Die, Monster, Die
                                                                                                                  
Director: Daniel Haller
Year: 1965
Rating: 6.0
This has all the hallmarks of a British Gothic film with the creepy old house filled with antiques, basements and stairways, fog permeating the grounds, a woman in a black veil wandering outside with a knife, inside a woman who never shows her face, bodies being buried on the grounds, crows cawing, mysteries slowly unearthed and the wonderful Boris Karloff. In fact though, this was produced by AIP and directed by Daniel Haller who was responsible for all the wonderful sets of the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe films. Later he was to direct The Dunwich Horror. This film looks fabulous. It is based on a short story from H.P. Lovecraft though I have not read it to see how close it sticks to it. My guess is not much. From what I gather it was a film that got little positive recognition from the critics when it was released but is now regarded well by horror fans. It takes a while to get to the payoff but is constantly eerie and weird. Karloff in his wheelchair (his legs and back were hurting) gives an outstanding performance vacillating between stern, horrified and sympathetic.

 

A brash American has shown up to a small English village to visit his girlfriend from college. He is played by Nick Adams who in the same year spent time in Japan appearing in Frankenstein vs Baragon, Invasion of Astro-Monster and most importantly romancing Kumi Mizuno. When he asks the town people how to get to the Whitley home, they walk away like he is on fire. That would be my tell to turn around and go home. But he has Suzan Farmer waiting for him. She was to appear in a few Hammer films - Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Rasputin and The Devil-Ship Pirates. Her winsome blonde girl next door looks fit into horror films.

 

Off he goes on foot, sneaks by the iron gate, sees the woman in black, notices the dead vegetation and opens the door to the house only to come face to face with a seething Boris Karloff who tells him to get out. One look at Karloff and that would be my second tell to go home, but the lovely Suzan comes down the stairs and the world seems a brighter, cheerier place. For a minute. The mother won't let her face be seen, the servant falls down, Suzan tells Adams that she sees someone outside her window - oh you must be imagining it - and it all gets more sinister. One of my pet trope peeves is when men tell women in horror films that they are imagining things. I don't know if that still goes on in horror films but if so, it should get an automatic slap from the girl. A lot of time is taken up by Adams walking around the dark and shadowy house but it is effective - especially when bats fly out and so does a skeleton like it was from an Abbott and Costello film. There is also a fun nod to Corman's Little Shop of Horrors.