The Pit and the Pendulum

Starring Lance Henriksen

Directed by Stuart Gordon

1991

I love a vintage nightmare. It’s late at night, the kids are in bed, and I’m staring at an otherwise completely inane act of self-degradation on one of those tiresome reality shows that have nothing to do with reality. Quietly, without any prodding, I leave the staged reality and climb into the foxhole comfort of an old horror movie. It offers me space and a familiar feeling that Hollywood can still produce something of merit.


So it was the other night when I flipped through my old DVDs and came out with a movie that still had the wrapper on it, The Pit and the Pendulum. The film was directed by Stuart Gordon who did the Re-Animator movies, which have always had a curiously strong hold on me. The movie cover looked solid, I’ve always liked Lance Henriksen, and it was from a story by Edgar Allen Poe I had read many times in my youth. (Which was probably why I bought the DVD in the first place, but never got around to opening it. I have several of those, as I’m sure everyone else does. Impulse buys to the extreme.)

This is a rather “loose” interpretation of the classic as Gordon uses a fair amount of literary license in an effort to spice up the screenplay and keep the interest of the audience. The story revolves around the central character played by Henriksen, who is called the “Grand Inquisitor” and goes about his business of cleansing the town locals of all witches with a devilish delight. He is callous and narrow-minded (but I guess to actually do that job you would need to be both as otherwise the facts would get in the way), and a zealous cleanser. He comes equipped with a standard collection of intimidated assistants that appear throughout the film, including Jeffrey Combs from the Re-Animator series playing a sort of dark ages paralegal who recites the “truth” when things go off course. The torture gores to such extremes that the Vatican sends a Cardinal to stop the cleansing, which isn’t really in the Grand Inquisitor’s plans.

All goes as well as torture can be expected to go, until the Grand Inquisitor stumbles upon a fair maiden (whom we get to see completely nude many times much to my sheer delight) and falls in love, which complicates things immensely. The Inquisitor determines her to be a witch and in need of his personal cleansing, which goes against his vows, and the conflict is now in high gear.

Henriksen plays the part well and overall the movie is good. The bloody scenes are enthusiastic, the horror respectable, and the pain delivered above grade B. The ending left me shaking my head at the chain reaction of events needed to produce this in the dark ages of the Inquisitions, but other than that, I love a vintage nightmare.