The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

How valuable was Vincent Price as an actor; I don't mean simply as a star, that should be obvious even to casual horror fans much less people who watch a lot of movies. But it might be too easily assumed - I'm not sure exactly by who but I'm guessing it's by some who only watch these and other horror movies for the (cheap?) thrills - that Price could only do the creepy-spooky voiced character, the man who speaks that inimitable narration in Jackson's 'Thriller', or The House on Haunted Hill or House of Wax or House of Usher or any of the Houses. Watching Pit and the Pendulum and you can get another take on him, that, as hammy as he might appear, it's not something that he's doing inauthentically. I'm not sure he had it in him to do anything that wasn't deeply felt - Corman, in his book about his life and work, said that Price was trained in the method, of some sort at least - and you can see that 10-fold as Nicholas Medina, the (ex?) husband of Catherine (Luana Anders), as he comes apart over the course of this story. It's a tour-de-force really and it sneaks up on you.The rest of the production is actually pretty good; some of that reaction may be that one may not immediately think of Corman as someone who could make classy, atmospheric horror movies, the kind that could actually feature a character (like Price as Nicholas does at one point in the film) walking down a hallway/stairwell littered with spiders and rats and cobwebs with terrifying music and that it would make one's skin crawl. I think it also helps knowing that it's doubly impressive considering, if one knows their history, how little Corman and AIP usually put into their films - this looks like the real deal, as far as a low budget production could go, and (like 'Usher'), the giant house and the dark cavern and hallways of Medina are exquisite and do the job. I think if there's a weak spot here it's not totally in the script but in John Kerr; I think it may be due to being up against Price and even other decent players like Steele, Anders and Carbone (Anders, though her screen time is limited and some of the time only seen in blue or red tinted flashbacks, well photographed by the way), but he seems a little stiff and wooden. I don't think it's being misdirected or even miscast, he's just the... straight man, in an odd way one could say, where Price gets to have all of the BIG emotional scenes, or can even walk away with a scene when it seems like he's doing very little. At the heart of Pit and the Pendulum is one of Poe's great stories, one that has been if not ripped-off then certainly done the homage- route - I could see heavy traces in something as recent as A Cure for Wellness to a degree, or really any movie that has to do with an outsider going to a dark, bad place to discover what happened to 'A' character and if 'B' is responsible or not. What also helps is that it's not long at all - 77 minutes before credits (though those are given a wonderful, psychedelic tinge) - so it's compact and doesn't waste time. Yet at the same time it uses every minute it's got in spellbinding intensity and intrigue, and when Price has to breakdown or, later on, turn (or even when he plays Nicholas's father - the one who "punishes" the "adulterers"), he's gangbusters. If this isn't Corman's masterpiece then it may be Price's.

The second Poe movie was even a better experience for me than the first (The House of Usher). I doubted they could beat the atmosphere of House of Usher but they did. The torture room in the basement with all the gruesome devices covered in dust and spider webs, just great. The story and back story were here also better (deeper more elaborate) than House of Usher. The scenes from the past are shown in flash backs in blueish black and white while the rest of the movie is in color. The time setting is 16th century, the whole interior of the castle and the clothes it all seems true to its era. Those final scenes are marvelous with the elements named in the title being the central point. Not only breathtaking, edge of the seat stuff they are the perfect result of how Vincent Price's character was driven to insanity. Or how bad things that happened in the past get repeated again by future generations. I don't think anyone but Price could have played this role with such charisma as he did.

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.

The second of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe adaptations stars Vincent Price(again superb) as Nicholas Medina, tormented son of an infamous Spanish Inquisitor who is visited by his brother-in-law Francis Barnard(John Kerr) who demands to see his sister Elizabeth(played by Barbara Steele) He is informed that she has died of a blood disease, but refuses to believe this, and investigates matters himself with distressing consequences...Equally good follow-up to "House Of Usher" is once again atmospherically directed by Roger Corman and written by Richard Matheson, who create a moody and ultimately tragic tale of fate and madness, with fine production design and a memorable climax and end.