originally posted on tumblr, Feb 26th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #3: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

God I love Vincent Price. Have I ever said I love Vincent Price? Cus I love Vincent Price.

Right off the bat, what a wonderful photography and art direction this movie has. Every shot is so visually appealing and intriguing, you can taste the visual symbolism peeling off it in waves and it’s delicious! Also you can really see the 60s all over it.

Once again it suffers from the Classic Hollywoodism of “no specific timeframe for these costuming directions, just Vaguely Pseudo Italian Vibes” but for the adapted material, I think it works. Keeps it timeless which goes in it’s favor somewhat. Still it of Party City vibes, which I find amusing personally.

And once again my fondness for technicolor grading gets me. And I don’t know why I’m so enamored by the colored candles in the candelabras, but I AM!! MORE COLORED CANDLES!!!

I said I’d only care about the movies as they are and the visuals, but when Prospero turned out to be a satan worshipper in the movie, I just HAD to check it. So yeah, gratuitous satanic panic in #mymovies. My draft thesis haunts me still… Turning the black room from the story into a satanic chapel of a sort feels kind of cheap ngl. It’s just meant to be scary and upsetting, it was kind of the point. Also the Red Death as some sort of avenging angel was so boring?

It bodes ill when a story makes adaptation choices that lessen the story, not improve it. Disappointing narrative, 3/10. Visuals still slap hard as fuck though, the line of Deaths walking away at the end was neat!