The Masque of the Red Death

After years of working as an assistant camerman, Nicolas Roeg finally got the chance to step up as a full-fledged cinematographer (or director of photography), thanks to Roger Corman—the king of low-budget exploitation cinema. In the early 1960s, Corman directed an eye-catching cycle of eight Edgar Allan Poe adaptations for his production company, American International Pictures. Of these, this one is by far the most beautifully shot. For his first film in colour, Roeg embraced a flamboyant, almost expressionistic colour palette. Horror legend Vincent Prince plays a wicked medieval prince who, in his eerie castle—each room painted a different colour—devises sinister methods to torment his prisoners while the Red Plagues rages around him. What truly makes this grim film unforgettable, though, is the finale: a lavish masquerade ball, an explosion of colour that rivals the most extravagant set pieces in the musicals and melodramas of Vincente Minnelli.