The Pit and the Pendulum Charles III and Charles IV only four persons were condemned. The Inquisition was, however, abolished during the period of French intervention (1808–13). The original source of the pendulum torture method is one paragraph in the preface of the 1826 book "The history of the Inquisition of Spain " by the Spanish priest, historian, and activist, Juan Antonio Llorente. relating a second-hand account by a single prisoner released from the Inquisition's Madrid dungeon in 1820, who purportedly described the pendulum torture method. Most modern sources dismiss this as fantasy. One theory is that Llorente misunderstood the account he heard; the prisoner
Quatermass and the Pit (film) television in 1979, an edited version of which was also given a limited cinema release under the title "The Quatermass Conclusion". "Quatermass and the Pit" marked the return to directing for the cinema for Roy Ward Baker and he went on to direct such films as "The Anniversary" (1968), "Moon Zero Two" (1969), "The Vampire Lovers" (1970), "Scars of Dracula" (1970), "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" (1971) and "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" (1974) for Hammer. He also directed "Asylum" (1972), "And Now the Screaming Starts!" (1973) and "The Vault of Horror" (1973) for Hammer's rival, Amicus Productions.