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Die, Monster, Die! – BFI (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: UK/USA, 1965
Director: Daniel Haller
Writer: Jerry Sohl
Cast: Boris Karloff, Nick Adams, Suzan Farmer, Freda Jackson, Patrick Magee

Release Date: September 9th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 78 Minutes 35 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: 15 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region B
Retail Price: £16.99 (UK)

"When American student Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams) arrives in the English village of Arkham to visit his fiancé Susan Witley (Suzan Farmer), he has no idea of the horrors awaiting within. Invited by Susan's mysteriously ill mother (Freda Jackson), Stephen is greeted acrimoniously by Susan’s father, Nahum (Boris Karloff), who makes it clear this visit is an unwelcome intrusion to the ornately furnished halls of the Witley estate, for Nahum is hiding a dangerous secret.

A meteorite has crash landed in the gardens, scorching the earth and emitting a mutating radiation that has transformed the greenhouse plants to pulsating giants, with horrifying and sickening side effects to the residents." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "Die, Monster, Die! has been supplied to the BFI by MGM and is presented in High Definition".

Die, Monster, Die! comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 39.8 GB

Feature: 22 GB

Though there is some print debris in the opening moments, the bulk of this presentation looks clean. Color saturation is very good, image clarity is strong, black levels fare well, compression is solid, and there are no issues with digital noise reduction.

Audio: 3.75/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio track sounds clean, free of distortion or background hiss. Dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced. That said, range-wise, this audio track sounds limited.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an extensive stills gallery, a theatrical trailer with optional audio commentary with Vic Pratt and William Fowler (1 minute 55 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a family greenhouse yields strange fruit in this stylish Swinging Sixties short film titled The Peaches (16 minutes 13 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an interview with film unit publicist Tony Tweedale titled Sell, Monster, Sell! (12 minutes 13 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with writers Ken Hollings and David McGillivray titled Nick Adams and Die, Monster, Die! (7 minutes 23 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), sequences from Ken Hollings and David McGillivray’s unmade biopic of Die, Monster, Die! co-star Nick Adams, performed in a read-through staged and shot exclusively for this release titled Scenes From 'Let Me Die a Monster' (14 minutes 7 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), a conversation with Vic Pratt and Boris Karloff’s biographer Stephen Jacobs titled A Karloff Konversation (19 minutes 23 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Vic Pratt and William Fowler, the founders of the ‘The BFI Flipside’ and authors of The Bodies Beneath: The Flipside of British Film & Television, and a 30-page booklet with an essay titled A Menagerie of Horrors written by Stephen Jacobs, an essay titled All the Colours of the Cosmic Dark: H.P. Lovecraft and the Unrepresentable written by Xavier Aldana Reyes, cast & crew information for Die, Monster, Die!, a text piece titled Let Me Die a Monster written by Ken Hollings, a text piece titled So Anyway, Where Have We Got To? written by David McGillivray, and information about the transfer.

Summary:

Die, Monster, Die! is the directorial debut of Daniel Haller, who previously had worked as an art director on several Roger Corman films. Five years later, he directed The Dunwich Horror, another H.P. Lovecraft-inspired film.

The narrative revolves around a young man who encounters hostility from the locals and his fiancé's father upon his arrival in Arkham. Despite warnings about staying, he decides to stay, discovering the truth behind what’s been going on at the Witley family estate.

Before the 1960s, there were no adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's stories; it was Roger Corman’s The Haunted Palace that got the ball rolling. Content wise, The Haunted Palace and the films that followed are more accurately described as being inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's works rather than being faithful adaptations. The adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space in Die, Monster, Die! fails to capture its full depth. Outside of Arkham and character names, the only real connection to H.P. Lovecraft is the use of many of his tropes, cosmic beings, and characters who speak in an ominous tone.

Considering what they had to work with, the cast are surprisingly better than expected, especially Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, 1931) in the role of Nahum Witley, the wheelchair-bound patriarch of the Witley family. Despite not being in the best of health, he delivered a performance that surpassed what most actors would have achieved. Though limited in screen time, Freda Jackson (The Brides of Dracula) delivers another memorable performance in the role of Nahum Witley’s disfigured wife.

It is apparent very early on that Die, Monster, Die! is a film that’s working with anemic resources. And nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to the special effects, which have not aged well. That said, when it comes to the visuals, this is one area where Die, Monster, Die! succeeds, which is not a surprise given Daniel Haller’s extensive background in art direction. Throughout Die, Monster, Die! Daniel Haller’s direction is able to deliver several visually arresting moments. Fortunately, at just under 79 minutes, the narrative is short enough that it does not overstay its welcome. Ultimately, there are good and bad H.P. Lovecraft adaptations; Die, Monster, Die! falls into the latter category.

Die, Monster, Die! gets a first-rate release from BFI that comes with a serviceable audio/video presentation and a wealth of extras.