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Question about Masque of the Red Death (1964)


Masque of the Red Death was an interesting "Scare" film. Being based on such a short story by Poe, (3 pages) it had to have lots of "filler" added.
I hope someone answers my question here:
WARNING... Spoiler here below!





QUESTION: The Man in Red that appeared in the conclusion scenes of the film
was shown earlier sitting under a tree and talking to the young man who was cast out of the castle. He seemed nice to the young man. Then later in the film he was shown as evil. What's up here???

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[deleted]

The man in red is neither good nor evil. Along with the other (differently coloured) robed figures he simply represents a mystical force - together they are a bit like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - bringing death or salvation to great swathes of "vile humanity". He appears friendly to Gino, the young man, because Gino is basically brave and heroic but willing to admit his own fear. Because Gino confesses to his own "selfishness" and is ashamed of it, he is worthy of being spared. Prince Prospero, on the other hand, remains corrupt and arrogant, assuming the man in red is a guest defying the costume edict "not to wear red", then he switches to believing that the man in red is an emissary from Satan, his deity-of-choice, until finally the cloaked figure is revealed to be none other than Prospero himself - essentially, it is the evil within Prospero's own heart which kills him. A bit metaphysical, I admit, but the message (which is decidedly director Corman's and writer Beaumont's, and nothing to do with Poe) is that most of mankind is corrupt and deserving of being swept away (like in the Great Flood) with only a small number (the girl, the old man in the village, etc. being like Noah and Co.) worthy of being saved.
Depressing, but probably true. Hope this helps.

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Good explanation of this! Thanks!

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I watched this film last night and wondered what the point was. The script is very confusing (not to say confused) and also several people at the masque are wearing red but Prospero doesn't seem to notice them.

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indeed. that really bothered me, as he is rantign about the red character he passes several peopel wearing large amounts of red.

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This could be more of a technology issue- perhaps the technicolor made it appear more red, when it was orange or pink or something like that in reality.

The Blood is the Life!

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Hmmm, good answer. didnt think of it that way

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And my particular take on this is that we see the Red Death's brothers as Black, Purple, Blue, Orange, Yellow and White. We know from history that there were plagues known as the Black Death and Yellow Fever, so I guess that these are other "Deaths", perhaps resulting from various alternative plagues that might smite humanity. The Yellow figure says that "a hundred thousand fell where he walked" so this seems to support it.

Yet down through history, and today, some people have natural immunity, or perhaps sturdier constitutions, and can resist some of these plagues - not all of Europe perished in the Black Death.

So these Deaths walked amongst late 14thC Italy, and only a few were spared. No question of evil or good. Death is neither of these things. It is wholly impartial. I recall a line from the chapter 3 of Brief Lives, vol3 of The Sandman, where Bernie Capax dies under a shower of bricks after 15,000years. He says to Death that he's had a good run and she replies "you had a lifetime, just like everyone else". Completely impartial. Death doesn't decide when you go, or how, or why. Death only carries you over.

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My spanking new copy reveals that there's a lot of revellers at the Masque wearing, as someone said, definitely orange and pink - not red.

I think the film's final message *did* have a link to Poe, and wasn't solely Corman's vision. Poe was a staunch Atheist, and thus would in all likelihood have subscribed to the idea that human beings were capable of the greatest good and the greatest evil - as opposed to God and Satan being those things respectively. I know that's closer, by definition, to a Humanist rather than Atheist view, but still.

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"Poe was a staunch Atheist"

Where did you hear that? All sources point to him believing in a God but there's no proof that he did, or didn't, believe in a religion. His dieing words were, "Lord help my poor soul".
Probably not a man of strong faith, but far from a 'staunch atheist'.

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