The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film) The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film) The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film in Panavision and Pathe Color directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a forbidding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by
The Amityville Horror (1979 film) "dreary and terminally depressing". Based on 29 reviews, the film has a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus: "Dull and disappointing, the best that can be said for "The Amityville Horror" is that it set a low bar for its many sequels and remakes." The film resulted in several lawsuits. In a 2012 retrospective on the film, historian James F. Broderick praised it, writing: "Director Stuart Rosenberg crafted an effective horror movie that succeeds largely because the performers take the over-the-top material seriously... The film is taut, tense, and filled with the bizarre, unsettling events chronicled in the