This was the first film I've seen that was directed by Roger Corman, but he's a bit of a famous director and I'm told that this movie (or any of his Edgar Allen Poe adaptations) would be a good one to start with. The main actor in the film is Vincent Price (The Fly, Tales Of Terror), who is a camp-horror cult icon. Unfortunately for me, the first (and only, for the longest time) movie in which I saw him act was Edward Scissorhands in which he played a lovable -if idiosyncratic- old man. This messed with my mind in the opening scene of Masque Of The Red Death, because here he plays a sadistic, despotic, decadent, Satan-worshipping Prince Prospero who is in no way lovable. The story takes place in a vaguely-Medieval Europe and all fear a plague they call the Red Death. The Prince is also about to host a several-day party in his castle for his aristocrat friends.The movie had sort of a slow build after the first scene in which we learn to loathe the Prince. There was not a lot of character development nor an arc for hardly any of the characters, which left me sort of disappointed, but I suppose it's par for the course in a film based on a horror short story. The characters are at worst one-dimensional or at best characters out of a fairy tale (granted, the original non-Disney version of the tale), not very complex. It's more of a mood-setting experiential film compared to what you'd see today. It definitely has a Poe feel to it, and I must say Price's voice is always a treat to hear (if you like creepiness like I do)... so I think they accomplished what they set out to do, though it wouldn't appeal to most audiences. My favorite part of the story was the sub-plot involving some of the other characters at the party in Prospero's castle.
If you enjoyed The Seventh Seal, then I think you'll like this movie; I saw various similarities. If you're more a fan of modern-type horrors or faster-paced movie (or if you don't like horror movies at all), then don't bother with this one. For me, I'd give the movie about 2.5-3 stars. Not that it was bad, just that I didn't get a lot of entertainment out of it.
Was there a scene were he is driven insane, and his hand gets possesed and he has to cut it off yelling who's laughing now?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Bruce Campbell.
Hmmm... now that I think about it, I wonder if Idle Hands was partly inspired by Evil Dead II.
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