The Pit and the Pendulum

Set in fifteenth-century Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, The Pit and the Pendulum centers on Maria, a baker's wife who is seized as a witch after she cries out in horror while watching a child being whipped in public. Her husband Antonio searches for a way to free her, but the Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada, has his own reasons for keeping her: her beauty stirs a forbidden desire in him, and he answers it with torture. A fellow prisoner named Esmeralda becomes Maria's ally as she and Antonio try to escape Torquemada's reach. The film draws loosely on Edgar Allan Poe's short story.

Stuart Gordon directed, working from a screenplay by Dennis Paoli; Albert Band produced. It arrived in 1991 as Gordon's fifth feature, after Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dolls and Robot Jox, and before Fortress. Lance Henriksen plays Torquemada, with Stephen Lee, Mark Margolis, William J. Norris and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon among the cast.

Made for a modest budget of about two million dollars by Full Moon Entertainment, the Italian-American production runs 97 minutes. On IMDb, viewers rate it 6 out of 10 from roughly 6,100 votes, while on TMDB it holds 5.8 out of 10 from around 154 votes. A small critics' sample sits close to the audience figure, at 5.9 out of 10 from eight reviews.