Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

SnoopyStyle Francis Barnard arrives from England to see Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) in Spain. His late sister Elizabeth Barnard Medina (Barbara Steele) was Nicholas' wife. He is met by Nicholas' sister Catherine Medina. He is shocked that she had died three months earlier. He is told that she was ill but he is suspicious. They are joined in the castle by Doctor Charles Leon. He reveals that Elizabeth died of fright. Nicholas shows Francis his father's torture chamber who was a notorious torturer for the Spanish Inquisition.It's an American International Pictures directed by Roger Corman. Its B-movie status is unassailable. Its style is very old fashion. The Edgar Allan Poe short story could be interesting horror. This adaptation is less compelling. I don't care about Barnard and John Kerr is rather stiff. The acting is generally stiff or overwrought. This is more a mystery rather than horror. It's not actually scary. It's rather boring.

mark.waltz With "The Fall of the House of Usher", American International went into the world of macabre through the Gothic world of Edgar Allan Poe, and continued with perhaps his eeriest story. Some of Poe's stories were so short that to make a movie version out of them meant altering the original tale a great deal, and that meant pretty much adding background and characters not included prior. The horrific "The Pit and the Pendulum" starts off slowly, but like a symphony, gains power as it develops. Vincent Price is a seemly moody, if kindly baron, the son of a man obsessed with torture. As a child, Price witnessed his father kill his own mother and brother by horrific, torturous means, and has desperately tried to destroy that legacy even though the "Dante's Inferno" like torture chamber remains. He broods over the memory of his late wife (Barbara Steele), a darkly beautiful woman who started off as a loving spouse but slowly changed as the secrets of the castle began to take over her spirit.With his long face and somewhat tired looking eyes, Price was destined to play horrific roles as he got older. Undesputibly the king of horror after starring in "House of Wax", Price found his niche when Roger Corman cast him in the string of "Poe" films. Many of his characters are indistinguishable other than their names and hair color. They all start off as moody rather than obviously evil, but half way through the movie have transformed into a human monster, a bit perverse and possibly sadomasochistic. They are also surrounded by women with ulterior motives, and in this case, the ulterior motive of supposedly deceased wife Steele is to drive her "widowed" husband mad so she can be with her lover and take over the estate herself.With her dark, steely eyes, Barbara Steele had the look of an evil woman, and nobody could glare with deadly intentions better than her. This was made right after she exploded on the screen in the Italian horror classic "Black Sunday", and while her on-screen time here is limited, she makes the most out of it, whether delightedly kissing her lover right in front of the passed out Price, verbally telling him afterwords of how she plotted this from the beginning, and finally, the delightful punishment she gets which is one of the eeriest film endings since Bela Lugosi got his come-uppance in the original "The Raven". Of course, there's a less fiendish romantic couple here, Steele's brother (John Kerr) and Price's sister (Luana Anders), but they are not nearly as interesting as the evil characters.American International's horror films dominated the 1960s along with the British Hammer films as the spookiest films since the early days of talkies. They are even more Gothic with the eerie looking color photography than the classics directed by Tod Browning and James Whale, and certainly better than low-budget Universal films which lacked the underlying mystery of the earlier classics and these grand guignol that hold up very well today and have obviously influenced the generation of horror movie directors who came along years after these films were released.

tomgillespie2002 Coming second, after The Fall of the House Of Usher (1960), in Roger Corman's six-film series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations (all but one starring Vincent Price), The Pit and the Pendulum is possibly Corman's greatest film as a director. Shot with a lush, atmospheric mood, Pendulum faces the task of stretching a two-page short story into a credible, 90-minute movie. Working with I Am Legend author Richard Matheson, who helms the script, the film retains the psychological trip of Poe's original, while creating an interesting and ironic plot surrounding a very small group of characters that leads us to Poe's famous pendulum.In 16th century Spain, Francis Barnard (John Kerr) arrives at his brother-in-law's mansion to investigate the unclear and mysterious death of his sister Elizabeth (Black Sunday's (1960) Barbara Steele). Seemingly overcome with grief, Elizabeth's widower Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) tells Francis that Elizabeth died of heart failure. Francis, however, seems unable to accept this and insists that he stay until he knows the truth. With the arrival of the family physician Doctor Leon (Antony Cabone), Francis slowly unravels the story of the 'heavy atmosphere' of the castle and the torture devices in the chamber, previously owned by Nicholas' father, a notorious torturer in the Spanish Inquisition.Made for just $30,000, the film looks remarkable and the set design is a suitable mixture of the elegant and the grim. The movie noticeably lacks out-and-out scares, and opts for a more thoughtful, psychological approach. You could even go so far as to name the movie a period piece rather than a horror. Although his toes may creep over the ham line occasionally, the film is dominated by the presence of Vincent Price, who delivers a rather hypnotic performance, flicking between creepy, tormented and simply bat-s**t crazy, with relative ease. The only real complaint about the film is the performance of John Kerr, who, although a promising leading man in the 50's, delivers a one-note, forgettable performance, but that is forgivable in a movie so rich in beauty. Corman should be truly proud.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

LeonLouisRicci After, some say, a slow start, this is a Creepy Gutwrench of a Film with Director Roger Corman, Cinematographer Floyd Crosby, Writer Richard Matheson, and Score Composer Les Baxter all contributing to the look and feel of this Gothic playground. Of course Vincent Price and Barbara Steele do nothing but enhance this to a Kinetic and Killer early Sixties Horror entry.The Final Act is full of disturbing and penetrating imagery and is bizarre and haunting. The last image on Screen is Legendary. From the opening Psychedelic liquidity, Years ahead of its Time, along with spine tingling Musical Chops, the Audience is Catapulted to another place and Time just this side of the Spanish Inquisition.A brutal and sadistic era of torture and mayhem. The residue remains and has scarred the Psyche of Protagonist Nicolas Medina along with a Freudian Frenzy of Mother and Father Shock. This is the set up and is Disturbing to say the least. It all leads to a Climax of Poetic Justice and for the Time this is Horror Movie Madness at its best. It still holds up quite well and is Low Budget Articism with "The" Low Budget Artisan Corman Directing this as though it were a Masterwork. Some say it is. The Masque of the Red Death (1964) aside, no argument here.