Fanfic Fuel: The end sequence has personifications of other deadly plagues - the Black Death, Yellow Fever, Leprosy (gold), Porphyria (violet), Cholera (blue), Tuberculosis (white) - providing ripe material for stories focusing on them.
The short story
Alternate Aesop Interpretation: If there was an aesop intended, it could be read as "What you try to ignore will come back to bite you." or, for that matter, "You can try to escape something but it will get to you somehow or another."
Juliana gives Francesca a key to escape the castle, also helping her free her father and Gino. Was this a pragmatic choice on her part - removing a potential romantic rival whom it would be hard to simply kill (Prospero would most certainly take revenge on Juliana if she had Francesca killed)? Or was it a genuine act of kindness - sensing that Francesca's Christian faith was extremely strong and she would be better off being freed from the castle?
Then there's Prospero having Juliana killed. Was it a punishment for the above mentioned stunt? Did he think it was what she wanted, being Together in Death with Satan? Or did he think she was potentially getting too powerful and had to be eliminated?
The little girl at the end is spared by the Red Death and is seen happily playing cards with him - without an apparent thought to the people shot dead in front of her earlier (including her own father).
Played very well with Francesca however. She looks blankly at Alfredo burning to death in front of her because she's so traumatized by the death and torture she's witnessed beforehand that nothing can faze her anymore.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Juliana's hallucinations when she undergoes her final Satanic ritual. It's extremely out there, not another sequence in the film is this trippy, and the fact that she's killed off immediately afterwards means that it's forgotten about.
Prospero, which is only natural since he's played by Vincent Price. At his magnificent hammiest, able to make his revelers do his bidding and with just enough Pet the Dog moments to make us root for him.
The Red Death, while not evil per se, is also an extremely cool and memorable character, thanks largely to the performance of John Westbrook.
Heartwarming Moments: The Red Death tells Francesca to go to the battlements, and Prospero says he'll soon join her there. Francesca seems to guess that Prospero will be meeting his end soon, and gives him a single kiss on the cheek. Despite all he did to her, she also seems able to sense that he cares for her in a twisted way. And it's a sign that she wasn't fully broken by her trauma - able to have Sympathy for the Devil.
Just Here for Godzilla: Although there are plenty tuning in for Vincent Price and the Edgar Allen Poe touches, there are loads who are drawn in just by the colourful sets and costumes - and the general spectacle.
Magnificent Bastard: The Red Death himself infects an old woman to deliver a vow to her village that the tyranny of Prince Prospero is at its end, spreading the plague as she goes to enhance the fear of the Red Death and draw all the nobles to the sadistic Prospero's manor. Gathering them together, the Red Death exposes himself to Prospero and takes him and all his revelers with the plague, sparing six innocents as a form of mercy before reuniting with his fellow brothers, having secured his "illimitable dominion" over the land.
The lurid pantomime that is the climax, where the Red Death kills the revelers. The movements should be ridiculous (and Roger Corman himself expressed dissatisfaction at it) but the pageantry is part of the charm.
While Hop-Toad was played by Skip Martin, an actual dwarf actor, Esmeralda was played by child actress Verina Greenlaw (see below) and dubbed by what is clearly an uncredited adult woman.
Squick: Alfredo's Villainous Crush on Esmeralda is made even more repulsive by the fact that Esmeralda is played by a little girl.
Vanilla Protagonist: In contrast to the other characters of the castle, Gino and Francesca come across as rather bland and unmemorable. Francesca's proactive role and Plucky Girl nature might endear her to some however.
