| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
B- |
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| Visuals: |
C |
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It broke from the original story...but good anyway
by Patrick (movies profile)
Sep 15, 2005
Did you ever have a fear that you couldn’t stand? Some people have a fear of heights. Others have a fear of death itself. These fears are natural but in The Pit and the Pendulum the fears of people are exploited as a sort of torture.
This was another one of the Edger Allan Poe movie done by Vincent Prince. This movie, despite the fact it does not have anything to do with the original story, was a decent film. The movie is about a series of event revolving around a torture chamber left over from the Spanish Inquisition. The story also tells how the human race is caught between heaven and hell through powerful symbolism.
In the story Francis Bonnard goes to Spain about his sister’s (Barbara Steele) death. He finds out her husband Nicholas (Vincent Price) is the son of one of the Inquisitors and finds out of the man’s fear of being buried alive. He is suspicious that his wife is not really dead and was buried alive, a fear he got when he saw his father do this to his mother in their torture chamber.
The story shows great story work but is not anything like the original work of Poe. Some parts of the movie do lack the Poe mentality, to. The film was good but the fact it utterly ignored the original account makes it only mediocre. The acting also made the story almost believable with its very realistic characters.
The movie did keep the symbol that many believe Poe was trying to convey. It is the story of a man on the brink of hell then being saved at the last moment by a godly force. This element gives the movie a very strong tone throughout its entirety.
The film is great but lacks the tale’s original core. If I had to grade it ignoring that fact I would give it a B+ for its acting and believability. I would recommend anyone who is looking for a decent film in the horror genre. |
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