In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.
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Drama/Fantasy/Horror ?! Drama... let's say it is drama. Fantasy... only if we put everything that is not historical into this category. Horror... not even close.Pit and the Pendulum is THRILLER, set in XVI century Spain. It's adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe's short story of the same title with some additions from other stories. I have no objections, but it's really nothing special. OK for one watching.6/10
We will start out by saying that Edgar Allen Poe's story has nothing to do with this movie. All that connects it is the giant killer pendulum. A man comes to a castle to find out what happened to his now dead sister. Vincent Price is in the middle of all this, having been involved in her death, but realizing the there are some weird circumstances. As the story progresses, Price gets more and more weird and unhinged. We are led on a merry chase by the resurfacing Ms. Steele. Of course, the old torture chamber is going to come into play at some point. I need to mention that the final scene of this film has stayed with me for decades. Thank you Roger Corman. I think this may be your crowning moment.
After, some say, a slow start, this is a Creepy Gutwrench of a Film with Director Roger Corman, Cinematographer Floyd Crosby, Writer Richard Matheson, and Score Composer Les Baxter all contributing to the look and feel of this Gothic playground. Of course Vincent Price and Barbara Steele do nothing but enhance this to a Kinetic and Killer early Sixties Horror entry.The Final Act is full of disturbing and penetrating imagery and is bizarre and haunting. The last image on Screen is Legendary. From the opening Psychedelic liquidity, Years ahead of its Time, along with spine tingling Musical Chops, the Audience is Catapulted to another place and Time just this side of the Spanish Inquisition.A brutal and sadistic era of torture and mayhem. The residue remains and has scarred the Psyche of Protagonist Nicolas Medina along with a Freudian Frenzy of Mother and Father Shock. This is the set up and is Disturbing to say the least. It all leads to a Climax of Poetic Justice and for the Time this is Horror Movie Madness at its best. It still holds up quite well and is Low Budget Articism with "The" Low Budget Artisan Corman Directing this as though it were a Masterwork. Some say it is. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) aside, no argument here.
Like most Edgar Allan Poe adaptions, The Pit and the Pendulum only the barely resembles the original text. But if you have read any Poe you could hardly be surprised by this seeing as his stories were very short and had very limited plot-lines. They were more a case of a single horrible idea with a small amount of story surrounding it. In this case, the screenplay was adapted by Richard Matheson who was the writer famous for the novel 'I Am Legend'. He does a good job of fleshing out the story, adding more interesting detail while still incorporating the central idea. It's not until the excellent finale that we really see the material taken from the book but it's well worth the wait as the ending is very strong both in terms of suspense and visual artistry.On the whole, for a low budget movie this looks quite sumptuous. It's consistently nice to look at with great use of colour, including some monochrome flash-back scenes. The sets, costumes and quality of actors are of a high standard. In this sense, it mimics the approach of the Hammer films, whose low budget Gothic horror films similarly had a very polished feel on a similarly low budget. I guess director/producer Roger Corman was intentionally aiming for this and he himself directed a further handful of Poe adaptions for his company AIP; all of which followed the same basic template and were equally impressive productions on a small budget. Of course, it is never going to hurt a film to have Vincent Price on board. He always delivers quality in my opinion and here is no different. He is especially good in the final third once he goes insane and believes himself to be a reincarnation of his infamous father, a notorious torturer from the Spanish Inquisition. Additionally, it can also never hurt a film to have Barbara Steele in it either. She was the queen of 60's Gothic horror and starred in a number of productions. In this one she only has a small role but it's very important and memorable.It's probably a movie that is best defined by its excellent ending though. The first two-thirds build up the tension and intrigue but events spiral to a crescendo in the final third. It's really once we meet the terrifying wonder that is the pit and the pendulum that the movie moves into iconic status. Overall, this is certainly one of the best examples of 60's Gothic horror.
