Die, Monster, Die! Reviews

A slow-moving, but effective adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's story, "The Color Out of Space," this was the first directing effort by Daniel Haller. Boris Karloff, in a standout performance, is Nahum Witley, a wheelchair-bound scientist who has been experimenting with a radioactive meteorite that can make plants grow to enormous proportions. When Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams), an American, arrives at Witley's English mansion to visit his fiancee, (Suzan Farmer), the scientist's daughter, he notices strange things happening at the house, and Witley tries to get him to leave. Stephen is then begged by his fiancee's bedridden mother, Letitia (Freda Jackson), to take her daughter away from the house as soon as possible. Stephen investigates but is attacked by the now horribly mutated Letitia, who suddenly turns into a fiery spray of ashes. Witley finally realizes he can no longer control the meteor and tries to destroy it but undergoes mutation himself and attempts to kill his daughter and her fiance. Before Stuart Gordon burst upon the scene with RE-ANIMATOR (1985) and FROM BEYOND (1986), this film and its companion, THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970), were among the few even marginally successful adaptations of Lovecraft.