The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film) Tomb of Ligeia". Film critic Tim Lucas and writer Ernesto Gastaldi have both noted the film's strong influence on numerous subsequent Italian thrillers, from Mario Bava's "The Whip and the Body" (1963) to Dario Argento's " Deep Red " (1975). Stephen King has described one of "Pit"'s major shock sequences as being among the most important moments in the post-1960 horror film. In sixteenth century Spain, Englishman Francis Barnard (John Kerr) visits the castle of his brother-in-law Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) to investigate the mysterious death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele). Nicholas and his younger sister Catherine (Luana Anders)
Quatermass and the Pit set at Riverside, enabling a sense of time having elapsed that would not have been possible in an all-live production. Made just before videotape became general at the BBC, all six episodes of "Quatermass and the Pit" were preserved for a possible repeat by being telerecorded on 35 mm film. This was achieved with a specially-synchronised film camera capturing the output of a video monitor; the process had been refined throughout the 1950s and recordings of "Quatermass and the Pit" are of high technical quality. The serial was repeated in edited form as two 90-minute episodes, entitled "5 Million Years