The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)

Antonio and Maria are newlyweds that run a bakery in Spain during the times of the inquisition.  While neither of them agrees with the torture of the accused they still have to make a living selling their wares to the crowd.  But when Maria intervenes on the behalf of a child the evil Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada, has her arrested as a witch.  Antonio soon ends up in prison as well when he tries to help her escape.  But Torquemada’s intentions aren’t as pure as saving Maria’s soul.  He thinks that she has put him under a spell; only of course he just has the hots for her.  When he can’t “perform” for her he has her tongue cut out so no one will know.  That is when things get really crazy. 

So director Stuart Gordon tries his hand at adapting or at least retelling the classic story from Edgar Allen Poe.  Really this isn’t so much a true adaptation then it is a blending of elements from many of Poe’s tales.  We have the Pendulum of course, but there is also a bit with a man being walled up in a wine cellar as well as a little bit of premature burial going on.  The bottom line for me though is that the movie is a blast.  There is a lot going on through out and Gordon makes sure that the action is non-stop.  This makes for a movie that is over before you know it.  Not only do we get some twisted situations (I’ll have more on that later) but we have great characters too. 

Speaking of characters what good is a well-written script without a cast to bring them to life?  From the grand inquisitor, who is portrayed with some scene chewing relish by Lance Henriksen, to the comic relief played by Gordon regular Jeffrey Combs the cast does a wonderful job.  Sadly Henriksen is too often seen in parts that don't give him much of a chance to show his acting skills.  And as for Combs he is brilliant here as always.  Hell they even manage to have genre regular Tom Towles show up for a bit part.  And since I’m talking about bit parts seeing Oliver Reed show up for even the briefest of cameos was cool and very memorable. 

Lets talks special effects now.  We get a lot of blood and torture; though don’t expect Re-Animator levels of gore.  Still there are rats and people getting cut in half, an exploding body that uses it’s parts to impale some folks, a well done (pun intended) burnt witch, and even a bag of bones that reassembles itself to get some payback!  All of this is practical work and shows that some skill was behind the work. 

Bottom line is that the Pit and the Pendulum is just a really fun and entertaining movie.  I highly recommend it, especially since the DVD can be had on the cheap from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.  Check out there site here for more details.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer