US / GB
1965
1hr 20mins
Dir: Daniel Haller
Starring: Boris Karloff and Freda Jackson
A young man visits his fiancée’s estate only to discover that the plants in the greenhouse have taken on gigantic proportions and a sinister nature
This dreadful horror film is a loose adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s story The Colour Out of Space. It was shot under the working title The House at the End of the World but was released in the UK as Monster of Terror and in the US as Die, Monster, Die! The opening scenes in the film feature some very good colour shots of BR Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T No.41287 arriving at Baynards station in Surrey with a train of three green-liveried Mk.1 coaches. This was filmed shortly before the station’s closure on 14th June 1965 and the goods traffic had already ceased three years prior. An air of desolation is readily apparent from these scenes, not helped by the winter weather. The station was renamed ‘Arkham’ for the film and there are equally good shots of the level crossing and signal box for what was its final appearance in a feature film. Baynards station had become something of a film star as the rural station appeared in the following seven films in a 22-year period – The New Lot (1943), They Were Sisters (1945), Room At The Top (1959), The Grass is Greener (1960), The Horsemasters (1961), Rotten to the Core (1965) and Monster of Terror (1965) (all qv). It was also used by the BBC for the 1957 television adaptation of The Railway Children whilst the level crossing at the station featured in The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942).
