Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Pit and the Pendulum

USA 1991
produced by
Albert Band, Charles Band (executive) for Full Moon Entertainment
directed by Stuart Gordon
starring Lance Henriksen, Rona De Ricci, Jonathan Fuller, Jeffrey Combs, Tom Towles, Oliver Reed
based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

When in 16th century Toledo, Spain, baker's wife Maria (Rona De Ricci) speaks out against thze inquisition, that might not prove as such a good idea, since the head inquisitor Torquemada (Lance Henriksen) is a bit touchy on that subject. So he has her captured & soon subjects her to some torture, inquisition style. But he himself was aroused by the beautiful & pure Maria & soon has to realize he is madly in love with her. Maria's hubby meanwhile, the baker Antonio (Jonathan Fuller) valiantly tries to free her but only manages to get himself incarcerated, too (clever boy, he). & even when an escape attempt proves almost successful for him & Maria, they are only recaptured again by the trickery of Torquemada.. & when, seemingly as last hope, a cardinal from Rome (Oliver Reed) arrives at the inquisitor's, Torquemada shows no remorse in walling the good man in alive. But the good man also has a tender side, which he shows when he confesses his love to Maria, who even gives in to his demands after he has promised her to free her husband, but when Torquemada fails to sustain an erection when he is trying to man Maria, he cuts the girl's tongue out in order to silence her. This seems to be the last straw for Maria, who in order to leave her prison, now fakes her own death - she has attained, among other things, the ability for her soul to leave the body, from her cellmate, the good witch Esmeralda (Frances Bay) -, but she might actually get more than she bargained for, since Torquemada has hjer buried (alive) right on the spot. Then he subjects her hubby to his new torturing device, a pendulum with a razorsharp blade at the bottom to be slowly lowered upon its victim. Of course, Antonio can free himself in the nick of time, using some rats to gnaw through his ropes, & he even escapes Torquemada's pit full of stakes, fighting ther inquisitor's soldiers singlehandedly & - upon receiving a telepathic message (!) from Maria - freeing her from her tomb, who, with the help of some magic, has Torquemada get a taste of her own torture before finally he dies.

 

Very much a messed up script, with white & blacjk magic thrown in quite deliberately at the least fitting moments, having about as much to do with Edgar Allan Poe's short story as previous adaptations of the same by Roger Corman (The Pit and the Pendulum - 1961) or Harald Reinl (Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel/The Blood Demon - 1967) - in all fairness, Poe's original The Pit & the Pendulum is one of the least cinematic of all his stories, consisting of little more than a description of the instruments of torture of the title -, but being no match for either of these movies. Desperate attempts to throw in some well known motives from other Poe-stories (The Black Cat, Premature Burial, The Cask of Amontillado) don't help the movie one bit, actually being rather ridiculous. But the real letdown are the performances: while Oliver Reed's cardinal is a way too little role to leave any impression at all & Jeffrey Combs as the inquisitor's scribe is underused, Lance Henriksen's inquisitor is rather hammy & clichéd (he can do better), but much worse are Rona De Ricci, who, while being quite pretty in a naked state, does little but looking carin & worried, obviously not understanding the proceedings one bit, & Jonathan Fuller as all-American hero is just godawful as the male lead, being about as out of place in 16th century Toledo as ... I don't know ... a rocketship. & judging from his inability to act, the rocketship would probably have done a better job in his role.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Pit and the Pendulum
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Pit and the Pendulum here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Pit and the Pendulum at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!