The Pit and the Pendulum

i can't explain why i like this movie so much since basically it is a bunch of trash. In any case, i find it extremely compelling, and Rona DiRicci is absolutely beautiful and great. What in the heck ever happened to her? This movie proves that even trash can be well done. wish i could find the darn thing to rent now.

To this day, I have no clue why they ever called the movie the pit and the pendulum. The scenes with The Pit and the pendulum weren't even significant to the story, and were very brief. If they called this The pit and the Pendulum, it's an insult to the classic first starring Vincent Price, and Luana Anders. I thought the movie was okay, but very extreme. It is during the Inquisition when Maria (Always beautiful Rona Di Ricci), and her baker husband Antonio (Jonathan Fuller), accidently attend the Auto D' Fey, a festival for burning assumed heretics at the stake, and Maria can't stand watching people in pain. She runs out in the defense of a young boy being horse whipped for his father's "Mistakes". She pleads mercy from Torquemada, the infamous leader of the whole Inquisition, but the Grand Inquisitor himself, falls in love with Maria with one look at her. He has her arrested thinking any feeling of love is witch craft. She is taken to Torquemada's torturess castle, and finds out what really is going on behind the walls. It is up to Antonio to save Maria from a terrible fate. I thought the plot was good, the acting, okay, but everything else, No! I thought it was wrong to have so much nudity in the movie, let alone any nudity. Dark Humor, woah, there's somewhere I do not want to go. Besides the terrible stuff, even the great acting couldn't save a film like this. I have to say all the actors are highly underrated, especially Rona Di Ricci, who got less credit then she deserved. Frances Bay as Esmerelda the good witch, was wonderful, Lance Henriksen, I have to say I think he was a too good for the part. Jonathan Fuller, okay, he was good, but a little over exaggerent. All in all a pretty good movie. Now I see why they changed the DVD's name to The Inquisitor.

But not as good as "Castle Freak" or "Re-Animator". Still, a well made horror flick with lots of gore and nudity. Lance Henriksen overacts a bit, as usual. Worth picking up.