jdhb-768-61234 The Masque of the Red Death is a brilliant film. Vincent Price as the malevolent Prince Prospero lords it over his lands, friends, peasants and all, totally devoid of any compassion or sensitivity. Whatever or whoever comes his way is either used, abused or destroyed by a man who imagines his power to be absolute. Added to that, he is also a worshipper of Satan and uses his supposed satanic connections to bolster his powers over others.When confronted with peasants from a local village he abducts a naive and pretty young woman, Francesca, beautifully played by Jane Asher, and imprisons her father and beloved. In passing, he discovers that the dreaded 'Red Death', a terrible disease, is stalking his lands but thinks little of it believing himself to be immune behind the walls of his mighty castle and protected, as he believes himself to be, by Satan.As the film progresses, Francesca comes to know of Prospero's satanic rituals and also sees him as the monster that he is. He murders friends from behind the walls of his castle with as little emotion as he watches his falcon catch its prey. When his lover, Juliana, played rather quietly by Hazel Court, is thrown into an attack of jealously by the arrival of the pretty and much younger Francesca, she looks to regain Price's affection by taking the final steps in committing herself to Satan's cause, branding herself with an upside down cross, and then trying to help Asher escape. Of course, Price knows of this and Court, after enduring the horrors of a final gruesome ritual, pays the ultimate price for her treachery, while Asher is faced with losing either her father or her lover in a nasty game dreamt up by Prospero and which ends unexpectedly.Prospero engenders fear in his retinue, though there are still some who are prepared to risk his wrath. The dwarf, Hop Toad, who hates Prospero but can't escape him, encourages one, Alfredo, played by the always reliable Patrick McGee and Prospero's long-standing ally, to believe that there is a way out of Prospero's control; in reality, Hop Toad is forging a trap because of Alfredo's previous ill-treatment of Hop Toad's beautiful and equally tiny love, Esmerelda. McGee consequently finds himself in a most unfortunate costume at the Masque, or ball, of the title, and Hop Toad has his revenge which, perversely, also brings Prospero's admiration. By now, Francesca has become accustomed to Prospero's brutal nature and is barely moved by the appalling scene that she witnesses.When the surviving villagers arrive and beg for help from Prospero during the ball, they are met with disdain and murder, except for a child whom Prospero fears to kill. Prospero and his guests continue to enjoy their dancing and entertainment, but Death having stalked the village, finally arrives at the castle, where Prospero believes him to be Satan only to find that he is the bringer of the Red Death itself and is not anyone's servant. At the last, Prospero asks Death to spare Francesca, his one and only kindly deed, before his final realisation of the truth and his own death. The final scenes of the Masque, and Death walking past the assembled throng, is somewhat stagey but wholly in tune with the nature of the film.The ending sees the bringer of the Red Death united with various fellows who've brought their own plagues elsewhere. We learn that Francesca and her lover, Hop Toad and Esmerelda, the child whom Prospero declined to kill and an old man have survived the Red Death although thousands have died. The others have brought similar pestilence to their domains although there is no explanation as to why.The cast has a few regular names of 50s, 60s and 70s British films such as Nigel Green, Paul Whitsun-Jones and Patrick McGee but none appears to any great degree. The film is largely about Vincent Price, Hazel Court and Jane Asher with occasional interlopers. Nonetheless, it must be regarded as one of the finest horror films of its generation. It lacks the buckets of blood and gore, and CGI, of more modern horrors but is much the better for that. The horror is in the not seeing and not knowing, rather than in the 'in your face' action of today's offerings. There is menace, threat, fear and imagining rather than fire and brimstone.This film is as watchable today as it was when I first saw it some 50 years ago. It holds the attention throughout without resorting to anything too shocking. Asher's facial expressions tell the audience how horrible things are, and how immured she later becomes, without recourse to less subtle means. There is none of the 'hamminess' of many horror films of the era and Price is just superb, as is the direction of Roger Corman.In the end there is a message. "Each man creates his own heaven and his own hell", in other words, we live our own lives and create our own opportunities and disasters. No one else is to blame if we get it wrong.This can't be marked as a 10 (little can) but it's worthy of more than an 8; as 8.5 isn't available, I have to give it a 9. It's that good.

