The reviews are unanimous in the film’s favour. Most critics settle first on its colour: the colour-coded rooms of the castle, the Technicolor lustre of the restoration, a look one review compares to Mario Bava. Vincent Price is the other fixed point, praised for a charismatic, melancholy performance and for the conviction of his evil. Two of the reviews name it the finest of Roger Corman’s Poe adaptations, and the doom-laden atmosphere is credited across the board.
The reservations are small and mostly concern the script. Variety finds the plot vague and involved, and Time Out, though it calls the film the most ambitious of the cycle, thinks it less polished than The Tomb of Ligeia and notes a scruffy opening scene. The spread is narrow, running from a warm Variety to an emphatic Eye for Film, and nobody comes in below positive.