Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Masque of the Red Death

(1964) ****

Prince Prospero, a satan-worshipping overlord, invites a bunch of nobles to his castle to ride out a wave of plague called the red death.

Prospero demands all his guests attend a masquerade ball, where her barks strange orders and they happily obey. The ball is a wild time of torture, depravity and debauchery, anything goes save for one rule, Prospero has commanded that no one wear the color red.

When a mysterious stranger arrives, clad head to toe in red, Prospero must find out who has disobeyed him. He follows the stranger until the shocking revelation tells all.

One of Vincent Price’s best films, he does a fine job as the eccentric Prince.

Prospero’s wild party is like a crazy LSD propaganda film, filled with wild women and trippy lights. The guests take pleasure from his cruelty and are happy to participate in his evil antics. I think Poe would have been delighted with this adaptation.

What do you think Mr. Poe?

3 comments:

AC said...

looks awesome!

Octopunk said...

Agreed, I'm in for any LSD propaganda that is also an Edgar Allen Poe story starring Vincent Price.

I feel like I saw this a long time ago, like maybe they even showed it in school? Probably not.

Nice review, Cat. Great screengrabs, and I like that you think Edgar himself would approve.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

This looks fantastic! Just when I think I've seen every devil worship movie out there Catfreeek comes along with another.

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