FAQ

Patricia 'Pat' Carroll (Stefanie Powers) travels from America to London to marry her English fiancé Alan Glentower (Maurice Kaufmann). Before settling in, however, she wants to make good on a promise to pay her respects to Mrs Trefoile (Tallulah Bankhead), the mother of her previous fiancé Stephen, who died several years ago in a car crash. Against Alan's wishes, Pat drives alone to Mrs Trefoile's house in the country, intending to spend only an hour chatting. The hour expands into dinner and then an overnight so that Pat can attend church in the morning with Mrs Trefoile in order to pray for Stephen's immortal soul. Meanwhile, Mrs Trefoile is sizing up Patricia. In her warped mind, she thinks of Patricia as Stephen's wife and finds her to be 'corrupted'. When Pat has finally had it with Mrs Trefoile's religious fanatism, she reveals that she was intending to break up with Stephen, which causes Mrs Trefoile to snap completely. With the help of her two married servants, Harry (Peter Vaughan) and Anna (Yootha Joyce), Mrs Trefoile holds Patricia captive and vows to purify her soul so that she can be reunited with her dear Stephen in heaven.

Die! Die! My Darling! (English title: Fanatic) was based on the 1962 novel Nightmare by American novelist Anne Blaisdell (alias for Barbara 'Elizabeth' Limington). The novel was adapted for the movie by American author Richard Matheson.

Hammer Productions couldn't use Nightmare, the title of the original novel, because it had just released another movie titled Nightmare (1964) (1964), so they chose to title the movie Fanatic in order to fit in with their other movies from the 1960s, e.g., Paranoiac (1963) (1963) and Hysteria (1965) (1965). The title was changed again to Die! Die! My Darling! because similar movies such as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) (1962) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) (1964) were making loads of money.

Yes. Near the end of the film, when Patricia falls down the stairs and Mrs Trefoile realizes that she has not succeeded in purifying her, she cradles Patricia's head in her hands and says, 'I just heard Stephen's voice, and I know what I must do. I had hoped to cleanse your soul before releasing you, but now it's too late. The man will be back here, perhaps this very day. Therefore, you and Stephen must be reunited now. You must die...die, my darling.'

Mrs Trefoile lugs the unconscious Patricia into the basement where she stores all of her photos, clothes, and mementos from her days as an actress. She uncurtains a painting of Stephen and begins to pray. Meanwhile, Alan has gone to the local pub where he notices the waitress wearing the brooch that Alan had given Pat. He hightails it back to Mrs Trefoile's house and starts looking for Pat. Joseph (Donald Sutherland) and Anna try to stop him by hitting him over the shoulders with a barrel. Anna tells Joseph to hide the body in the garage, but Joseph says the car is there...he saw it just that morning. Anna begins to realize that something has happened to Harry, so she and Joseph help Alan to break into the basement. Mrs Trefoile shoots Joseph through the door, but Alan breaks it down just as Mrs Trefoile is about to slit Patricia's throat. He and Mrs Trefoile fight for the knife, and Mrs Trefoile ends up falling on it and cutting her hand. Alan grabs Pat and carries her out to his car after promising to call the police and send for a doctor for Joseph. While Mrs Trefoil cries to Stephen about her hurt hand, Anna attends to Joseph. She inadvertantly leans against a door that opens to reveal the dead body of her husband. In the final scene, Mrs Trefoile sinks to the floor, and a knife is seen sticking out of her back.

There are only two possibilities Joseph or Anna since Harry was dead, and Alan and Pat had already driven away. Since Joseph was on the floor with a bullet wound, the logical conclusion is that Anna did it after discovering her husband's body and realizing that he was killed by Mrs Trefoile.