Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), directed by Roger Corman, Arrow remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including original theatrical mono, two commentary tracks, isolated score and effects, and English subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055304/

Video encoded in two-pass 11.0 Mbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image.

English SDH subtitles OCRed, proofed and corrected.

Note : Back to another film in the Corman-Poe cycle, this time set in 14th century Spain, and starring, apart from regular Vincent Price, original horror icon Barbara Steele. This was the second of the Corman-Poe films, after House of Usher, and the repeat box office success made AIP and Corman continue the series for another six films. The lavish set design is by Daniel Haller, who we've already seen as a director adapting a couple of Lovecraft stories.

Englishman Francis Barnard travels to Spain after receiving news of his sister's death there. When he arrives, his sister's husband Nicholas Medina offers vague explanations that Elizabeth died from a blood disease, but the family physician soon reveals that she died of shock, something related to the old torture chamber in the castle's basement, which was used by Nicholas' father Sebastian, an infamous inquisition torturer. Francis is not particularly satisfied by the explanations, and his investigations reveal the truth about Sebastian's childhood trauma and the dark history of the Medina family, as well as what seems to be Elizabeth's ghost roaming the halls, and Nicholas' fear that she might have been buried alive.

An above-average remaster here, could have used a bit more color, perhaps, but generally nice, clean and fairly sharp. Original mono track sounds fine, commentary tracks worth listening to, especially the one with Corman himself as usual.

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