Well here's one bet I would have lost - Boris Karloff and Nick Adams in the same movie! I would have watched this one for Karloff alone, but throw Adams into the mix, and this one had me stay up way past my bedtime, even with work the next day. And I get up early.

I only wish I could be more positive about the result. The story takes an interesting premise, and turns it into a laughably pretentious exercise in Gothic pseudo-horror. Not only that, but it takes an agonizingly long time to get to the punch line. I swear, never have I seen a movie where one of the principals (Adams) spends the bulk of his time just walking around. Through corridors, up and down stairs, into rooms and out of rooms, sometimes alone and sometimes with a companion. Every once in a while Stephen Reinhart breaks into a trot, and like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps on going.

You know, I had to chuckle as I considered Nick Adams' character in one of my favorite classic TV Westerns, that of Johnny Yuma in "The Rebel". Not an episode would go by where Johnny wouldn't get into a fistfight over some grievance or another, usually with some villain much bigger than himself. So I'm watching as his girlfriend Susan (Suzan Farmer) gets attacked by the grabby vine plant, and Reinhart tries to punch out the vegetation! One of the many surreal moments in this picture.

Which all comes down to beg the question - why was anyone making a movie this inane as late as 1965? There isn't much of a recommendation here except to catch Boris Karloff in a wind down to an illustrious career, along with that unusual casting decision to pair him up with Adams. Even in a wheel chair, Karloff had a regal bearing to his look, and if he had to play a role in a debilitated condition, at least he made it look professional.

A film based off the work of HP Lovecraft and starring Boris Karloff showed promise already, even before watching. Die, Monster, Die! doesn't quite live up to that, but despite having a lot of problems it is still a fun and decent film. Apart from Boris Karloff and to a lesser extent the lovely Suzan Farmer, the acting is clunky with Nick Adams in particular looking as if he's sleepwalking through everything. The special effects and make-up are cheap and look more silly than scary, while the script can get muddled, the pacing is a little pedestrian at times and the ending is rushed and somewhat hard to swallow. Aside from the special effects, Die, Monster, Die! is still a good-looking film, the Gothic sets are both atmospheric and handsome and it's very beautifully photographed. The lighting adds to the mood, and the costumes likewise. The music score is appropriately haunting without bogging things down, and the atmosphere and resolutely creepy and chilling. Daniel Haller's generally solid direction is to thank for that, and the story is fun and atmospheric, if let down by the last half-hour or so where things get too silly. Karloff is wonderful, one of those actors who was nearly always able to redeem a film regardless of their quality(he's the best thing about those god-awful Mexican films that he made at the end of his career),even when he's in a wheel-chair he still shows a great deal of energy and charisma. Farmer is lovely and not too bland. Overall, flawed but fun and creepy, and even if he's been and done better Karloff does not disappoint. 6/10 Bethany Cox

An okay but flawed movie in the spirit of the Corman Poe films (1960-1965),this has its moments but is let down by a sluggish pace and a familiarity with the proceedings. By now the "outsider goes to crumbling house and meets owner with dark secrets" plot had been done to death and it shows here. Plus, the imported American lead, Nick Adams, is hopelessly miscast, nothing more than wooden throughout the film's running time and hardly charismatic.

I was hoping this film to be a Lovecraft tour-de-force but I was disappointed : Lovecraft's source material is barely used in the film, and the makers saw fit to add in an ancestral black magic subplot seemingly lifted from THE HAUNTED PALACE instead. Only in the last half an hour do things really pick up and become quite exciting, but by then we really don't care that much anyway. Everything that happens in this film is predictable. The acting, aside from Karloff's, is mundane too, with Suzan Farmer a forgettable love interest and Freda Jackson (THE BRIDES OF Dracula) given too little to do. Patrick Magee (DEMENTIA 13) is also wasted in his one-scene cameo as the town's doctor, a character whom I would have liked to have seen more of.

Still, the ending itself is pretty good, with some tacky but effective special effects work. The special effects, while low budget, are still a lot of fun, especially the monster who just looks like somebody covered in tin foil and with green lights shining upon them. There are some fun clichéd bits - the skeleton behind the door shock is routine, yet reminded me of THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, and some lame ones, but sadly the silly bits outweigh the good. Just watch a moment where a woman is attacked by a mutated plant in the greenhouse - it's as stupid as it sounds, although not without its merits. On the plus side, the sets and scenery are quite nice and claustrophobic, and Boris Karloff is very good in his role. Despite being in a wheelchair and nearing the end of his life, Karloff gives a nicely sinister performance in his finest tradition and it's great to see the old master at work.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! is a cheesy B-movie, nothing more. It's worth seeing if you're a Lovecraft or Karloff fan, yes, but the outlandish title promises a lot of fun which just doesn't appear, sadly. Check out the 1987 movie THE CURSE for another version of Lovecraft's story, which is about the same in terms of quality.