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The Pit and the Pendulum

1961 1h 20m
Horror Mystery Drama
MOVIEVIBE Rating
6.8/10
398 reviews
Your Rating
The Pit and the Pendulum

In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.

"Betrayal cuts both ways!"

Top Billed Cast

Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Nicholas Medina / Sebastian Medina
John Kerr
John Kerr
Francis Barnard
Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele
Elizabeth Barnard Medina
Luana Anders
Luana Anders
Catherine Medina
Antony Carbone
Antony Carbone
Doctor Leon
Patrick Westwood
Patrick Westwood
Maximillian
Lynette Bernay
Lynette Bernay
Maria
Mary Menzies
Mary Menzies
Isabella

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

J John Chard Verified TMDB Critic
2019-03-05

Price, Corman and Matheson, Gothic splendour.

Upon hearing of his sister Elizabeth's death, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to find out just exactly how she met her end. Arriving at the Medina castle, he finds the Medina family deeply suspicious characters and the castle itself a foreboding place harnessing a deadly past.

The Pit And The Pendulum is the second film in the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that director Roger Corman tackled, it's also easily one of the best. Part horror, part dreamy thriller, and of course with little dashes of humour within, it all comes together ra...

W Wiccaburr Verified TMDB Critic
2020-10-06

The colorful flashbacks, the beautiful settings, the delicious revenge, and you got Vincent Price as well. Directed by Roger Corman and Matheson doing the screenplay. And of course, let's not forget this is a Poe story.

This is so good especially as the ending comes. Reminds me of <I>House on Haunted Hill (1959)</I> and if you remember that ending then you know what I am talking about.

Definitely worth seeing as it checks off so many like boxes in my book....

W Wuchak Verified TMDB Critic
2022-03-21

_**Haunted chateau, cobwebs, rats, grisly cadavers, adultery, murder and a torture chamber**_

In 1546, a man from London (John Kerr) visits an ominous castle on the coast of Spain to find out the mysterious events surrounding his sister’s sudden death (Barbara Steele). Vincent Price plays the lord of the manor, Luana Anders his sister and Antony Carbone his doctor.

"The Pit and the Pendulum" (1961) was the second in Roger Corman’s “Poe cycle” of eight movies from 1960-1964, plus other Poe-like flicks, like “The Terror” (1963).

Like practically all of the Poe adoptions of t...