Die, Monster, Die!

While visiting his girlfriend in England, a young American (Nick Adams) discovers her father’s (Boris Karloff) obsession with a radioactive meteorite.

Die, Monster, Die is very reminiscent of one of star Boris Karloff’s earlier films, The Invisible Ray. Both center on a radioactive meteorite, both feature a glowing Karloff, and, unfortunately, both are very talky.

Loosely based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, the setup has a lot of potential. Karloff does a great job playing the crippled heir of a corrupt family (a character not too far removed from Poe’s Roderick Usher) who discovers a radioactive meteorite with the power to mutate plants and animals.

Unlike The Invisible Ray, which spent half the film getting to this point, Die, Monster, Die opens with Karloff’s character already knee deep in meteorite obsession, only to go absolutely nowhere.

The script by Jerry Sohl is all setup. When Nick Adams’ character gets off the train and begins asking around the town, it’s great, building a real sense of unease. This continues as Adam’s character makes his way to the desolate manor to meet his girlfriend and her strange family, but once he arrives at the house, the atmosphere dissolves into route exposition and the movie starts to drag.

Adams doesn’t help much, either. He comes across as perpetually annoyed as he mugs and scowls his way through his scenes, talking in a Joe Friday clip that has zero range and less charisma.

Finally, topping it all off, there’s the glowing Karloff finale, which didn’t work in The Invisible Ray, and doesn’t work here.