Horrorfest 2010: The Pit and the Pendulum

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM is another horror film I've read about and seen pictures of over the years but never got around to watching until today. I was looking forward to watching it today because I knew it stars Vincent Price.

That's one of the unexpected joys of setting out to do something like this -- one of the main reasons I make arbitrary rules for myself like, "I'm going to watch 31 horror movies in 31 days" is to force myself to write. The secondary reason is that these are all films I'd like to see anyway, so it's nice to give myself an excuse to do it systematically. But, other benefits sneak in while all this is going on -- I might notice I like a director or star I've never really been exposed to before. The more Vincent Price movies I see, the more I realize I'm a Vincent Price fan.

Vincent Price is one of those guys that is so famous that he permeates pop culture. Even if you've never seen a Vincent Price flick, if you're any kind of movie fan you can probably hear his voice or picture his pencil mustache. It's kind of like when I realized Barbara Streisand's greatness last February -- sure, the entire world says she's great, and I grew up hearing that, but you never really realize how great she is till you check out her flicks. Same with Vincent Price.

Price is from the old school of acting where you don't treat anything like it's shit. Even if you're in the shittiest movie of all time, you read the lines like it's Shakespeare. Admittedly, this still won't turn shit into greatness. But, it can turn mediocrity into greatness.

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM opens in 16th century Spain with Francis Barnard (John Kerr) riding to the castle of his late sister (Barbara Steele -- hey, she was in BLACK SUNDAY!) and her husband via stage coach. Damn, there sure are lots of horror movies where guys are heading towards castles in stage coaches and then the coach stops and refuses to take the guy the whole way. They're always like, "Woa, no way, this is as far as I go. Sorry, dude." And then they take off, and the dude has to stand there with his bags all alone in the barren country side. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd count how many times this has happened in Horrorfest so far, but it seems like roughly 1/3 of the movies feature a similar scene.

Anyway, Barnard is visiting the castle to investigate his sister's death. His brother-in-law, Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) is clearly hiding something. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate how much he loved his late wife, but also mysteriously won't let Barnard into certain blocked off parts of the cobwebbed castle. Creepy.

The family doctor, Leon (Antony Carbone) shows up and lets some vital information slip -- he says Barnard's sister died of fright. Barnard's suspicions are fueled even more and finally Medina has to reveal the family's deep dark secret -- an elaborate torture chamber in the castle's basement. Leon reveals to Barnard that Medina witnessed his own mother's torture and live burial in this chamber at the hands of his father (also played by Price in flashbacks), and now suspects he may have accidentally buried Barnard's sister alive, as well. Medina even hallucinates that her ghost is out to get him.

The movie has a couple twist endings, so I don't want to describe too much more except to say when the last 20 minutes or so kicks in, the whole thing moves along at a breakneck speed and keeps on gaining its own momentum in a way that kind of clicks everything that went before it into place. This is clearly a low budget production, but with Price in the lead role and a snappy narrative, you barely notice -- sure, it could be lit a little moodier, and the sets, as great as they are, could be a little less wooden, and Spain could look a little less like Southern California, but that's all beside the point because the story works.

I'll admit -- this movie kept me guessing. I didn't know what the twist was going to be, before there was one, and I didn't even necessarily realize there was going to be one in the first place. Lesser movies telegraph their twists in advance. Sure, this was a mystery, so I knew there had to be a solution. But, I had no idea what the solution would be.

The pit and pendulum of the title make an appearance in the film's last act and serve as a fitting climax, expertly kept off screen and out of the dialogue until the last moment by director Roger Corman, who could whip these things off in 15 days precisely because he knew what the hell he was doing.