Corman's classiest horror picture....The familiar Poe story of a group of corrupt twelfth-century aristocrats hiding from the Plague in the castle of devil-worshiping Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is enlivened by the inclusion of a number of powerful set-pieces, including a totally terrifying sequence when Prospero's mistress (Hazel Court, in her best performance) offers herself to Satan and is accepted. The film is helped immensely by the fantastic photography of Nicholas Roeg and supporting performances by a cast of veteran English character actors. All the familiar Corman thematics are here: people groveling for money, pearls before swine, mankind seen at its worst....Not a big budget picture, but it looks terrific. In all, a fairly rich metaphysical exercise.-Michael Goodwin