Digital Dismemberment: Die, Monster, Die! Blu-Ray Review
Director– Daniel Haller
Producer– Samuel Z. Arkoff, Pat Green, James H. Nicholson and Louis M. Heyward
Special FX– Ernie Sullivan and Wally Veevers
Cast– Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Freda Jackson, Suzan Farmer, Terence de Marney, Patrick Magee, Paul Ferrell, Leslie Dwyer, Harold Goodwin, Sydney Bromley
Released By– Shout!/Scream Factory
Release Date– 1/21/2014
The Premise: Boris Karloff, the greatest horror star of all time, takes center stage in this “menagerie of horrors” (Motion Picture Daily) that “spins out shock after shock” (Boxoffice). Like a deadly potion bubbling with eerie mansions, secret experiments and a warning never to look in the basement, this is “pure haunted-house hokum all the way” (Los Angeles Times)!
An English scientist entertains a young American visitor, serving up tea, terror and a beautiful daughter – who is soon torn between her father’s evil ways and her need to protect the man she loves form a diabolical end.
Die, Monster, Die! (originally titled Monster of Terror), loosely based on the the story “The Colour Out of Space” by H.P. Lovecraft, is a magnificent slice of not only the genre, but a small microcosm of the career of Boris Karloff. Released four years before his death, Karloff certainly shows his age in his physicality, but you can still see the burning desire behind his eyes and he certainly gives a spirited performance. Nick Adams and Suzan Farmer also do a great job as the young lovers, and Adams’ bravado and dogged determination to find out what is going on is played well. Director Daniel Haller has amazing set pieces to work with, and his direction certainly brings the feelings of decay and uneasiness to the screen. Haller also does a good job of stringing along the red herrings up until the ending, where we get a high energy and exhilarating ending. Upon watching, you wonder if Lovecraft is teasing us with “The Old Ones” (as there are several hints thrown out there about Occultism) or if he is making a statement about the atomic age, but either way, we get an explosive ending that makes us both look to the skies and the dark recesses of our souls for answers. Fun Fact: AIP released the film as the first part of a double feature with Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires…
Stephen Reinhart arrives in the town of Arkham to visit his classmate Susan Witley at the request of her mother. Upon arriving in town, everyone that he asks about getting to the Witley house acts very strange and frightened by his request. After being rudely rebuffed by everyone in town, Stephen walks to the Witley estate and notices that most of the plant life in the area is basically rotten and ashen from the inside. Upon arriving at the estate, he lets himself in and runs into Nahum Witley. After a rather brusque conversation where Nahum tries to get Stephen to leave the premises, Susan greets him and informs him that her mother would like to speak to him. Nahum puts up a bit of a struggle about it, but Susan takes Stephen up to her mothers room. After asking to speak to Stephen alone, Letitia Witley (heavily shrouded in her bed) speaks in riddles about terrible things going on around the house and implores Stephen to get Susan out of the house. As she reaches out, we can see that her hand is hideously deformed or burned, but Stephen agrees to get Susan out of the house in the next day or so…
Nahum and the house servant Merwyn are seen going through the house until they arrive in what appears to be a dungeon, the walls covered with demonic pictures and pentagrams everywhere. After finding some chains, they lock up the outside greenhouse. Inside, Stephan and Susan discuss some of the things he talked about with her mother, and we find out that there is more of a romantic relationship between the two. Unbeknownst to them, her father looks on from outside the room. Nahum and Letitia argue a bit about Stephen being there and the evils inflicted upon the house by Nahum’s father. Later that evening at dinner, Stephen tries to have a conversation with Nahum, but it goes poorly until Merwyn collapses. Nahum insists that he will take care of Merwyn and his condition. Later that evening, Stephen and Susan here terrible screams and they go to investigate. They find themselves outside of Merwyn’s room, where Nahum comes out and announces that Merwyn has died. Nahum insists that he will take care of the body, very much against Stephen’s thoughts. Stephen follows Nahum out of the house a bit later and sees him burying the body, but is again distracted by odd noises coming from the greenhouse and a bright flashing green light…
The next day, Stephen goes to town to try and get answers about the Witley house and general information. On the way to town, he is attacked by a cloaked figure with a knife, but he manages to fend off the attacker before they flee into the woods. After visiting the former town doctor, he gets very few answers about the Witley’s and heads back to the estate. After confronting Susan about what he has found out and the strange greenhouse, they go together to explore it. Once inside, they find giant vegetables and a menagerie of grossly oversized animals in cages. Under closer inspection, they find small green gems in the potting soil that glow with a strange light that also hum and give off heat. Stephen thinks that the gems may be radioactive and thinks that is why the plants and animals have grown so large. He feels that everyone in the house is in danger and implores Susan to leave with him at once. Even after confronting Nahum, he still refuses to leave the house. Are the strange events at the house to the “The Old Ones”, or has something from Outer Space started radiological disaster that could destroy everyone and everything around it? You are going to have to watch to find out…
Bonus Features:
Theatrical Trailer- Run time of 1 minute, 55 seconds.
Discs: 1
Format: NTSC
Color: Color
Rating: NR
Aspect Ratio: 1080p High Definition Widescreen (2.35:1)
Language: English
Shout!/Scream Factory Brings to us yet another genre classic to Blu-Ray DVD with Boris Karloff in Die, Moster, Die! With the previous edition being released on DVD back in 2001 by MGM/UA as part of their Midnite Movies series as well as on a double feature DVD disc with The Dunwich Horror (1970) (also part of the Midnite Movies series), this current edition is everything you could wish for in terms of a transfer. The film looks amazing in its 1080p High Definition Widescreen display, and the English DTS-HD MA Mono soundtrack comes out beautifully if you have a decent home theater system. With an older movie like this, it is hard to find any behind the scenes footage. The only thing I think that could have made this a better disc would have been a on set photo gallery or maybe a few words from a Boris Karloff historian. However, just getting a genre classic like this on Blu-Ray is more than enough! While it is a minor complaint at best, this release is the perfect example of why Shout!/Scream Factory is the standard bearer for Blu-Ray horror releases!
Movie Rating: 3.5 out of 5
DVD Rating: 7 out of 10
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