Surprisingly incoherent and boring

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Drama/Fantasy/Horror ?! Drama... let's say it is drama. Fantasy... only if we put everything that is not historical into this category. Horror... not even close.Pit and the Pendulum is THRILLER, set in XVI century Spain. It's adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe's short story of the same title with some additions from other stories. I have no objections, but it's really nothing special. OK for one watching.6/10

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.

Three legendary figures, one in writing, and one in film-making, and one in acting are responsible for bringing The Pit and the Pendulum to life. It's Edgar Allen Poe's story about a brother struggling to come to terms about how his sister's untimely death happened. He goes to the mansion of Nicholas Medina, played by the magnificent Vincent Price, to look for answers. The Pit and the Pendulum for a 60's movie is attention getting by how powerful and mystique the actors and actresses characters are, and the brilliant story and script that intertwines very nicely. Roger Corman direction was astounding as well, making me realize why he's so acclaimed by his film-making peers. The Pit and the Pendulum is a nice little horror flick that I watched with no expectations and had no regrets spending the time and money to watch it.

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.