Eventually arriving at the Witley place on foot (having successfully avoided the man-trap by the gate), Stephen is confronted by Nahum, who tells him to leave. Susan, however, welcomes him with open arms and pointy boobs, clearly unperturbed by, or blissfully unaware of, their age difference (Adams, a decade older than his perky co-star, has a carefully concealed receding hairline and bags under his eyes). After Stephen is introduced to Letitia—who hides behind the veils that surround her bed and urges the young man to leave with her daughter—he begins to suspect that something very strange is happening at the Witley manor. And you know what? He's right!There are a couple of moments in Die, Monster, Die! that come very close to capturing the true horror and otherworldly dread of Lovecraft's writing: firstly, when our hero and heroine discover large mutated creatures caged in a greenhouse—nothing says Lovecraft more than tentacled beasties—and secondly, when Stephen locates the ominous green meteorite that has been causing the mutations, the glowing rock emitting a menacing hum that can only mean bad things. Sadly, the rest of the film is far less effective, plodding from one gloomy corridor, darkened room, or foggy exterior, to another as Stephen explores the house and its mist-shrouded grounds (narrowly avoiding Nahum, who is surprisingly nippy in his wheelchair).Director Daniel Haller would have another stab at bringing Lovecraft to the screen in 1970 with The Dunwich Horror, but with little success, while The Colour Out Of Space would be turned into another movie, The Curse, in 1987.

GL84 Arriving in England for a family get-together, a young couple find themselves in a strange occurrence when one of the relatives appears to be afflicted with a strange virus and must find a way of stopping them from contaminating others.This was a lot better than it should've been. One of the film's strengths is that the Gothic undertones in this one is apparent right from the start, and they manage to get a lot right with this elaborate setup. They all resonate, with the twisted landscapes, the deformed family members, the clean-cut hero coming to rescue the girl, the black magic and arcane secrets in the family past and the murky goings-on in the present being covered up by the distant and cold family patriarch. and do a fantastic job in getting the most out of the fewest possible elements. It also succeeds in building some reasonable atmosphere out of cliché elements, such as the hostile villagers, the fog- enshrouded landscape, a big brooding Victorian mansion, unearthly screams in the night and a mysterious hooded figure that are well played-out and strike as genuinely frightening. It also features some moments of genuine shock, such as the revelation of the mutated hand and face as it reaches out from behind the curtain and the journey into the greenhouse which is filled with tension and dread as the preceding events built up around it are quite unnerving. The sights inside it are no less impacting, including the briefly glimpsed vista of mutated alien creatures lined up in a cage in the back or the humongous plants and vegetables inside it, and the vine-ensnaring sequence still has a nice touch to it. The film really hits it's stride in the ending, which is full of action and shocks that it really ends on a great flourish from the battle with the radioactive creature which is well-staged and brings out some solid brawling and weapon-wielding which doesn't seem all that boring, to the climactic house burning down and the race to get out before it consumes the survivors, it's a grant ending and really stands out. This wasn't all that bad of a film, though for being as good as it was, there's still some problems with this one. The main issue is that this all feels very repetitive as it never once has a feeling of the Lovecraft inspiration, but it feels more like the earlier Poe films in tone, appearance and staging. It's not accidental, but it really hampers the flow when it's not that hard to predict how it will end up when you can guess that based only on how the movie looks. The film also could've had a better pace in the middle section, as it's constantly filled with dire warnings of what could happen, but the section is based around the threat of something and nothing transpires of them. When it gets back into the detective work of the story does it get better, but the constant warnings of bad things to happen despite the continuing recurrence of them and then not following up on them does get a little tiring. Despite these two problems, though, this wasn't all that bad.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence.

thinker1691 It was in the 1940's when mankind first discovered the Atomic bomb and many of the scientists working on it, hoped it would usher in a new world for mankind. In point of fact it did. The discovery brought forth the knowledge, the world could more easily destroy itself much easier than before, In the movies, like this horrific film called " Die Monster, Die " the new element called Uranium, did in fact bring a new beginning, it was called The Atomic age and the new element was global fear. In this story, an America has journeyed to England to visit his fiancé. One there, he is surprised to learn the town's people are terrified of the Witley family and wants nothing to do with them. Nevertheless, Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams) seeks to discover the reason for the fear and is introduced to Mahum Witley (Boris Karloff), his fiancé Susan, Letitia (Freda Jackson) and their man servant, Merwyn (Terence de Marney). The family has an established, though terrifying history, but none so deadly as a monstrous secret glowing in their basement which is destined to infest the world. The movie is a horror of the sixties and has become a cult horror film. A fun monster movie to be sure and with the presence of the great Karloff, certain to be a classic. ****