Should I Be Embarrassed of Past Work? Oh well... here you go

More High school reviews guys!! I will have another new review up here on Thursday'ish'

Reviewer: Mikaela Porter

The Masque of the Red Death / 1964 / 7.0

Director/Studio:Roger Corman

                          Alta Vista Productions 

Box Office: Budget-?

                    Gross-?

Genre: Horror

The overall mis en scene in this movie was well for the time period. There were many colors that were associated with the rooms of many colors and it was great for the set design to keep up with furniture and tapestries of the same colors of the rooms. The lighting was completely justified in this movie. One look and you can see it is horror, the low light and the dim flickers of candles are eerie in itself. Wonderful set design for the castle and making the outside very gothic in style which is representative of the era. 

Critics have given this movie a 58%, which is rotten on the freshness scale. One critic thought it was good : “In adapting Poe's short story to the screen, Corman adds much material, including a romance, some Satanism, and a subplot with a dwarf.”- Leo Goldsmith

I am not on board with what he says because those reasons are why I don’t like this film, too much was added. Another critic didn’t like it and he said: “For such a little movie, there’s an awful lot going on. The revenge of Hop-Toad pads things out a bit as well and give us a bit more knife twisting if the agony of Prospero wasn’t enough already.”- Bryan White. So, This critic and I have more of an understanding.

“THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH” starring Vincent Price, Hazel Court, and Jane Asher. Directed by Roger Corman (NR 84 minutes).  Price portrays a prince named Prospero who invites one thousand of his noble friends to his castle like abbey to seek refuge from the oncoming plague known as the Red Death. Prospero holds a masque ball for his guests and when a strange figure in red appears, Prospero is intrigued with the idea that it is his master, Satan, however is surprised when it is not who he expected it to be. The plot twist to add a young girl, Francesca (Asher), and the two men in her life, was about the only good thing Corman added. It is a given that to make a movie more interesting, you need to bump up the story, but it was also confusing to add the sub-plot from Hop-Frog, another one of Poe’s short stories, and was unnecessary to include something unrelated to the original story.  The excessive references of satanic worship made no sense and deducted from the value of the movie, too much of something that is supposed to add to the movie just makes you want to ask for more plot to go with your demonic mess. One instance of this, is when Juliana (Court) is in a dream-like state and the scene is shot in green with awkward angles with bad acting and is also prolonged to an extent to cause the audience to lose interest in the movie in its entirety. Price, as always in a Poe adaptation, was excellent in appearing as macabre as possible. Price portrays the epitome of gothic horror superlatively, he draws your attention the macabre details and gives the film an eerie trepidation and makes you sit on edge. His acting saved Corman’s adaptation but, would be the only reason to ever watch it.  ★ Porter.

Until the coming week readers!!

Mikaela Porter