The Pit and the Pendulum

Price, Corman and Matheson, Gothic splendour.

Upon hearing of his sister Elizabeth's death, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to find out just exactly how she met her end. Arriving at the Medina castle, he finds the Medina family deeply suspicious characters and the castle itself a foreboding place harnessing a deadly past.

The Pit And The Pendulum is the second film in the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that director Roger Corman tackled, it's also easily one of the best. Part horror, part dreamy thriller, and of course with little dashes of humour within, it all comes together rather well. We open with a beach approach to the Medina castle, a big monolithic structure hulking on a cliff edge - naturally accompanied by a misty s...

The colorful flashbacks, the beautiful settings, the delicious revenge, and you got Vincent Price as well. Directed by Roger Corman and Matheson doing the screenplay. And of course, let's not forget this is a Poe story.

This is so good especially as the ending comes. Reminds me of <I>House on Haunted Hill (1959)</I> and if you remember that ending then you know what I am talking about.

Definitely worth seeing as it checks off so many like boxes in my book.

Haunted chateau, cobwebs, rats, grisly cadavers, adultery, murder and a torture chamber

In 1546, a man from London (John Kerr) visits an ominous castle on the coast of Spain to find out the mysterious events surrounding his sisters sudden death (Barbara Steele). Vincent Price plays the lord of the manor, Luana Anders his sister and Antony Carbone his doctor.

"The Pit and the Pendulum" (1961) was the second in Roger Cormans Poe cycle of eight movies from 1960-1964, plus other Poe-like flicks, like The Terror (1963).

Like practically all of the Poe adoptions of the 60s, including those done by other directors, e.g. the The Oblong Box (1969), this film was simply inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and is far from a faithful adaption. Y...