31 Days of Horror’s Vincent Price Tuesday
When alerted of his sister’s untimely death, Francis Barnard (John Kerr) travels to her castle in Spain to find that she has died of a rare blood disease, or so he is told by her husband Nicholas (Vincent Price). But the castle holds many secrets and there is something very sinister residing in that house.
Nicholas’s father was once a torturer during the Spanish Inquisition and the torture chamber still exists inside the castle in which he lives. As a child, he witnessed his father do something terrible, which severely affected Nicholas’s mental state. Now he is living in the house where his father tortured and killed many people and his wife, Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) has died of fright, her last word being his father’s name.
Roger Corman follows up the success from his film interpretation of House of Usher with this Poe classic, The Pit and The Pendulum. Vincent Price is perfection the mentally unstable Nicholas, tortured by his father’s past. Personally, I find the tortured roles to be Price’s best. He is so good at playing crazy, switching from dramatic to angry at the flip of a switch.
Barbara Steele unfortunately doesn’t get as much screen time as she deserves. Any fan of Bava’s Black Sunday can agree that she was an excellent actress and more side by side screen time with Price could only have improved the already near perfect film.
Corman had eight films in his Poe series, The Pit and the Pendulum being my third favorite behind The Tomb of Ligeia and Tales of Terror. Considering how amazing The Pit and the Pendulum is, you can only imagine how great the other two are. This is saying a lot considering Corman’s name was synonymous with horrible low budget B-movies up until this point. The Poe series was his chance to show off his directorial skills, and it paid off in spades.
The Pit and the Pendulum keeps you hooked through the entire film while you try to figure out exactly what the twist is going to be. You will be pleasantly surprised at the end.
Enjoy your Vincent Price Tuesday with this Corman classic.
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Ann Hale is the horror editor for Pop-Break.com and a senior contributing writer, reviewing horror movies and television shows. She is also the American Correspondent for Lovehorror.co.uk. Ann attended East Carolina University, majoring in English Literature. She is a collector of Halloween (the film) memorabilia and is a self-admitted opinionated horror nerd. You can follow her, her collection and her cat, Edward Kittyhands on Twitter and Instagram @Scarletjupiter
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