Following his unsettling Cannes debut with The Plague, filmmaker Charlie Polinger is stepping deeper into the shadows with his next feature — The Masque of the Red Death. Backed by A24 and drawing inspiration from the gothic world of Edgar Allan Poe, the film promises an opulent descent into decadence, disease, and dual identities. At its centre: newly minted Oscar-winner Mikey Madison, taking on her first role since Anora swept awards season.
Madison, who has kept a remarkably low profile since her breakout, now steps into a part originally earmarked for Sydney Sweeney, who exited the project due to scheduling conflicts. In what could be a defining post-Oscar pivot, Madison is set to play twin sisters — divided by class, bound by blood — navigating a crumbling aristocracy as a mysterious plague rages outside the walls of a prince’s lavish, doomed retreat.
The film is expected to be a stylistic fever dream, blending social horror with hedonistic spectacle: revenge, class tension and the moral rot of the elite. In other words, it’s hard to imagine a more A24 combination — nor a more intriguing way for Madison to follow up the deeply grounded realism of Anora with something far more surreal and sinister.
Production is slated to begin later this year.
