1964
Roger Corman
A first ever extended cut of Roger Corman’s iconic horror film The Masque of the Red Death, stunningly restored in 4K by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and The Academy with funding from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Starring horror stalwart Vincent Price (House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, Edward Scissorhands) in one of the finest performances of his career, alongside a knock-out supporting cast including Jane Asher (Alfie, Death at A Funeral), Hazel Court (The Premature Burial, The Raven), David Weston (Becket, The Red Baron) and Nigel Green (Jason and The Argonauts, Zulu) and based on the classic gothic fiction tale The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy by Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death is considered one of Roger Corman’s (The Little Shop of Horrors, The Raven) most distinctive works and an all-time horror classic.
Vincent Price stars as evil Prince Prospero who sells his soul to the devil and then enjoys the latter’s patronage by living the most decadent and lavish lifestyle he can manage. He derides even more pleasure from the perverse satisfaction he takes in seeing his impoverished subjects fall victim to a painful and devastating plague that is sweeping the land.
A stunning new 4K restoration from The Film Foundation and The Academy of Roger Corman’s 1964 classic The Masque of the Red Death in an extended version never seen before.
Produced by Roger Corman & George Willoughby
From a story by Edgar Allan Poe
Cinematography by Nicolas Roeg
Restored in 4K by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and The Academy with funding from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Unseen by audiences until it premiered at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival in 2019 to great applaud, the meticulous 4K restoration brings back to life the striking and bold cinematography from Nicolas Roeg. The amazing use of colours in The Masque of the Red Death was thought to influence his love of bold colours in his subsequent directing work (Don’t Look Now being a prime example). The new version of the film reinstates a number of censored scenes which were cut from the original 1964 release.
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