The Pit and the Pendulum (1991 film) The Pit and the Pendulum (1991 film) The Pit and the Pendulum (released on DVD in the United States as The Inquisitor) is a 1991 American horror film directed by Stuart Gordon and based on the eponymous short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The film is an amalgamation of the aforementioned story with other Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado", and it also appropriates the anecdote of "The Sword of Damocles", reassigning it to the character of Torquemada. In 1492 Spain, Grand Inquisitor Torquemada leads a bloody reign of terror. Opposed to the use of torture by the Church, Maria speaks
The Whip and the Body but a series of events hints that his ghost has started to haunt the castle for revenge. The film credits the writers as Ernesto Gastaldi as Julian Berry, Ugo Guerra as Robert Hugo, Luciano Martino as Martin Hardy. Ernesto Gastaldi has stated that he had written the script himself with Ugo Guerra possibly contributing to some of the story early one while Luciano Martino had no contribution to the script. Gastaldi was shown an Italian print of "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1961) by the producers who requested a similar film to be made. Gastaldi is credited as an assistant