Review: “Die, Die, My Darling” When Insanity Has A Face

“And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell”.

Mark 9:43-45

“Die, die, die my darling, just shut your pretty mouth” The Misfits were singing back in 1983, But we are going 18 years previously, to 1965, the year the movie “Die, die my darling” was released by Hammer productions, the British studio that created movies such as: Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, among others.

The film starts in a nice neighborhood, old cars rolling, a happy couple having a normal conversation, when our darling, Patricia, decides to visit his dead fiancé’s mother to have her blessing before she gets married with her new fiancé.

Here is where things turn interesting, a living hell for Patricia and a captivating story for us, horror fans!

The house has a heavy atmosphere, that kind of atmosphere that reminds of an everlasting mourning, no mirrors inside the house, huge dismal paintings, all through the movie you can hear the clock tick… tic tac tic tac tic tac, sometimes there is nothing scarier than silence, Mrs. Trefoile, the old lady, shows since the bare beginning that she is from head to toes a religious fanatic and an extremely puritan lady, surrounded by her loyal servants who join her to create a perfect nightmare, and truly concerned for saving Patricia´s soul, to keep her uncorrupted until she joins in spirit Mrs. Trefoile´s beloved son. Sassy clothes, wearing lipstick, losing her virginity, turn our darling into a filthy, filthy lady in front of God´s eyes.

“Making sacrifices sometimes is the only way out” the righteous and sadistic woman prays while pointing a gun, not scared to use it, bible in hands and the calm of a lunatic reflecting in her eyes her criminal mind, madness in this movie is progressive, the same way violence increases each minute.

Dead bodies, a lugubrious old house, knives and guns, a gorgeous young woman, captured like a wild animal in a cage, losing her hopes, trying to escape over and over, running for her life, creating strategies, all of this plus some top-notch actresses such as Tallulah Bankhead in the skin of Mrs Trefoile and the beautiful American actress Stefanie Powers as Patricia, turn this movie into a real classic that we all need to watch.

“Your future´s in an oblong box, don’t cry to me oh baby… ” again the twisted lyrics written by Glenn Danzig jump back into my mind, if you are an horror fan (and I bet you are, that´s why you are reading this) but you are not too much into vintage movies “Die, die my darling” is a great beginning and can open the door for you to a brand new world of horror cult movies… who doesn´t like to see an old lady holding a gun?, I really mean it, so if you are not going to follow my advice, YOU BETTER THINK ABOUT IT, BABE!