Le masque de la mort rouge

I saw this movie for two reasons: I love Edgar Allan Poe and Adrian Paul. In the first place, this film is a remake of the Vincent Price film, but it is not close to Poe's short story about Prince Prospero who locks all of his aristocratic friends in his castle for all night partying and debauchery while keeping a village plague out to the poor villagers. He has his men round up the most beautiful young women in the town and he falls in love and in lust with the lovely, pure Julietta. She, of course, wants nothing to do with him and his determination to win her over while keeping the plague and the poor out drives him into insanity leading to his fall. The movie is guilty pleasure right up there with "Embrace of the Vampire" and "Nine and a Half Weeks." There are scenes involving incest between Prospero and his beautiful sister (played by the daughter of Penny Marshall and Rob Reiner, Tracy Reiner) that are not really that sexy or even remotely close to being shocking like the incestuous scenes in "Caligula." Adrian Paul, however, is the main reason I saw this film: I mean, come on, who could possibly resist looking at this incredibly gorgeous example of a man? His scenes with the sexy Claire Hoak are passionate and I for one wish I was in her shoes as he tries to seduce and win her over. The film is guilty pleasure at its finest for those who are looking to find a film that is naughty while at the same time not wanting to be shocked or grossed out.

I thought I would be bored to watch a remake of Corman's classic from 1964, but, although this movie was produced by Corman, it is not remake at all, but a completely new adaptation of Po. Sure, the essence of the story and some basic points of the plot are more or less the same, but the screenplay is very different, more complex and much better. There are less monologue and more dialogue, and good ones too, and visually this movie is more convincing than Corman's version. Still, although this movie is in every aspect better than its predecessor, it lacks impressibility Corman achieved by skillful use of vibrant colours, and of course, legendary Vincent Price. To be fair, Adrian Paul nailed the role of Prospero, but Price has that something, that "X factor", that makes all of his appearances, even in bad movies, unforgettable. And it does not matter that Paul may be better Prospero than Price, he simply is not Price. Price is Price and, once you see him in any role, no one will ever be able to fill his shoes in remakes to come.

7/10

Compared to some versions, this one I thought was pretty good. The costumes were well done and it was done more in the classic vein of the story. Sure, it doesn't have Vincent Price ;-) but that didn't stop it from being well done and with a lot of emotion. (much better than the one with Frank Stallone!!)