Inspired by the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed "Psycho", I thought I'd give horror more of a chance. It's something I often avoid due to my squeamishness towards blood / gore and extreme violence. And the fact that comedy and music is my life though I enjoy venturing out to other genres occasionally; it reminds me why I like comedy and music so much! Horror films that are more atmospheric and story-based suit more towards my tastes. I don't see the point in brutal violence for the sake of it, with no real character or substance. When this film started it was almost laughable how posh the characters talked. But the more it builds, the better it gets and it ends up being proper gripping stuff. It's a fantastic film and extremely well made.

One day I'm finally going to read my enormous book of Poe writings. In the meantime, I watched this, and it was... okay. Honestly, this is a gothic horror movie, starring Vincent Price, and Barbara Steele, adapted from an Edgar Allen Poe story... how is this not amazing? _The Pit and the Pendulum_ takes what should have been a simple story and shoves in twists that are never properly fleshed out, along with huge leaps to make the main concept fit. After watching the movie, I really feel like there was a screenplay already in development, then the Poe ending was tacked on to save time. [spoiler]The first, and second act of this movie are really about a man, Nicholas, grieving the death of his wife, Elizabeth - being haunted, both literally, and figuratively. That by itself was interesting - nothing new, but I liked where it was going. Then, in the third act, we get the big twist: Elizabeth is still alive, she was never dead, it was a ruse, because she was having an affair. Wait, what? She had to fake her death for that? Why didn't they just run away together? Were they trying to acquire Nicholas' home, and money? Wouldn't it have just been easier to murder him? Anyway, then we get another twist: upon seeing his wife, Nicholas goes insane, but the shock is so much that his psyche takes on the personality of this Inquisitor relative - a bit of a stretch, but go on. The pendulum shows up, Elizabeth gets a fitting end, and that's it. [/spoiler] Barbara Steele was criminally under used here. This could have been a fantastic movie, but the ending just ruins it.