The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

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The Masque of the Red Death is one of those horror movies that made me realize that just don’t make horror movies like this one any more. Recently, I got the chance to watch on the big screen during my local film festival. Everything in the movie is very over the top and theatrical, from the sets and costumes to the acting. Vincent Price is fantastic in the movie. The ending of the movie was pretty haunting and sends a message that I thought was a great message. Some of the images and scenes in the movie took me aback and left scratching my head, thinking ‘what the hell’ I can’t really say that the movie is particularly scary, just very surreal. Strangely enough, there were moments of violence and gore that I did not except. Some of the ADR in the movie was awful, and pretty jarring. In spite of the fact that there was some truly atrocious ADR that actually had audience members laughing (which I don’t believe was the ultimate intent), I still this was a good movie. I respect Roger Corman’s direction, and thought this movie was really well-directed. The plot did meander a touch, but nowhere near enough to prevent from enjoying this movie.   

8 / 10