Die, Monster, Die! (1965 film)

Promotional poster for Die, Monster, Die! (1965 film)...

Die, Monster, Die! (1965 film) AKA The House at the End of the World, Colour Out of Space, Monster of Terror,

Summary

"No one can stop this killing machine... it's already dead!!!" An adaptation of The Colour Out of Space (ficton), in which scientist Stephen Reinhart travels to a small town where he plans to visit his fiancée Susan Witley and meet her parents. Oddly, when he arrives, the townspeople are unfriendly. At Susan's parents' estate, her father, Nahum, is acting suspiciously and her mother, Letitia, is hidden away in a bedroom. When Stephen and Susan begin investigating the strange behavior in town, they realize that a radioactive meteor is to blame.

Details

• Release Date: 1965
• Country/Language: UK/USA, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror, Science Fiction
• Runtime: 1 hr 20 min
• Starring: Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Freda Jackson
• Director: Daniel Haller
• Writer: H.P. Lovecraft (original story)
• Producer/Production Co: American International Pictures (AIP)
• View Trailer: (link)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: PG (mild Violence and creepiness)

Could be fairly kid-friendly, though more sensitive children might require parental guidance (the mutants and disintegrating or decaying people might be a little upsetting to some children).

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• SSSS_ (Four Tentacles: Unusually Lovecraftian; a remarkably faithful adaptation)

A fairly faithful, if dull, adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space (fiction)"; the usual suspects have been tacked onto the original story (a romantic subplot, a modern update with setting transplant to England, a house burning down at the end, etc.) to pad the story and add drama.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• BadMovieMarathon "Summer of Lovecraft", (link) - "The film has all the hallmarks of a sub-standard horror of its age, trying to make up for a plodding plot with overwrought music."
• User:Ywhateley: A fairly faithful, if dull, adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space (fiction)"; the usual suspects have been tacked onto the original story (a romantic subplot, a modern update with setting transplant to England, a house burning down at the end, etc.) to pad the story and add drama. Could be fairly kid-friendly, though more sensitive children might require parental guidance (the mutants and disintegrating or decaying people might be a little upsetting to some children). It's reasonably faithful to the source material, I rather enjoyed the mutant menagerie and found the sets and effects crude but atmospheric and effective, and poor Boris Karloff tends to elevate the quality of anything he is involved in, but this film can otherwise be a bit cold, creaky and tedious to watch (one wonders if perhaps Roger Corman might have added some life to a film like this....)

Synopsis

An adaptation of The Colour Out of Space (ficton), in which scientist Stephen Reinhart travels to a small town where he plans to visit his fiancée Susan Witley and meet her parents. Oddly, when he arrives, the townspeople are unfriendly. At Susan's parents' estate, her father, Nahum, is acting suspiciously and her mother, Letitia, is hidden away in a bedroom. When Stephen and Susan begin investigating the strange behavior in town, they realize that a radioactive meteor is to blame.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• This film would be frequently double-billed with Planet of the Vampires (1965 film), or sometimes with The Haunted Palace (1963 film).

Associated Mythos Elements

• fiction: "The Colour Out of Space (ficton)"
• monster: Colour Out of Space
• family: Witley
• location: Arkham train station
• location: Dunwich (England?)
• tome: Cult of the Outer Gods by Corbin Witley