DVD Review: Die Monster Die!
by Jim Pappas
Published: September 11, 2005
Country: |
Year: |
Distributor: |
Director: |
Cast: |
USA |
2005 |
MGM |
Daniel Haller |
Boris Karloff as Nahum Witley
Nick Adams as Stephen Reinhart
Suzan Farmer as Susan Witley
Freda Jackson as Letitia Witley
more...
|
 |
|
Now available on a single, double sided DVD,
“The Dunwich Horror & Die Monster Die!.”
|
I don’t know why the title of “Die Monster Die!” is so, since there is no monster in the film, only a radioactive meteor that causes people to mutate into angry and deformed souls. Nevertheless, that is the title of this film that has now been released on DVD as one side of a double-sided disc with another American International Pictures film from the early 70’s, “The Dunwich Horror” (see review of this elsewhere on this page). “Die Monster Die!” was released in 1965.
The film claims to be based on the H.P. Lovecraft novel “The Colour Out of Space,” but there is little resemblance between the two. Directed by Daniel Haller in listless fashion, the film plays itself out without stirring a single emotion in an audience, as the actors try bravely to overcome the sleep-inducing screenplay by Jerry Sohl. Sohl is a noted science fiction writer, but he just didn’t create a script that rises above the utter pedestrian here.
Nick Adams plays Stephen Reinhart, an earnest young man and suitor of Susan Witley (Suzan Farmer), whose family happens to be the ones that live, you know, at the edge of town in the big mansion and eerie things are always going on there and everyone hates the Witleys for some reason that is never explained and you and I both know how this is going to turn out. Susan’s father is Nahum Witley (Boris Karloff in a good performance), who is harboring some secret at his estate, one that seemingly is causing his wife, Letitia (Freda Jackson, good here as well), to lie ill and dying. Actually what happens in “Die Monster Die!” serves as a bookend to the other side of its disc, as both films work on you in the same fashion: you become unconscious about halfway through.
To their credit, the actors do a credible job with their roles despite Haller’s direction and the cliché infested screenplay. That isn’t much to keep “Die Monster Die!” from a “worst film” list, except that there are worse films than this (see: “The Dunwich Horror”). If you do buy this disc, watch “Die Monster Die!” first, as it is sort of a lesser evil. Like a mosquito bite is a lesser evil than a bee sting. Daniel Haller is the director of both films, and the last credit I can find for him is a 1988 TV series, “The Highwayman.” I haven’t seen that show but since it didn’t last too long I suspect Haller’s unimaginative directorial style was a part of the reason it failed.
Like “The Dunwich Horror,” “Die Monster Die!” is something for a collector only. American International Pictures put out some fun and breezy films in its day, but neither of these do the studio any credit. However, that they would be released in a DVD format offers hope that some great and obscure films will see the DVD light-of-day in the near future. I’ll wait for that day.
Overall Rating: C
|
CD Giveaway - Paper Bird, "Rooms"
Ends May 28, 2013
Drifting ever so slightly away from traditional folk music, this Colorado band delivers harmony and energy aplenty. |
|
|
