A Childhood Nightmare - Recommended!

Two words: Roger Corman. I grew up on Roger Corman films. He was the master of late '50's to early 70's well-crafted, atmospheric chillers filmed cheaply and hurriedly, but constantly entertaining. My all time favorite film of Corman's, and still the core of many a nightmare, is his 1961's "Pit and the Pendulum," the title which appears on the opening credits. It has been loosely referred to as "THE Pit and the Pendulum," but any way you slice it, a truly chilling feature "based" on a story by Edgar Allen Poe.

Like the majority of many artistic interpretations of Poe films, this one shares nothing with that story, except its title. Titular issues aside, "The Pit and the Pendulum" is indeed a nifty little thriller, NOT a horror film, with a very fine, if hammy, Vincent Price at the peak of his thespian powers. To his credit, though, if there is any actor who could play over the top, and still capture the audience's sympathy, it is Price. In its brief running time, "The Pit and the Pendulum" manages to tell two haunting interconnecting tales at the same time, in the end though, it is all the same story.

Screenwriter Richard Matheson ("What Dreams May Come," (Robin Williams) and"Somewhere in Time" (the late Christopher Reeves)) lets the past inform the present with every stroke of his pen, allowing history to repeat itself. The tale to be told is that of the Medina family, represented by Don Medina (Price) and Catherine (Luana Anders) mourning the death of Don's beloved wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth has been dead for three months when her brother Francis (John Kerr) arrives to investigate the death of his sister. Francis arrives at the bulking Medina castle, somewhere on the rugged Spanish coast, to be greeted with apprehension and mendacity from the Medina clan. Upon seeing a portrait of the late Medina patriarch, Sebastian, Francis realizes that he is in the home of one of the Spanish Inquisition's most notorious torturers, rating nearly as high on the Inquisition's list as Torquemada! Past and present fuse as Francis is given a tour of the castle's dungeon with all of its devices of torture: a rack, an iron maiden, etc and the grave of his sister Elizabeth, who has been interred in the walls of the basement. Or has she?

Strange things are afoot over at the Medina place: a harpsichord which plays by itself, Elizabeth's ring magically appearing on the scene, whispered instructions to a hapless maid, and a ghostly feminine voice calling out Don Medina's name. Further complications ensue when, with the help of the family doctor who pronounced Elizabeth dead, Elizabeth's grave is exhumed and it is found that Elizabeth had been buried alive! Just as Don and Catherine's mother had been buried alive by their father! Have the sins of the father come back to haunt the son? Has Elizabeth truly returned from the grave to wreak vengeance on her husband? Will Don Medina's ever-increasing insanity lead to the murder of Francis for knowing too many family secrets? Once that pendulum begins to swing its razor-sharp blade will Francis' remains remain ensconced in the blood pit with the skeletons of the pendulum's endless array of victims? These questions will, and many more, will be answered as surely as the pendulum swings both ways, all topped off with a final zinger in a class by itself.

Never dull, and constantly surprising, the film is sure to entertain despite its lack of blood and guts; it is a film which allows the audience to fill in the blanks with their own vivid imaginations. "The Pit and the Pendulum" is an elegant valentine to the talents of Edgar Allen Poe and the nightmares he gave to his readers, as well as to Roger Corman's dedication to bringing Poe's name to the screen. I highly recommend the film for a Saturday afternoon's pleasure as it was mine for many years of my youth. Below is the trailer of the film.

*Note: The voice narrating the trailer of the film is none other than Paul Frees. Have you ever been on "The Haunted Mansion" ride in Disneyworld? That's him: "Welcome, foolish mortals..." He is the Disney narrator of the famed dark ride.