The Masque of the Red Death (1964) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - September 1, 1964

This might be my favorite of Roger Corman's cycle of Edgar Allan Poe films starring Vincent Price that were released in the early to mid-1960s. Because the titular source material is one of my favorite Poe stories and Corman, Price, and co-screenwriter Charles Beaumont hew pretty darn close to its overall mood and imagery.

The film's fidelity to its core source material is not the only thing about it that I love. Another excellent Poe story, the revenge tale Hop-Frog, is well interpolated into the narrative of The Masque of the Red Death, so that the film has enough story elements to flesh it out into a feature length gothic horror extravaganza.