StudioCanal, out now

Evil Prince Prospero sells his soul to the devil and enjoys a decadent life as his subjects fall victim to a plague.

The seventh in his eight-film cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, Roger Corman’s 1964 horror fantasy is the most stunning looking and gets a new BluRay releases directly from a 4K transfer. First shown at the London Film Festival in 2019, this restoration incorporates previously censored scenes.

Director of Photography Nicolas Roeg takes full use of the gaudy colour palette, employing different colours to evoke different moods, none more so than in the eponymous masked ball, which will test the range of the red pixels on your TV. The movie looks sumptuous, benefitting from the re-use of the Oscar-winning sets of the same year’s Becket.

This ‘AIP meets Ingmar Bergman’ hybrid feels like a bad, trippy dream, with Vincent Price at his diabolical best, lording it up with his rich courtiers as the world outside his castle goes to hell.

StudioCanal’s eagerly anticipated release includes both the extended and theatrical cut, a booklet, art cards, commentary with horror expert Kim Newman and Sean Hogan, a conversation between Newman and Corman at BFI, and a ten-minute documentary about colour and censorship in the movie.

Verdict: A psychedelic, adult fairy tale that deserves to be seen in this lush new transfer. For me, it’s the classiest of the series and a must-have purchase for the horror aficionado. 9/10