31 Days of Horror 2015 Day 19 The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum
Source-Echo Bridge Midnight Horror DVD

When I was still fairly young I saw the AIP made Vincent Price Pit and the Pendulum film. And I loved it. So when in 90 or 91 I started hearing thru Fangoria magazine that Stuart Gordon was remaking it I wanted to see it. I got lucky and the local video store got in the unrated VHS.I watched it and was very impressed.

Skip ahead now to 2004. I caught a edited for TV airing of the movie on Sci Fi Channel and wanted to get it on DVD. The DVD was out of print. And selling for a bit more than I wanted to pay. I figured one day Full Moon would re-release the DVD.

Skip ahead about 8 more years,I am in my local Walmart waiting for my meds to be filled.So to pass the 30 minutes I had to wait I started digging in the $5 bin. I almost skipped this set. Mostly cause the last few Echo Bridge Midnight Horror sets I had bought were nothing but 2000s era DTV tripe. Then on the bottom of the cover I saw a smaller version of the poster at the top of this post. Thinking there was no way this would be the Stuart Gordon film,I flipped the DVD over and saw that yes it is the Stuart Gordon directed film,but sadly it is the R rated cut. No matter I wanted to see the film bad enough that I was willing to drop $5 for the set.

The plot is fairly simple the town baker's wife is falsely accused of being a witch by Lance Henrikson who plays Torquemada.So she get tortured and her husband seeks revenge. From what I can remember it seems the more sexualized violence is what got the most cuts in this R rated version. Even though with the cuts the film still pushes what you could get away with in an R rated film in the early 90s.

The FX work all looks to be practical FX work. And it is really well done practical FX work. For a Full Moon produced film this has a damn good cast. You got Lance as the lead villain. Plus Jeffery Combs and the late Tom Towels as supporting cast.

Besides it being the R rated cut the only other drawback is this version is full frame. Pretty sure by 91 Full Moon had either ended it relationship with Paramont or it was about to end.I doubt this played more than 20 theaters. And I have no idea what it's OAR is suppose to be. But this full frame version doesn't look like it is framed wrong or missing any major picture info.

The Pit and the Pendulum gets a B.