Year: 1964
Actors: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Weston
Director: Roger Corman
Formats: VHS, DVD
Price: £3.99
Mini Review
“Masque of the Red Death” is one of the Poe/Vincent/Corman classics. Poe’s original work is a short story based in a plague hit time. Victims of the Red Death sweat blood and have horrific deaths. The slightly insane and ruthless Prince Prosperso (Vincent Price) attempts to ride out the Red Death behind the confines of his abbey walls caring little for those around him. Instead he holds a masquerade ball for the nobles and wealthy. Since this is an Edgar Allan Poe story you can expect death and decay as an unexpected visitor joins the party.
Verdict
I first saw “Masque of the Red Death” when I was about seven years old. I remember distinctly coming back from my grandparents’ house having stopped off at the Fish ‘n Chip shop on the way back. I remember looking up and seeing the intro of the Red Death. The creepy cloaked character handing out a rose. The whole thing was spellbinding in a creepy way. This was probably the first time I’d seen or heard Vincent Price or heard of Edgar Allan Poe. The experience was one of intrigue.
I have to say to a seven year old the “Masque of the Red Death” is not a great movie. It’s not particularly action packed or child friendly. I do remember the experience though. The slightly blurry camera lens, the washed out colours and Vincent hamming it up to epic proportions. Revisiting a few years later I’d already moved on to “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “Dr Phibes” and all the other gems that Vincent brought us. The revisit was well worth it. Having now read the works of Poe and seen a lot more of Vincent’s work I really enjoy “Masque of the Red Death”. Much of Poe’s work is allegorical and it’s nice to see that the messages from the original text do seem to be carried in to the movie.
This type of horror is not scary in the sense of shocks and jumps, it’s more of a psychological sickening. The idea of madness caused by the yellow room (my room was yellow as a child), the idea of disease and the on-going gloomy decaying outlook of the world. From start to finish the movie put you in a slightly depressed ill feeling tone. Since the movie can do this I’m impressed. I can happily walk in to a modern horror and forget the imagery and plot almost the second I leave the theatre. “Masque of the Red Death” however leaves a lasting impression and nauseating feeling. Now that’s something special. The movie does now look incredibly dated and the younger generations are likely to give this one a miss for that reason. For those of an adventurous mind I’d recommend this one for a dreary afternoon, I still slightly prefer “The Pit and the Pendulum” but this is still a true gothic horror classic.
Pros: Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe, Roger Corman.
Cons: Limited appeal to a younger audience. Really depressing.
The Haunted Cinema Rating: 7 bleeding faces out of 10.
Should our review not be enough for you try these links.
IMDB: Masque of the Red Death
Wikipedia: Masque of the Red Death
Amazon: Masque Of The Red Death [DVD]
Happy hauntings, Jiblet.
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