The Masque of the Red Death

by Elsie Lee

Vincent Price and director Roger Corman, the masters of screen terror joined forces to make their seventh film together, and their first in England, The Masque of The Red Death. Based on one of Edgar Allan Poe's most macabre and bizarre stories, it adds new dimensions to motion picture shock, terror and horror. An American International Pictures production, it is set in 12th century Italy, where Prince Prospero (Price), a devout worshiper of Satan, rules tyrannically in a land stricken by a mysterious plague. Prospero's cruel whims include toying with the fear-stricken peasants under his domain, in order to satisfy his own diabolical pleasures. Deliverance . . . or Doom? "The day of deliverance is at hand." That was the prophecy of the mysterious man cloaked in red. But the villagers had little time for rejoicing. For a few scant hours later, the people were dying of that grimmest of all plagues-the Red Death! And within the castle that ruled this desolated land, even eerier events were happening . . . as the purity of the lovely Francesca battled the evil of Price Prospero . . . and unearthly forces gathered for a mad, grim masquerade!