The Masque of the Red Death

Roger Corman has done an outstanding job with this film, possibly the best of his Poe adaptations. Although the film really is an incorporation of two Poe stories....The Masque of the Red Death and Hop-Frog...it is an excellent, atmospheric, quality piece of entertainment. At the core of the film's strength are the performance of Price as the evil, malignant, malicious Prince Prospero, follower of the devil and cruel sovereign of an area plagued with a all-consuming Red Death, and the fabulous period sets and costumes, many borrowed from the film Beckett. Price is at his best, and his turn as Prospero easily ranks as his most sinister and wicked performance(closely running against his portrayal of a witch hunter in The Conquerer Worm). Vincent Price blends outrageous showmanship with intricate subtleties of a man reasoning why he is what he is. The dialogue certainly is more important than the action in the story...a reason why some viewers(younger ones more than likely) will find film a bit tiresome. The sets and costumes are just gorgeous and the film looks like the most lavish ever made by Corman and company. A true modern masterpiece of the horror cinema!

No need to go into storyline details after so many reviews. Looks like Corman's movie is Bergmann for the rest of us. The screenplay's heavy with philosophical themes about God, evil, and death. However, except for the themes and some of the imagery, the movie's a stylistic opposite of the grim Swedish filmmaker's Seventh Seal (1956). Here candy box colors are lavishly piled on top of one another. No shades of gray or bleak shorelines to depress viewers. Instead, it's manic gaiety interspersed with diabolical games of death and corruption. Looks to me like meaningful horror can be done even with a vivid color scheme, contrary to what some b&w purists have held. Then too, the movie shows that Price is quite capable of giving a non-hammy performance as his icily heartless Prospero proves in a tailor-made performance.

For a minute, however, I thought Hollywood might actually carry through with a tough- minded existential theme (a morally indifferent world) that is suggested by such remarks as our making our own heaven and hell or death being the only overarching reality. But no. Even death, it seems, has a soft spot for love and lovers. So at the last minute Hollywood sneaks in, after all. Nonetheless, the movie's easily the best of Corman's adaptations of Poe, echoes of Bergmann or no.

Possibly the best of the Roger Corman-Vincent Price series of film adaptations of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Masque of the Red Death' is a chilling and malevolent tale of decadent devil-worshippers holed up in a castle while the Red Death claims its victims in the village outside.

Vincent Price was a gloriously hammy actor who played horror roles with the utmost seriousness. His characterization of Prince Prospero in this movie is brilliant - a man without a soul or heart who is only conquered when a girl of equal faith enters his castle (the wooden Jane Asher as Francesca). In support Hazel Court as the would-be Bride of Satan Juliana, and Patrick Magee as the corrupt Alfredo are particularly worthy of note.

The dwarf's revenge on Alfredo during the masque is as chilling as anything which came before in films such as 1932's 'Freaks'; while the film shimmers with beautiful cinematography (especially the coloured rooms) and simmers with corruption. The combined effect is superb and makes the film a memorable experience.

Once again scripted by Charles Beaumont and produced/directed by Roger Corman, Masque of the Red Death is a much-beloved horror film from a lost era. Movies will never again be made quite like this. It's filled with the same mad characters, gorgeous sets, and colorful dream sequences we're used to seeing from Corman. Vincent Price, however hammy he may be, is perfect as the Satan-worshiping Prince Prospero. This very well could be the most evil I have ever seen Price. The cast is fine but Patrick Magee is definitely worth mentioning. He is delightfully wicked. And the character of the Red Death itself is cryptic and cool. This is one of the most colorful horror pictures ever made. The sets are grand, the story is marvelous, and the ending is brilliant. Masque of the Red Death is perhaps the most expensive Poe production, but it's still not Corman's best. I leave that honor to The Pit and the Pendulum.

A reviewer linked to this site described "The Masque of the Red Death" as Bergmanesque. A Roger Corman film Bergmanesque? Since I've only seen one Ingmar Bergman film, and it bored me silly, this was not much of an endorsement.

When I was a kid and Corman's Edgar Alan Poe adaptations were new, they scared the be-jeebers out of me. So would have "The Masque of the Red Death". After watching the movie recently, I didn't gain any insight into Mr. Bergman's film style, but I was entertained. And happily, the movie is free of the campy acting that seeps into so many of the Corman opus. Especially good is Vincent Price as the Satan-worshipping Prince Prospero, in whose castle his debauched guests wait out the plague that is ravishing the countryside. Dark and grotesque, this is an excellent example of Corman's work. Actually, one of the best I've seen.