The Pit And The Pendulum

This slice of magnificent Grand Guignol-style horror has been released last month in equally magnificent Blu-ray and Blu-ray Steelbook Format. Vincent Price plays the part of Nicholas Medina with relish in this stylish and chilling 1961 adaptation of E.A. Poe’s famous horror story.

Spain in the 16th Century: when a horse-drawn carriage pulls up on a beach, its passenger, Francis Barnard (John Kerr), takes one look at the towering cliff-top castle and immediately senses (as indeed do we) that nothing good lurks behind its walls. Francis has travelled all the way to investigate the sudden death of his beloved sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), late wife of Nicholas Medina. The grief-stricken Medina, together with his younger sister Catherine (Luana Anders) greets Francis warmly but fails to come up with a satisfactory explanation as to Elizabeth’s death. At first pretending that she died of a rare blood disease, things soon take a turn for the worse when the family physician, Dr. Leon (Antony Carbone) joins the small group for dinner and reveals to Francis that his sister had in fact died of a heart attack brought on by fear. The enraged young man demands the truth from his brother-in-law, who eventually admits that the doctor told the truth. As the story goes, Nicholas’ father was the notorious Spanish inquisitor Sebastian Medina, and Nicholas, as a child, witnessed how Sebastian tortured his adulterous wife and her lover to death in the dungeon deep below the castle. Vowing to himself that no one must re-enter that horrible chamber again, the adult Nicholas tried everything to hide the place from his beloved, but one day she discovered the place while wandering about the castle, and it brought on the fatal heart attack.

Here then the story should end, but far from it. Au contraire, it actually just begins to unfold… for Nicholas claims to see the ghost of his dead wife has come back to haunt him. Could it really be that Elizabeth had been buried prematurely and is now out for revenge? Or could it be that something entirely different, namely a plan so sinister and devilish that even Francis, Nicholas and Catherine cannot possibly guess it, plays trickery with everyone?

With stellar performances from the ensemble cast, lead by the ever-impressive Vincent Price, this gem is a must for every fan of gothic horror and of Poe. Right from the psychedelic opening titles through the many plot twists and Lex Baxter’s matching score, The Pit And The Pendulum is a masterpiece of the macabre.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Limited Edition SteelBook packaging featuring original artwork [SteelBook only]
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM
• Original uncompressed Mono PCM Audio
• Optional Isolated Music and Effects Track
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary with director and producer Roger Corman
• Audio commentary by critic Tim Lucas
• Behind the Swinging Blade – A new documentary on the making of The Pit and the Pendulum featuring Roger Corman, star Barbara Steele, Vincent Price’s daughter Victoria Price and more!
• Added TV Sequence – Shot in 1968 to pad out the film for the longer TV time slot, this scene features star Luana Anders
• An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe with Vincent Price [52 mins] – Price reads a selection of Poe’s classic stories before a live audience, including ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘The Sphinx’, ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ and ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ (with optional English SDH)
• Original Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx [Amaray release only]
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Gothic Horror author Jonathan Rigby, illustrated with original archive stills and posters