One day I'm finally going to read my enormous book of Poe writings. In the meantime, I watched this, and it was... okay. Honestly, this is a gothic horror movie, starring Vincent Price, and Barbara Steele, adapted from an Edgar Allen Poe story... how is this not amazing? The Pit and the Pendulum takes what should have been a simple story and shoves in twists that are never properly fleshed out, along with huge leaps to make the main concept fit. After watching the movie, I really feel like there was a screenplay already in development, then the Poe ending was tacked on to save time.
[spoiler]The first, and second act of this movie are really about a man, Nicholas, grieving the death of his wife, Elizabeth - being haunted, both literally, and figuratively. That by itself was interesting - nothing new, but I liked where it was going. Then, in the third act, we get the big twist: Elizabeth is still alive, she was never dead, it was a ruse, because she was having an affair. Wait, what? She had to fake her death for that? Why didn't they just run away together? Were they trying to acquire Nicholas' home, and money? Wouldn't it have just been easier to murder him? Anyway, then we get another twist: upon seeing his wife, Nicholas goes insane, but the shock is so much that his psyche takes on the personality of this Inquisitor relative - a bit of a stretch, but go on. The pendulum shows up, Elizabeth gets a fitting end, and that's it. [/spoiler]
Barbara Steele was criminally under used here. This could have been a fantastic movie, but the ending just ruins it.