The tyranist's thoughts
I've never tried to adapt Poe to the screen but I imagine that it isn't really as easy as it might seem. Based on some of the Poe I've seen there are exceptional adaptations that are usually shorter in length and terrible adaptations. Not really a middle ground. Until I saw this one. It seems to stand firmly in the middle. The adaptation wasn't really bad, but it didn't stand out and the end result was a little too long. They should have made it shorter.
The differences here are abundant, but the central story of a prince who locks himself and all of the nobility in a castle to avoid the Red Death is the same. Gone is the colourful masque and instead they have a more stately masque that involves an incredible amount of very slow, very boring dancing. In fact, there was enough dancing that the choreographer was the first person mentioned in the post-film credits.
Adrian Paul plays the prince Prospero with a sort of mania that borders on ubelievability. He had an insanity going for him that had me a few seconds away from declaring him the threat instead of Death. Their take on the Red Death and how he enters the party is pretty creative, but it leads to a lengthy didactic speech that I could have lived without.
For a Corman production there was surprisingly little nudity and what nudity existed was almost artistic. Very different from some of the others I've seen. I imagine that this was probably the beginning of the anti-nudity phase for them. Still there is a bunch worth seeing here. You shouldn't go in expecting anything great, but it is more solid than most Poe adaptations.