The Pit And The Pendulum (1961)

Francis Barnard goes to Spain, when he hears his sister Elizabeth has died. Her husband Nicholas Medina, the son of the brutest torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, tells him she has died of a blood disease, but Francis finds this hard to believe. After some investigating he finds out that it was extreme fear that was fatal to his sister and that she may have been buried alive! Strange things then start to happen in the Medina castle.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name.

Buried Alive

This was the second film from American International Pictures that was based on Poe's short stories.  The First was House Of Usher.  This is a movie that proves you don't need gore to create a masterful horror film. It will surprise many modern viewers as to how well it holds up today. The atmosphere and tension is still there and still will be after another 50 years pass.  The pacing of the film is terrific.  It never pauses for very long and is constantly moving forward.

The cast gives fine performances with the lone exception....Jon Kerr. He's like a wooden indian. His acting is way too dull for a leading role.  Fortunately, the visual presentation more than makes up for this. Barbara Steele also does a fine job in her short appearences as Medina's deceased wife. Price is, of course, fantastic with bringing sympathy to his character and then turning in the complete opposite direction as a madman.

You are going to hell

The film is not a faithful adaption of the story and instead weaves many elements from Poe's stories into the framework.  It manages to effectively capture Poe's obsession with ancient buildings and Gothic settings. The sets are lavish.  It's a masterpiece of low budget film making and should be viewed by all horror fans.  Even non-horror buffs will find this movie well worth their time. It also sports one of the greatest final shots in film history.

Trivia:
This was the second of Roger Corman's "Poe" films. He had intended to do "The Masque of the Red Death" but felt that it was too close to the content of Ingmar Bergman's recent The Seventh Seal (US title: "The Seventh Seal"). Several years later Corman would go to England to make The Masque of the Red Death.

The film never had an original prologue. It was added when the film was sold to TV and a further few minutes were required to pad out the running time. Only Luana Anders from the original cast was available so an extra scene of her in a madhouse was filmed and tacked on to the beginning. This scene does not really tie in with the rest of the film. 

To increase the pendulum's sense of deadly menace, director Roger Corman took out every other frame during the editing stage making the blade appear to move twice as fast.

This film was shot in fifteen days.

The pendulum was made out of wood and had a rubber blade.

Actor John Kerr was worried about being strapped down to the table with the pendulum above him for the movie's climax. In order to demonstrate that it was perfectly safe, director Roger Corman stood in for Kerr while the scene was being set up.