Review of Die, Monster, Die! (1965) by Elijah B — 11 Jul 2008

I think anyone who loves Lovecraft's novellas and short stories can honestly say that there has never been a worthy adaptation of a Lovecraft work to cinema. Fair enough. With that much said, this film can really only be appreciated either from the subtleties in design pulled directly from the piece this film was based on, which was a mix of "Dunwich Horror" and "Colour Out of Space.

" For horror movie fans, this is a wonderfully campy vehicle for Karloff. The set design features mostly gray tones, and extreme void of color. In the novella, the radiation faded everything it came in contact with, for the span of a few miles.

So, the setting (the blasted heath) holds true to the book as well. However, the "monsters" in the greenhouse were probably pulled from another of Lovecraft's short stories...but that really isn't too important.

The character name "Whitley" comes from the feratured characters of "The Dunwich Horror." The only real problem with this film (once you discern that this is a completely liberal adaptation, like most movie adaptations of this author's work) is that the director is trying to mix the noir genre with the horror genre, and bring back the trench coat clad hero and his blonde heroine from modern day America and set it in a gothic horror setting in Britain.

Needless to say, the book is a fantasy and set in a lavishly fantastic town called Arkham. It's the fact that the producers at AIP tried to make this film realistic, seemingly, when really there is only one way to film this.

..which is to make sure it is as fantastic as the book. Overall, if you like campy horror flicks from the 1960s, and if you are an avid Boris Karloff fan, you'll thoroughly enjoy this film.