User reviews

Don't take it too seriously and you may have some fun!

Light, breezy slasher with colorful costumes and wonderful set pieces. Music is very 80's complete with an 80's band. Some of the acting is pretty hammy but enjoyable enough... you can tell they had fun while making this movie. Don't overthink the plot holes and all the stupid decisions the characters make... just run with it :)

I saw this film by mistake on Tv. It wasn't really bad, but the acting and the plot was. The only plus was that it had these kind of original and gruesome murders. If you rent it you'll use the ff button a lot.

Firstly i was punished for letting myself watch this painful trash the other day on TV, i guess i rightly deserved it Any way here is the plot, a millionaire invites his close friends to his castle and suddenly one by one people start dying ,voila you find out that there is a murderer amidst them yes the MASQUE OF RED DEATH,he looks more like darth vader painted in red.. Now for the warnings 1) Beware of frank stallone (a potential wmd to all the viewers) 2)This is no way related to Edgar allan poe's work.3)Watching this movie more than once might lead u retarded. ***warning again*** Seeing Frank stallone act is like putting chilli powder in your eyes.

aaaaaaaaaaah i am bliiiiiinded.

Why? Why? Why? Why does Frank Stallone get work? How does he get it? Sorry...that's my spiel on Frank Stallone. He stars in this awful film version of the classic Poe tale about a dying millionaire who throws a castle costume party that's a killer.

There is nothing really decent to say about this 80's horror movie, Watched it because of Herbert Lom, who can be forgiven due to his great previous works, especially 'The Ladykillers'. The Script is loosely based Edgar Allan Poe's short story, but unfortunately the screenwriter did not have Poe's ability with the pen. The acting is awful, but the music is even worse. Avoid at all cost.

After watching director Alan Birkinshaw's The House of Usher (1989), I wrote that it was probably the worst film to be inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's novel The Fall of the House of Usher (I hadn't yet seen Jess Franco's Revenge in the House of Usher). Birkinshaw's other Poe movie, The Masque of the Red Death, is also a load of garbage. At least he's consistent.

In this totally oddball late-'80s offering, Michelle McBride plays Rebecca Stephens, a reporter for Snoop magazine who crashes a lavish Bavarian costume ball being hosted by eccentric millionaire Ludwig (Herbert Lom). Dressed as Cupid (meaning that she isn't wearing much), and armed with a secret camera in her bow, Rebecca snaps the other guests, but the party doesn't go quite as planned when people start turning up dead, murdered by a mysterious figure in a red mask and hooded robe.

What could have been a fun, trashy, gory slasher is totally undermined by Birkinshaw's dreadful direction, which results in irritatingly quirky performances and bizarre scenes that simply reek of the 1980s, but not in a good way. Battling for the title of worst actor are Frank Stallone as Duke, Brenda Vaccaro as Elaina, and Christine Lunde as Colette: one wonders what Birkinshaw was putting in the water to elicit such strangeness. Runner-up has to be the singer in the godawful pop-rock band who blast out tunes during the mayhem: his acting is even worse than his singing.

The film's best moments (ie. The only parts that are bearable) are the murders: one victim is cut up with an open-razor, a woman is threaded into a loom with needles piercing her flesh, and another finds herself trapped under the razor-edged pendulum of a clock, the blade coming closer and closer to her neck with each passing second. They're imaginative and reasonably well staged, but even though they provide a little respite from the horribly dated craziness, it's not enough to make me recommend this mess other than to dedicated connoisseurs of straight-to-video trash.

I saw this movie on TV here and here is a summary:

A young photographer goes to a castle to photograph a soap opera queen and ends up watching the guests get slain.

The setting was great, the music was cool but the acting SUCKED:

I.E. OLD RICH GUY: No, don't [the killer] will kill you. PHOTOGRAPHER GIRL: Life without [recent boyfriend] just isn't worth it.

Doesn't look bad, but the guy she's talking about she met that night and says she can't go on. They didn't even have sex or kiss.

All in all, ** stars

Also, if you watch this a "Fall of the House of Usher" the 1989 version, you might realize that they used the same sets in both movies.

P.S. If you're a kid who read the book for class, and went to the video store to rent a copy to compare, stick with Vincent Price.

