‘No one shall ever enter this room again...’
Following the success of Roger Corman’s first Edgar Allen Poe adaptation, House of Usher, in 1960, the legendary filmmaker and producer teamed up once again with writer Richard Matheson to adapt a different Poe tale – The Pit and the Pendulum. Just over a year later, in August of 1961, The Pit and Pendulum was released. It became the most financially successful of Corman’s Poe Cycle, and wound up influencing everything from Italian horror cinema to Stephen King…
As Poe’s original story is only a few pages long, Matheson crafts an entirely new tale here. In essence, it’s very similar to House of Usher (also penned by Matheson). A stranger (here played by John Kerr) is reluctantly received in a gothic castle by an ailing but mysterious older gentleman (Vincent Price – natch). An atmosphere of gloom hangs heavy across all the characters. Bad omens start to occur. A woman (iconic scream queen Barbara Steele this time) is terrorised by unseen forces. It is only in the third act that this second entry in Corman’s Poe Cycle begins to distinguish itself.
As previously alluded to, The Pit and the Pendulum is so similar to House of Usher that it probably depends on which one you see first as to which one you’ll prefer. For my money, House of Usher is a bit more propulsive and a bit less needlessly convoluted. The conclusion of The Pit…, while bombastic, also feels slightly bewildering, and while the horrific moments in the latter film are perhaps more memorable than anything in House of Usher, I think the former is the more effective film when taken as a whole. That being said, Price, as always, is revelatory. I can’t think of many other actors whose mere presence is enough to elevate any material, no matter how derivative, and he is, once again, endlessly watchable here. The camera loves him. His line deliveries are fascinating. I love the guy.
The Pit and the Pendulum is perhaps the most beloved entry in Corman’s Poe Cycle, but it absolutely isn’t the best. At 80 minutes, however, there is absolutely no reason not to watch it.
