The Masque Of The Red Death

[ewx]

I've long remembered enjoying watching The Masque Of The Red Death when younger and this year my Dad got me a copy for Christmas.

The film is loosely informed by the Poe story of the same name; you could probably still tell if the names were changed, but only just. When a novel is turned into a film chunks of the plot must often be discarded; in the case of a short story, it is necessary instead to add plot.

The evil Prince Prospero is played with gusto by (who else) Vincent Price; with the exceptions of Alfredo and Hoptoad he slightly eclipses most of the other named characters. The film's morality is complicated: nearly everybody, good or bad, dies (most of them horribly); the few survivors are presented variously good or innocent, but many of them are compromised to some degree. One in particular carries out a particularly gruesome premeditated murder, apparently getting away with it both temporally and spiritually.

The best things of childhood risk turning out to have been execrably bad in later years (The Equalizer for instance, though I still maintain hope that later episodes may be better, not that I've devoted any time to finding out) but there is no such disaster here.

Comments

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Ooh, feel like showing it sometime?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Well, I just watched it, hence the above; but I don't mind people borrowing it.