Among the Red Death
WATCHING director Roger Corman in 1964 presents Edgar Allan Poe’s legendary story The Masque Of The Red Death in 2021 feels strangely right, in a way.
Poe’s moral story of an evil Prince locks away in his castle and partys with his sycophantic followers as if it is the end of the world while a deadly plague rages through His kingdom, killing hundreds of his poor subjects as he goes, gives a good view of a pandemic.
The ‘Merchant of Menace’ himself, Vincent Price, presents one of the best achievements of his role as the devil-worshiping Prince Prospero. There are also memorable supporting roles for the popular haunted queen Hazel Court as her loyal lover and new-faced Jane Asher as the mermaid farmer’s daughter, whom he slips into his inner circle from the streets of outside the castle.
While the main fun here is watching Price snatch every ounce of sad pleasure from his prime, watch out for the amazing moving color patterns while the innocent Asher is on sweeping through Prospero’s plush pad, moving from room to room with a woozy, almost psychedelic swagger. : Corman’s writer Nicolas Roeg would bring a sense of the same color and style to himself that will no longer show the next decade.
Equally memorable is a series of depressing nightmares (something Corman did well) and the artistic arrival of death himself in his red uniform and mask in the enclosed center of the castle.
Thanks to screenwriter Charles Beaumont putting out events with another Poe story, Hop Frog – Masque was far too short a horror story for stretching to a full-length feature on its own after all – we even enjoy a usually rich rendition of Armagh’s best, Patrick Magee, as leering nobles who rise up hanging from the top in a burning ape suit for his sins.
Thoughtful and cool, this particular Masque is a miniature but elegant slice of Gothic cinema at its best.
Of course, Corman’s lush and languorous masterpiece of macabre has been released on DVD and Blu-ray before, and I bought most of them, but now Studiocanal has found the version about the end of the film which is seen completely unopened and fully regenerated. to new levels of 4K glory with Martin Scorsese Film Foundation, downloaded with more extras and bonus features than even the most powerful horror dog could want.
In addition to the glorious new images and the option to watch either the original theater edition or the new refurbished print, fans can engage in such bonuses as well as conversations. video by Roger Corman himself and featuring narrative tracks from film historian Kim Newman and filmmaker Sean Hogan.
The film itself remains a truly stunning cinema at its most intriguing and engaging and is the most elegant and memorable of the ‘Poe cycle’ of films delivered by Corman and AIP in the 1960s.
This newly released edition only adds to his remarkable legacy.