The Pit and the Pendulum

The second film in Roger Corman's Poe cycle and one of the most cited. Sixteenth-century Spain. Francis Barnard arrives at the castle-like house of his brother-in-law Nicholas Medina to look into his sister's death. Medina says she died of fright, and his account does not hold. There is a torture chamber beneath the house: Medina's father was a torturer for the Inquisition and the instruments are still there. The real subject is the fear of being buried alive; as a child Medina witnessed his mother walled up, and the thought that the same has happened to his wife destroys him. Richard Matheson wrote the script, taking only the final section from Poe's story and inventing the rest. Vincent Price plays Medina and Barbara Steele plays his wife. Price's performance changes completely in the last act, and that is the film's most discussed element. The production was cheap and the image is not: widescreen, saturated colour and lighting produce a result well above Corman's means. A genre classic for anyone who loves classical horror and Vincent Price. For a viewer used to modern pacing the first hour is slow; the real section is saved for the end.