Roger Corman's nice attempt at Edgar Allan Poe's terror tale in which evil Prince Prospero , Vincent Price , reunites at his castle a motley group of aristocrats until the creepy appearance of the Red Death. As the sadistic Prince and his sycophants trying to ignore the plague outside castle walls . As the Red Death is the deadly plague which has swept throughout villages and now menaces the besieged castle . Along the way , Prospero deals with a cunning devil and playfully murders any of his subjects not already dead of the plague . Look into this face : Shudder ...at the blood-stained dance of the Red Death! Tremble.?. To the hideous tortures of the catacombs of Kali ! Gasp .. at the sacrifice of the innocent virgin to the vengeance of Baal !
An essential and immortal masterpiece of the macabre written by Charles Beaumont , and produced in budget enough by James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff from American International Pictures . A highly stylish Roger Corman adaptation with Horror is still ever present , including eerie images , surprising scenarios and gorgeous costumes . Vincent Price gives a terrific acting , as always , by playing a sort of medieval Faust who has sold his soul to the Devil . He is accompanied by a pretty good cast , such as : Hazel Court , Jane Asher, Patrick Mcgee , David Weston , Nigel Green , and Skip Martin as a dwarf has a touching little romance revealing himself as rather a fine player . As all main and secondary cast delivering decent interpretations .There are other inferior versions about the brief novel by Poe , but pale compared to this 1964 film , such as : "Masque of Red Death" 1989 produced by Corman with Patrck Macnee , Adrian Paul , Maria Ford and "Masque of Red Death" 1990 by Alan Birkinshaw with Frank Stallone, Brenda Vaccaro, Herbert Lom.
It contains a glimmer and shining cinematography by Nicolas Roeg , subsequently a great filmmaker, being shot mostly in British studios . Thrilling and exciting musical score by David Lee. The motion picture was competently directed by horror expert Roger Corman and seven Poe adaptations , as he proved in "The Raven" , "The Terror" , "Tomb of Ligeia" , "The Haunted Palace" , "Premature Burial", "Tales of Terror" , "Tower of London" , "The Pit and the Pendulum", among others . Rating : 7/10. Better than average . Worthwhile seeing .
