I have been a fan of Boris Karloff since I was young and seen him Frankenstein from 1931 as the Monster. He has had some of the best and most iconic roles in the horror genre and deserves all the respect that he gets. Karloff was a very busy actor and continued to pump out films all the way until his death in 1969. Alot of what he has done may be looked at as campy or B horror films. To myself no matter what he did you could tell that he put his all into his roles like many others like him. Anyways lets delve into this autopsy!
After a young American visits the woman who he loves he quickly finds out that things around her house are not as they seem. Things seem to get more and more bizarre and the secrets that her father is hiding starts to unravel. Stephen must try anything she can to save his love Susan from the horrors that seem to be just around the corner. Will they make it out alive or will they be the next victims of this house of horrors?!
The plot to this film simply seems to be something you would find alot in the horror genre and really it is. The things that lift it up from just being another run of the mill horror film is that of the cast. Boris Karloff simply does an excellent job as the mad scientist with alot to hide, and Nick Adams does a fantastic job as the very curious and investigative protagonist. The mother is another great character that is played by Freda Jackson even if she is only in the film here and there. Susan is played by Suzan Farmer and she does a good job as the love interest, but she is very much a stereotypical character.
For those who are familiar with the "tree rape" scene from Evil Dead well there is a scene where Susan gets attacked by a plant and it tangles her up, but luckily does not rape her. I always wondered if Sam Raimi ever saw Die Monster Die and got some inspiration from that scene. One cliche that this film of course does follow is the "I just found some crazy looking creatures and my girlfriend just got attacked by the woods, but instead of running I will investigate more!". Of course if films like this never followed that tried and true formula then we wouldn't have about 80% of horror films.
The makeup and special effects are about what you would expect from a low budget horror film of it's time. For the most part the make-up effects are quite cheesy looking, but they do have that charm that you only can find in something A.I.P. released during this time period. One of the best special effects is when the character Letitia ends up going mad and they gets we by the rain and her face melts away. One last thing I want to mention is that there is these stones that Nahum (Boris Karloff) uses to try and make plants grow look like they are kryptonite. If you are wanting to see one of the more forgotten films from Boris Karloff's filmography then look no further, Die Monster Die is your film!
The presentation on this release is simply the best that I have ever seen this film look on a home video format. There is the occasional film damage from time to time, but nothing overly distracting. They really did a good job of restoring the picture, but not to the point of destroying it and making it look overly polished and crappy. This release only gives you one option for audio and that is a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. I personally don't mind, but I could see some people being upset is was not done into a 5.1 surround sound. Sadly there is only one special feature and that is the theatrical trailer. Overall this is still a good release of a really fun film!
I give this film and release a 4 out of 5 scalpels!
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Daniel Haller
Lead Actor/Actress: Boris Karloff
Genre: Horror
Blu-ray Release Year: 2013
Theatrical Release Year: 1965
Time Length: 80 mins.
Rating: Not Rated
Region Code: Region A
Release Company: Scream Factory (Shout! Factory)
Website:
www.shoutfactory.com
I have been a fan of Boris Karloff since I was young and seen him Frankenstein from 1931 as the Monster. He has had some of the best and most iconic roles in the horror genre and deserves all the respect that he gets. Karloff was a very busy actor and continued to pump out films all the way until his death in 1969. Alot of what he has done may be looked at as campy or B horror films. To myself no matter what he did you could tell that he put his all into his roles like many others like him. Anyways lets delve into this autopsy!
