- Director: Roger Corman
- Writers: Charles Beaumont, R. Wright Campbell
- Stars: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3xLC34z
Synopsis
An old woman gathers sticks and comes upon a man in a red cloak. He takes a white rose and turns it red and tells her to take it to town.
Prince Prospero rides into town, narrowly avoiding running over a child playing in the road. He has come to claim his taxes for the year. The man in red promised deliverance from Prospero’s tyranny. The old woman is there, and she has the Red Death. He takes Francesca, her father and boyfriend, and then orders the village burned to the ground.
Prospero orders that all his noble friends gather there at the castle for safety from the Red Death plague, but to hurry and avoid the village. Before long, the party begins. Alfredo knocks out the little dancing girl after she bumps his drink.
There will be a masquerade on Sunday, but he forbids anyone to wear red. He explains about the Red Death and how it’s ravaging the countryside. Then he picks on his guests, making one pretend to be a pig and another a worm. Alfredo looks like the kind of man who holds a grudge.
Francesca wakes up and hears Prospero chanting somewhere. She follows the voice and finds Prospero asleep in a hidden room. She screams and runs away. Francesca and Prospero talk about God and Satan and Falcons the next morning. Prospero and Juliana are hardcore Satanists. Gino, Francesca’s boyfriend, is forced to learn to fight with a sword.
Hop Toad, the court dwarf, suggests to Alfredo that he come to the masquerade in a gorilla suit. Meanwhile, Juliana gives her soul to Satan and waits to become immortal with the next ritual, but she gives Francesca the key to the cell doors to let her family go. She goes down to the dungeon, frees the men and heads to the guard, who is supposed to be bribed. The guard is not there, but Prospero is.
The next day Gino and Ludovico must cut themselves with daggers, one of which is poisoned. In front of all the guests, they cut their forearms, one after the other. Prospero ends up stabbing Ludovico. Gino is released… to the infected village. Gino runs through the woods and meets the man in the red cloak.
Juliana does another ritual and has a psychedelic dream. Then she goes into the big hall and the Falcon rips her to pieces. The final six survivors of the villagers come to the castle, and Prospero has them all shot.
In the middle of the ballroom, Hop Toad pours Brandy on Alfredo in the monkey suit and sets him on fire. Prospero is like, “This is the best party ever” as the smoke clears. Prospero follows a man wearing red to the ball and follows him to a private room. Prospero calls him the Prince of Darkness.
“The time of unmasking, where they begin to show their naked faces,” says the man in red. He moves among the crowd, and each of them turns red with the plague. The red man sends Francesca upstairs to leave the party. Red corrects Prospero, “Satan is not my master. Death has no master. Your pact with him won’t save you.” Prospero pulls off the man’s mask and sees his own face inside.
Everyone at the party turns red and collapses, dead. The man in red chases Prospero, but he can’t get away. Prospero dies last.
The Black Death walks up and says “Hi” to the Red, Yellow, White deaths. Yellow, Blue, and Green join them silently. It’s like the Power Rangers from Hell! The seven colors of death march off together in a row like the Seven Skittles of Doom.
Commentary
This looks good, it has great costumes and scenery. The acting is fine, but not much really happens. It has a few genuinely creepy moments and some great scenes, but overall, it’s just a boring story. Some people hide from the plague in a castle and die at the end. Of all the Price/Corman/Poe films, this is the least funny, and at least in my opinion, the least fun to watch.