This is easily the finest of director Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, with Vincent Price the very essence of evil as the sadistic devil-worshipper trying to keep the plague at bay in 12th-century Italy by indulging in degenerate revels. While there are touches of deliciously wicked humour, the aura of terror comes from the doom-laden tone Corman creates by reaching as much into sombre Ingmar Bergman territory (the poignant tableaux showing crimson-cloaked Death stalking through fog-shrouded woods) as atmospheric Hammer shock. Shot in England by Nicolas Roeg, who went on to direct Don't Look Now, among others, this gloriously colourful horror is a classic excursion into demonology.

A European prince terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.