Cheap The Pit and The Pendulum (Video) (Price, Kerr, Steele, Anders, Carbo, Vincent Price) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Pit and The Pendulum

One of the most memorable final shots in horror film history
After the success of "House of Usher," American International asked director Roger Corman to "adapt" another Edgar Allen Poe work to the screen. "The Pit and the Pendulum" seemed the logical choice, although the story itself is essentially unfilmable. Fortunately, screenwriter Richard Matheson (who did some of his best work for Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone") simply reused the "House of Usher" story line and tacked on "The Pit and the Pendulum" as the climatic scene. As long as Vincent Price was engaged in his celebrated over the top performance as Nicholas Medina, neither horror fans nor American lit majors were going to notice in this 1961 film.

The film is set in 16th century Spain as young Francis Barnard (John Kerr) arrives at the castle of Don Nicholas Medina (Price) to investigate the death of his sister, Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), the Don's wife. But all Francis gets from Nicholas is a...story about Elizabeth dying from "something in her blood." The young man investigates further and discovers that Nicholas had driven Elizabeth over the edge. It seems that Nicholas's father Sebastian was a leader of the Spanish Inquisition, had killed hundreds of people in the castle's crypts and had caught his wife in adultery with his brother. Young Nicholas watched his father bury his mother alive in a wall (sound familiar Poe fans?) and ended up scarred for life (you think?). Meanwhile, Nicholas is being haunted by ghostly going ons and becomes convinced he has buried his wife alive and she has returned to haunt him. When Elizabeth apparently rises from her tomb to confront him, Nicholas's mind snaps and he is driven into a homicidal dementia, which ends up with Francis being confronted with the title's instrument of torture as the film makes its way to the requisite

"The Pit and the Pendulum" improves slightly on the first film in the AIP Poe series. Certainly the visual elements by art director Daniel Haller are a vast improvement, from the eighteen-foot long one-ton pendulum to Medina's castle for which Haller gutted an entire soundstage and dressed all the way up to the roof to great effect. The Freudian implications beloved by Corman have to do with Nicholas's feelings for his mother instead of the brother-sister vibes we get in "House of Usher." Price is gloriously over the top but John Kerr does nothing with his role as Francis and for some reason Barbara Steele's performance is marred by the fact her voice has been redubbed. For me, what makes "The Pit and the Pendulum" memorable is the unforgettable final [scenes]. Irony can be both just and horrible at the same time.

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A Classic
This is an oldie but a goodie.

Very atmospheric and haunting, Pit and the Pendulum leaves me with some bad vibes (the bad vibes that a good horror movie should give).
The film is a worthy adaptation of the original Poe story. I encourage all young horror aficionados to pay their respect to enduring classics such as this one. There is noone in film today who can compare to Vincent Price.

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BEWARE THE PIT AND THE PENALUM
You just can't go wrong with Vincent Price. He really gave his all in this movie along with John Kerr. The film is (..)worth watching with being buried alive and almost being sliced up by the pendalum. The end is the best part,but you relly have to watch the whole thing to understand it. (...) A powerful cast with a great film