You haven't lived until you witness the completely inept, untalented Frank Stallone in action. Movie has nothing at all to do with the Poe short story. It in fact it has nothing to do with reality. A total waste of time

I really enjoyed this movie. I thought that Michelle McBride was a refreshing and exciting actress who balanced brilliantly with the other cast. She looks great and boy is she sexy. Frank Stallone made a perfect Duke. He's a great actor; does a fabulous tango - not easy to do. Herbert Lom was fun as the mad King Ludwig and the lovely Brenda Vaccaro gave a sterling performance as usual. The story was good - I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next and the thrills and fears of an old fashioned horror story were certainly there. Some pretty good visual effects and an exciting twist on the original Edgar Allan Poe story by action director Alan Birkinshaw. The scene with the pendulum in the clock was one of the best dramatic scenes from any Edgar Allan Poe movie I have ever seen. It left me clinging to my chair in a cold sweat. I believe Birkinshaw also made the House of Usher and the award winning Punch with Donald Sutherland. All in all, it was an entertaining and exciting piece of cinema. More please. More.

You're probably unaware that they remade THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH in 1989 and there's a good reason for that: it's an utterly generic B-movie and not very good either. It was shot by British director Alan Birkinshaw, best known for the grubby slasher KILLER'S MOON back in 1978, and filmed in South Africa along with a handful of other Poe remakes. The plot is only loosely based on the Price film, set at a Hungarian castle where a rich nobleman is holding the titular masque.

It's cheesy stuff for sure, with plenty of wooden acting aside from the reliable Herbert Lom in a supporting role; Frank Stallone is one of the worst culprits but I was disappointed by the female lead too. The "red death" himself has been refigured as a slasher killer, going around cutting throats and limbs, so expect some gore and torture devices borrowed from Poe. A few fun references, like a guy dressed as Chaney's Phantom at one point, but not enough to make this remotely entertaining.

Well, if you like cheese and trash 80s style, you may watch this flick, but nonetheless I would strongly recommend to watch the fine piece with maestro Vincent Price (1964) instead - it is in every aspect the superior one.

I love this movie since I was 15, means 15 year after I still like to watch. I know its B movie but I like the murders, egg hunting, stitching , guillotine pendulum.... Considering the age of this movie Alan Birkinshaw made a great horror. I haven't seen Neuschwanstein Castke yet but hopefully gonna see it next year.

This is one of those horror movies that stick in your head, just because its plain weird and scary too. It is about this hot photographer who visits an eerie castle where the partying and strange music never ends until death strikes... I really enjoyed this movie. I saw it on late night TV and never knew the name until I read the novel a day ago. I have been searching for this movie for a long time and must have it! and, and so should you. This is absolutely the strangest and scariest movie I have ever seen.

I saw this movie with my friends. We rented it for Halloween. This movie was crap. The saddest thing is that the best acting job is done by Frank Stallone. The acting is obviously acting. The plot is so bad that a drunk chimpanzee could write a better screenplay. After seeing this movie I felt the overwhelming pleasure of knowing that if the actors and actresses could get jobs then maybe so can I. The best part of this movie is the credits, and if you watch it I should recommend that you keep a surgeon handy as you might want a full frontal lobotomy upon reaching the end. I am still trying to figure out why I actually sat all the way through to the credits. If you have one brain cell you will lose it upon watching this. My recommendation is that if forced with watching this movie or having your sight and hearing taken from you go with the latter, because at the end you will wish you had anyways.

A dying millionare decides to throw one last party for old times sake. The theme of the party is Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of Red Death, but someone seems to have token the theme of the party to heart, because all of the guests are being slashed by a mysterious red masked, cloaked figure.

Starts out suprisingly interesting with some good shocks in spite of Z grade cast and low budget, but unfortunately the film is not able to keep up it's momentum and it becomes flat and boring. Still, some of the visuals (sets, costumes, and a tad of the make-up) are lively and flashy enough to bring this film slightly out of the gutter at times.

Rated R; Nudity, Strong Violence, Profanity.

Yay!! Frank Stallone is in this movie! No where near as good an actor as his more famous brother - an actor of immense depth and range (Rocky, Rambo, Tango [or was he Cash?], the goalie in "Escape to Victory", the guy in "F*I*S*T*", the dude from "Cliffhanger" - the list is endless) - but still, he blows everything off the screen with his sensitive portrayal of the Duke.

No, really, this movie sucks, don't waste your life on it. Go rent "The Godfather".

And, trust me, that song will haunt your dreams...