buckikris When Francis Barard ( John Kerr) hears about the death of his sister Elizabeth Barard Medina( Barbara Steel) he travels to Spain. When he arrived at Nicholas Medina's ( Vincent Price) castle, he is met by Nicholas sister; Catherine Medina ( Luana Anders). She is there to comfort her brother during his time of need, also there is a Maximilian. Maximilian his a servant of some kind, who sees to Nicholas's needs. During dinner Nicholas's good friend Dr. Charles Leon ( Leon Carbone), comes in. Dr. Leon was there when Elizabeth died. When Francis hears two different stories on the death of his sister, he gets upset. Nicholas tells him one thing while Dr. Leon tells him another. Francis talks to Catherine about her brother and his behavior. Catherine tells Francis about the time her brother was a child. Nicholas was hiding in the torture chamber, when he saw his father Sebastian Medina( Price) torture his mother to death. He saw both this mother and uncle tortured due to an affair. Catherine tells Francis, that Nicolas has never been the same since. One day everyone hears a harpsichord playing, Nicholas believes his Elizabeth's ghost is back. There are several other strange things that occur. Strange voices are heard, the possibility that Elizabeth was buried alive. Then the accusation that Nicholas could be doing these this without knowing it.The truth is Elizabeth and Dr. Leon were having an affair. It is out that Elizabeth is alive and well, living with Dr. Leon. Elizabeth is in the house and Nicholas finds her. Leon told her to wait, but she couldn't wait to get it out in the open. When the two of them follow Nicholas into the torture chamber, he falls down the stairs. Elizabeth thinking Nicholas is dead tells him about the Medina Adulterous history. Then Nicolas begins to laugh, and she gets the surprise of her life. Nicolas has snapped and believes he his Sebastian Medina. When this occurs he puts Elizabeth in a torture device, and then goes after Leon. Leon runs and falls to his death into the Pit and Pendulum chamber. Francis is captured and taken to the Pit chamber. When Catherine and Maximilian hear the device start they run toward it. When there Nicholas believes they are Isabella and Barthemu. His mother and uncle, a fight ensues between Maximilian and Nicholas. In the end, Nicholas falls to his death; and Catherine closes the torture chamber for good. At the very end you see Elizabeth still locked into the torture device. This is a classic Gothic tale that still gives me chills, I highly recommend it.

Johan Louwet 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.

Claudio Carvalho After the mysterious death of Elizabeth Barnard Medina (Barbara Steele), her brother Francis Barnard (John Kerr) travels from London to Spain and without previous notice he arrives at the castle of her husband Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price). He is received by Nicholas' sister Catherine Medina (Luana Anders) that invites Francis to have dinner with her brother and her.Francis learns that their father Sebastian Medina was a cruel torturer of the Spanish Inquisition and Nicholas is a traumatized man that has witnessed the murder of his uncle Bartolome (Charles Victor) and his adulterer mother Isabella (Mary Menzies) being tortured and killed by his father when he was a kid. During the dinner, the family's friend Doctor Charles Leon (Antony Carbone) unexpectedly arrives and Francis discovers that his sister died of heart attack after visiting the torture chamber in the dungeons. Soon the place is haunted by strange events and Nicholas suspects of his servants Maximillian (Patrick Westwood) and Maria (Lynette Bernay) but Francis is convinced that Nicholas is the responsible for the death of his sister. "Pit and the Pendulum" is one of the best Roger Corman's movies despite the poor scenario that shakes in many scenes. The last time that I saw this movie was on 16 November 1999 on cable television and today I have just watched it again on DVD. The creepy story of Edgar Allan Poe is still engaging even when the viewer watches more than two times. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Mansão do Terror" ("The Manor of Horror")

Red-Barracuda Like most Edgar Allan Poe adaptions, The Pit and the Pendulum only the barely resembles the original text. But if you have read any Poe you could hardly be surprised by this seeing as his stories were very short and had very limited plot-lines. They were more a case of a single horrible idea with a small amount of story surrounding it. In this case, the screenplay was adapted by Richard Matheson who was the writer famous for the novel 'I Am Legend'. He does a good job of fleshing out the story, adding more interesting detail while still incorporating the central idea. It's not until the excellent finale that we really see the material taken from the book but it's well worth the wait as the ending is very strong both in terms of suspense and visual artistry.On the whole, for a low budget movie this looks quite sumptuous. It's consistently nice to look at with great use of colour, including some monochrome flash-back scenes. The sets, costumes and quality of actors are of a high standard. In this sense, it mimics the approach of the Hammer films, whose low budget Gothic horror films similarly had a very polished feel on a similarly low budget. I guess director/producer Roger Corman was intentionally aiming for this and he himself directed a further handful of Poe adaptions for his company AIP; all of which followed the same basic template and were equally impressive productions on a small budget. Of course, it is never going to hurt a film to have Vincent Price on board. He always delivers quality in my opinion and here is no different. He is especially good in the final third once he goes insane and believes himself to be a reincarnation of his infamous father, a notorious torturer from the Spanish Inquisition. Additionally, it can also never hurt a film to have Barbara Steele in it either. She was the queen of 60's Gothic horror and starred in a number of productions. In this one she only has a small role but it's very important and memorable.It's probably a movie that is best defined by its excellent ending though. The first two-thirds build up the tension and intrigue but events spiral to a crescendo in the final third. It's really once we meet the terrifying wonder that is the pit and the pendulum that the movie moves into iconic status. Overall, this is certainly one of the best examples of 60's Gothic horror.