MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

US, 1989, 83 minutes, Colour.
Adrian Paul, Clare Hoak, Patrick Macnee.
Directed by Larry Brand.

Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe was a striking Roger Corman adaptation of the '60s. It starred Vincent Price and had an extraordinary atmosphere with its mediaeval setting.

Roger Corman is the producer of this '80s version - however, while there is some atmosphere, it is more sunlight and directness rather than shadow and ritual suggestion. However, the outline of Poe's story is there with the symbolic masque and the presence of the plague and death. Patrick Macnee has top credit role as Machiavelli and as Death. However, the '60s version is to be preferred.

1.The imagination of Edgar Allen Poe, horror, exploration of evil? Adaptation to the screen?

2.16th century settings, the village, the castle, the countryside? Costumes and decor? The score?

3.The prologue with Machiavelli and Prospero, the tutor? The promise for goodwill? Prospero waking, his failure and evil?

4.The portrait of Prospero: harsh, torturing his victims, relationship with Lucrezia? The memory of his father and his tyranny? A brooder? The plague, his invitation to the rich? His reliance on Claudio? Inviting Machiavelli? His presiding at the feast: the eating, sexuality, the stripping of the maidens? Brooding, the morning after? His forbidding of the colour red? His cousin and stopping the torture, his reaction? Lucrezia and her cruelty? Harming her, the escape, her death? His fascination with Giulietta? The tour of the castle, waiting for her, threatening her? The attack of the peasants, the pouring of the boiling oil? The nobles? Machiavelli and his arrival, the dance, death? Fighting Claudio and wounding him? His own death? The meaning and meaninglessness of his life?

5.Machiavel as instructor, his coming to the masque, the lack of hospitality in the village, the deaths? Benito and his friendliness? His device of entering the castle with the invitation? Unmasking, the guests dying, the confrontation with Prospero? The dance of death?

6.Giulietta, the work in the fields, her love for her father, the selection of women for the castle, her standing firm, the tour with Prospero, the clash with Lucrezia? Dinner, presiding at the meal? Her reaction to the girls being stripped and humiliated? The plan for the escape? The death of her father? Claudio, the escape, meeting the children - and a future?

7.Claudio, going to the village, taking the women, his giving his word, torture, the fight with Prospero, wounded and surviving?

8.The nobles, their wealth, callous? The cousin and the torture? Sexuality, eating? How worthy of being saved from the plague?

9.The village, Paolo, his death? Benito, the siege of the castle, the boiling oil? The children surviving?

10.The pageantry of the film, the dance of death? The movie as allegory, as adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe, as a horror movie?