The Pit and The Pendulum [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of The Pit and The Pendulum [VHS]
Movie Review: Can't go wrong with Vincent Price!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Vincent Price was one of the great horror actors of all-time. His long reign as the King of Horror (from 1958 throughout the rest of his film making days) was greatly put to use on the AIP Edgar Allan Poe horror films and "The Pit and the Pendulum" is one of the best in the series. I won't spoil the movie for anyone so I'll keep it brief: Price plays a man who plunges into madness amidst a psychological breakdown. The film is so powerful and creepy that you can't walk away without having scenes from the movie flash through your head at all hours of the day!Movie Review: Tour de Force ...
Summary: 5 Stars
This brilliant horror classic brought together the talents of a remarkable cast of actors in a memorable tale of madness, murder, torture, and revenge in 16th century Spain. Vincent Price plays Nicholas Medina, an aristocrat suffering the recent loss of his beloved wife Elizabeth. John Kerr plays Elizabeth's brother Francis Barnard, and Luana Anders shines as Medina's gentle sister Catherine. Rounding out the cast is Anthony Carbone as Medina's treacherous physician Dr. Leon and Barbara Steele as Medina's adulterous wife Elizabeth.
The story in brief: Barnard arrives unbidden at Medina's lonely castle to investigate his sister Elizabeth's sudden death. He is welcomed with some hesitation by Elizabeth's widower Nicholas Medina and his sister Catherine. The youth receives confusing accounts of his sister's death from Medina as well as from the family physician Dr. Leon and resolves to remain until his questions are satisfied.
Spookery through the night and the next morning suggest Elizabeth's spirit walks the corridors of the castle. With great anguish, Medina decides to open Elizabeth's tomb; a rotting corpse is discovered and it is then Medina's greatest fear is realized -- Elizabeth was buried alive and died in suffocating agony. Medina stoically resigns himself to awaiting his wife's vengeance from the grave.
Elizabeth did not die however. She is alive and scheming with her lover Dr. Leon to rid herself of Medina once and for all. In the dead of night, she lures Medina to a long neglected torture chamber in the bowels of the castle with the intention of delivering her coup de grace. The sorry, half-crazed Medina there learns the truth of his wife's adultery, and, mustering an uncanny strength in his madness, turns the tables to ruthlessly serve the miscreants their just deserts. Medina then tortures the innocent Barnard with a razor sharp pendulum before being slain by his manservant. Having survived the maelstrom, Barnard and Catherine depart arm-in-arm.
Vincent Price plays the tragic Nicholas Medina to the hilt: his soul-in-torment arias are braced with pain-filled grimaces and his scenes in the torture chamber are thick with a subtle eroticism. At film's end the viewer is saddened that this gentle, cultivated, aristocratic, and too-trusting man suffers madness and death.
Blues dominate the film's palette and the musical score by Les Baxter - especially the 'Elizabeth' motif - is effective.
The film is a celebrated horror classic and the viewer will not be disappointed.
Movie Review: Do U Know Where U Are, Bartholemy? U Are About to Enter Hell
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the beginning of one of the great horror-movie speeches of all time. The last sentence still sends chills up my spine. And the last scene of the movie made my heart absolutely stop with terror. Vincent Price, the Grand Master of the horror movie villain role, does not disappoint in this film. I think this is one of the first examples of a villain whose villainy gets its start from a childhood trauma, and we see his slow descent into madness and murder during the movie. Price's emotions are on display and they hypnotize, but the restrained performance of the actress who plays his sister is a perfect foil. It is as if the evil, the veniality and the sadism that she saw in her youth has taught her never to display any emotion at all, lest her own terror and anguish come to the surface. She is as passive and placid as Price's character is tortured and overwrought. The dialogue is sometimes banal and silly, and there are some anachronisms in the sets and in the actor's behaviors, but otherwise it's a classic tale of terror- doesn't follow the Edgar Allen Poe story, but is a worthy tribute to the man who created "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart."Movie Review: Never saw a Corman film I liked...
Summary: 3 Stars
... so why did I buy this one?Because I still had very vivid memories of the film's climactic scenes from watching it as a young child in a hotel room; the man chained down as a massive axe swings back and forth and starts cutting into his stomach, the twsited man in black pulling the chain to lower it further... aaaiiiiieeee!
The last 15 or so minutes of the film match my youthful experiences, even through the jaded eyes of an adult who's watched waaaay too many B-movies. What's more, this is probably the BEST Corman film I've been exposed too. And the final shot of the film is very creepy!
Price's performance is fabulous here; the slide into madness of his character is actually believable, as is the terror on his face. The supporting cast also does a great job, although Barbara Shelley isn't used to her fullest because they've redubbed an American actress over her. (I supposed someone said, "Gee.. her BROTHER sounds American, so she should too.") The sets and camera work, even the musical score also stand head and shoulders above other Corman films I've seen.
The three stars are, partly, because the film does show some of the usual Corman defects--pan shots that I imagine are supposed to be suspenseful but are just boring and lame exchanges between actors stating the obvious, but also because the video seems to have been taken from a flawed print; the color is off in a number of scenes.
Movie Review: Halloween Only!
Summary: 5 Stars
Just as I save "It's a Wonderful Life" for Christmas, I always watch this one at Halloween. Along with "House of Wax" & "Hocus Pocus". I saw this movie for the first time years ago at a drive-in with my brother. I still remember the famous pendulum scene was especially scary for me. I highly recommend this movie to all Vincent Price buffs (such as myself). It's among one of his best works.