The Pit and the Pendulum

This was a train wreck. I don't know what the producer got for this film but he should have gotten 10-15 years for putting Poe's name on it. Filled with never-will-be actors. Terrible plot. My advice to the director: bury this one somewhere in New Jersey, get drunk and forget you ever read Poe.

What a TERRIBLE movie! I totally agree with the 2 others who gave it a 1 on here. Firstly, when everyone gets out of the car, at the very start, they are then INTRODUCED??? What were they doing in the car on the way there!?! They said there wasn't a house for MILES, so they must have been in the car a while! Then one of them drags out the advert they are all answering... and READS IT OUT LOUD! WTF??? They are all there BECAUSE of the same advert, THEY don't need it read out to them! Wouldn't they already KNOW THIS? Is it just for the audience? So blatant! Jeez! Couldn't they have established this in the car on the way there? Who WROTE this crap! At this point the 3 people watching this with me decided to LEAVE! This movie is FULL of CRINGE inducing crap. - The actors all looked like they just came out of a salon, and selected on looks, none of them look like average students, but rather male models, or such, although the main lady's cheek implants are almost popping out of her face! This movie reminds one of a sinking ship from the start, but it just won't go down! Ugh. - Slight superficial sexual episode, then senseless cutting to a scene with no relevance to the ongoing scene! It's a mess! I would give this movie a miss. - I think I won't even hold out much longer. That's it. Thanks, but no thanks.

This is one of the worst "things" I've seen for ages. I call it a "thing" because it is not a film or movie, but unfortunately it does exist so it gets credit for existing.

I loved reading Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, and hated torturing my poor eyes on this monstrosity. It has nothing to do with Poe's story. It doesn't even seem like they read the cliff notes before mashing there ill informed hands down on the keyboard. I wouldn't have much issue with it if it was titled something like The Spooky Homo-erotic Mansion Mystery or David Decoteau's Middle School Video Class Project, in the later case I'd give little David a grade of C for getting it done, but points must be taken off for being ever so boring and poorly acted, directed, written, shot, edited, scored and any other aspect you could think of.

This "thing" even falls short of late night soft core porn. It's not the funny kind of bad, it just is bad. If you like naked dudes touching and stuff... you might get it, but probably not. This is a movie made for nobody except for the people in it to try to please their parents by showing them art school wasn't a waste of money. It was... Failed

Don't watch it, burn it! Helen Keller would cover her eyes and ears if subjected to this horrid "thing". Booo! Boooooooooo!

Firstly, this has nothing whatsoever to do with Edgar Allan Poe or even the fabulously lurid and artistically hip Roger Corman flick from the early sixties.

Secondly, those expecting soft-core porn will be singularly disappointed. It's horribly coy and non-explicit and utterly redundant in it's puerile representations of homo-eroticism, lesbianism and sexual sado-masochism. Imagine those elements transplanted into an episode of the original Scooby Doo cartoon series and that just about illustrates the mentality.

Thirdly, if imagining a half-decent psychological-thriller, it fails on all counts. Nil psychology, zero thrills, null tension, zip suspense and nada logic.

If, however, you are on the lookout for something that is a dull, boring, atrociously acted, abysmally scripted piece of pointless junk, with no gore, no wit, no fun, no dynamic and lots of superimposed visual images of clocks and audio ticking, chiming and heartbeats on the soundtrack that will absolutely decimate your will to live, then this is the ideal ticket.

For a film to not even manage to tap the very outer reaches of the concept of exploitation cinema in order to generate the merest iota of entertainment value is some remarkable feat. And this film achieves that dubious honour. There is nothing to redeem it. Avoid.

Alright, well I will start out with the bad things about this movie. First, it is hardly more than a sleazefest. There is way too much unnecessary nudity and homosexuality. Don't get me wrong, I got nothing against gays and lesbians, but the excessive images of guys kissing guys and girls kissing girls, is just too much in this movie! It totally brings the movie down to a sleazy level. It is just one notch over a softcore porn movie! The good things in the movie would definitely be the music. The score for this movie is quite nice, and works well throughout the entire movie. Also, the set and scenery is quite nice, especially the constant ticking of clocks throughout the movie.

As for the cast, well that was adequate as well, and most of them actually performed alright, although the dialogue was not always the best kind of dialogue for such a movie.

Now, I think this movie should not have any association with Edgar Allan Poe's classic work of horror. I am sure that he is turning over as this movie is being played. There is little part of this movie that bears any resemblance to Poe's work.

As for a horror movie, this is not scary at all. There are no thrills or scares in the movie. So I am not recommending this particularly, unless you got an hour and a half that you just have to kill with nothing better to do. Sure there are worse movies out there, but "The Pit and the Pendulum" falls to the ground in several areas.

Sure, the aspect of psychological terror and thrills shine through the movie, but they are hardly keeping the movie afloat. I was sorely disappointed with this movie. But now I have seen it, and can honestly say that this is a movie that I will not put into my DVD player again.