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
Quatermass and the Pit career in a 2003 television documentary, cited "Quatermass and the Pit" as perfecting "the notion of the science-fictional detective story". Newman also discussed the programme as an influence on the horror fiction writer Stephen King, claiming that King had "more or less rewritten "Quatermass and the Pit" in "The Tommyknockers"". After "Quatermass and the Pit" Kneale felt that it was time to rest the character. By the early 1970s he had decided there were new avenues to explore, and the BBC planned a fourth "Quatermass" serial in 1972. The BBC did not proceed with the project, and Kneale's scripts were