The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Directed by

Roger Corman

Genre

horror film, gothic film, gothic horror film, historical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 20m

Rated

12

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 390 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young Englishman travels to a castle in sixteenth-century Spain to look into his sister's death. He uncovers dark secrets and faces a mad brother-in-law who straps him to a torture device.

gothiccreepytensemacabreslow-burnatmosphericmelodramaticsinister

What happens

The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 American horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a foreboding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film's climactic sequence. The film was the second title in the popular series of Poe adaptations released by American International Pictures, the first having been Corman's House of Usher released the previous year. Like House, the film features widescreen cinematography by Floyd Crosby, sets designed by art director Daniel Haller, and a film score composed by Les Baxter. A critical and box-office hit, Pit's success convinced AIP and Corman to continue adapting Poe stories for another six films, five of them starring Price. The series ended in 1964 with the release of The Tomb of Ligeia. Film critic Tim Lucas and writer Ernesto Gastaldi have both noted the film's strong influence on numerous subsequent Italian thrillers, from Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body (1963) to Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975). Stephen King has described one of Pit's major shock sequences as being among the most important moments in post-1960 horror film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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