The Pit (1962)
Experimental gothic short, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum'.
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Reviews
Good movie but grossly overrated
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
If you've never seen this British Film Institute-produced short subject, hasten thee worthwith to BFI's Schalken the Painter disc, where it resides as a very special extra. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, this is a brilliantly realised film rich in atmosphere and dread; one of the best pure horror films I've ever seen and (almost) completely dialogue free. Brian Peck (whose remarkable resume includes everything from Twisted Nerve to 'Z' Cars) stars as a prisoner condemned by black clad monks to 'the pit', where he's subjected to a series of exquisitely cruel tortures designed, it seems, to drive him to madness. Brilliantly shot in black and white by Gus Coma - whose other work seems to consist primarily of industrial films and softcore pornos - The Pit is as atmospheric as the best Riccardo Freda Gothic horror. Consigned to obscurity because of its 28-minute running time, this is a classic waiting to be discovered.