Smoreni Zmaj One more in the line of Po adaptations. You would not believe if I told you who directed it. And if you could just see my surprise when I realized who is in leading role... :D I am starting to think that Corman and Price were gay couple and Po was supreme deity of their religion. :D Like in its predecessors, the film relies primarily on brilliant Vincent Price and Cormans directing, while everything else is average, but it does not matter as all possible faults of the movie will pass unnoticed, because Price will steal all of your attention and everything else is just background for his monologues.6,5/10

GL84 Deciding to visit the countryside towns, an Italian prince throws his annual masquerade ball to overlook his burning a village down to forget the plague ravaging the area only when the party guests start dying, he is forced to come face-to-face with his own personal demons.This one has several built-in pluses working for it being another of the Price/Corman/Poe films. Among the best parts here is that this one continues what occurs in most of the other efforts as it features some great location work. As most of the time is spent with the characters exploring the Gothic, cob-webbed labyrinthine castle, it builds up suspense marvelously through several fun and highly enjoyable scenes. The first trip through the castle, as the character is exploring it for the first time, creating a sense of dread as the build-up to an unexpected moment is clearly within reach with the small little jump at the end a nice topper. The fact that a large portion of the film is built around his treatment and obsession with the girl works well with the different manners he goes about trying to win her approval through his cruel treatments makes for some fun times here, and are given a lot of room to work here with the setting in that particular castle. The beautifully constructed story is as usual based on one of Poe's tales, and it keeps the movie rolling along nicely as a fast-paced film from this time, which is quite nice and it stays close to the story as well. As well, there is plenty to like about this one's main facet with the party scenes. The dagger sequence is as brilliant a display of suspense as ever, and a later dream sequence is also a masterful highlight capturing a striking mood. The last plus here is the film's biggest asset in that it ages a lot better than the others in the series due to it's high production values, beautiful looking scenery, and the occasional shock jump here and there. Of course, all of this is useless without the wonderful as ever Price leading the way with one of greatest performances ever. He truly is magical to behold and this one is no exception. There's really only one complaint about the film, which is quite dependent on many viewer's own issues. This is the fact that the much-rumored party sequence is so late in the movie that it can seem like eternity to get there. Yes, it does move along at a fast enough clip, but it happens so late in the film that it can seem like forever before it happens. It is worth the wait, however, but sometimes it feels like it should've happened earlier. One relatively minor complaint, though, isn't enough to deter this from one of the better Corman/Price/Poe film around.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence and satanic themes and rituals

BA_Harrison Call me a philistine if you like, but I've always found Roger Corman's lavish adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death a little too pretentious for my taste, much preferring the director's more trashy B-movie output. Here, Corman is under the illusion that he is Ingmar Bergman, presenting his tale in an art-house fashion that might look visually impressive (the photography by Nicolas Roeg is definitely eye-catching) but which actually proves surprisingly dull overall, despite the debauchery and decadence on display.Nobody plays loathsome quite like Vincent Price, and here he at his most despicable, as Prince Prospero, a Satan worshipping aristocrat who delights in corrupting the innocent. In the confines of his castle, he and his fellow deviants enjoy extravagant parties while outside the locals are dropping like flies of the red death, a plague that has been ravaging the countryside. Unfortunately, Price seems to get caught up in the whole ostentatiousness of the production, and delivers one of the hammiest performances of his career, which might be seen as parody if only the actor didn't seem quite so earnest.The ending of the film is particularly painful to watch, as Corman's pomposity goes into overdrive with an extended scene of death and suffering portrayed through the medium of expressive dance, followed by a blatant rip-off from Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Give me Attack of the Crab Monsters any day of the week.