The decadent Prince Prospero takes a break from his assorted arcane Satanic incantations and rituals to throw an elaborate costume ball in defiance of the plague laying waste the countryside outside his castle walls, unaware that the festivities are soon to be crashed by an uninvited guest. The combination of Edgar Allen Poe's high-minded aspirations with a typically thrifty Roger Corman budget was something the writer himself might have approved of: a literate horror story with just enough camp appeal to give it box office clout among undiscriminating teenage moviegoers. Corman's expansion of the original story is suitably macabre and highly visual (Nicholas Roeg provided the striking cinematography), but his updated Death moves in mysterious ways, striking down high and low alike but sparing (why?) the pure at heart. The urbane malevolence of Vincent Price adds the perfect touch of evil; after twenty years in show business he made his reputation with Corman's adaptations of the work of the celebrated poet and manic-depressive.
Review of The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
(1964)
a rare stab at quality from the king of the B-movies
5 December 2010