- Director: Roger Corman
- Writers: Richard Matheson
- Stars: Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3xLC34z
Synopsis
Francis Barnard gets dropped off a mile down the beach from the old castle on the hill; the driver won’t go any closer. They admit him and ask him to spend the night. Francis wants to see Nicholas, but he hasn’t been feeling well since the death of Francis’ sister Elizabeth. Nicholas and Elizabeth were married, but she died soon thereafter of “something in her blood.”
He wants to see Elizabeth’s resting place, so Catherine leads him downstairs to the tombs. He runs into Nicholas coming out of a room down there. Francis seems suspicious about the manner of Elizabeth’s death, so he plans to stay and investigate.
There’s a painting of Sebastian Medina, Nicholas’ father, who looks just like him. Nicholas explains how much he loved Elizabeth and that he had nothing to do with her death. Dr. Leon comes to dinner, and he also talks about Elizabeth’s illness; she died of fright.
Francis wants to know precisely what happened, and they all go downstairs to the torture chamber. “She could not keep herself away,” explains Nicholas. Nicholas explains that his father was a depraved man who loved to torture people in the room.
We get a flashback of Nicholas painting Elizabeth. After a while, she stopped sleeping and eating. She started sleepwalking. She became obsessed with his torture chamber. Nicholas wanted the two of them to go away for a while, but before they could do it, Elizabeth died. She locked herself in the Iron Maiden. Before she died, she said the name “Sebastian.”
We then get another flashback of very young Nicholas sneaking into the chamber to watch his father Sebastian torturing his mother and uncle. It seems his mother and uncle were committing adultery, and Sebastian found out; he killed them both.
That night, they all hear someone playing the harpsichord. “Nicholas has never played in his life,” says Catherine as they follow the sound. Nicholas says it’s Elizabeth playing. They find her ring on the instrument.
The doctor tells Catherine and Francis the family secrets. Nicholas believes that Elizabeth was buried alive, but the doctor insists that this isn’t what happened. The doctor explains that young Nicholas actually saw his mother walled up in her tomb while still alive after the torturing, that’s why he is so obsessed.
The maid thinks she heard Elizabeth’s voice, so Nicholas locks up her bedroom. Someone destroys the painting in that room later that same day. Francis finds a secret passage that leads to Nicholas’ bedroom and accuses him of faking everything. Nicholas doesn’t deny it, but instead thinks maybe he’s going mad— or is possessed by his father.
To prove the matter one way or the other, they decide to exhume Elizabeth. They get the pick and shovel and break down the wall of the tomb. They open the coffin, and sure enough, she was buried alive.
Nicholas goes full loony tunes. He imagines hearing her voice calling to him from the secret passage. He goes in, and wanders through all the mazes of tunnels until he gets to the crypt. He then watches her rise from the tomb and chase him into the torture chamber. Nicholas is catatonic from fright.
The doctor comes in and tells Elizabeth, “I told you to wait.” It seems this whole thing has been a conspiracy between secret lovers Dr. Leon and Elizabeth. She gloats over Nicholas, who laughs maniacally.
Nicholas stands up, and he now thinks the doctor and Elizabeth are his mother and uncle and that he is his father. He’s going to torture them. He closes her up in the iron maiden. The doctor runs away into the “other” torture chamber and falls to his death. Nicholas, who’s totally delusional now, whacks Francis over the head and puts him in the Pit and the Pendulum device.
Francis is tied down to a platform suspended over a gigantic pit. Above him a large, razor-sharp blade mounted to a pendulum that swings back and forth, going lower and lower with each swing until it will cut him in half. Catherine hears Francis scream, and she goes to find the servant to help break in the door.
The two break in, and Nicholas falls into the pit. Then they raise the pendulum before it cuts Francis in half. They release Francis and go upstairs, passing the bodies of Dr. Leon and Nicholas on the way out.
As they head upstairs, never to return, we get a shot of Elizabeth, still trapped in the Iron Maiden… forever.
Commentary
This couldn’t be more gothic if it tried.
Francis couldn’t be more aggressive and antagonistic. He’s just belligerent in every scene. It makes sense early on, but not after he starts getting answers. He eventually apologizes to Catherine, but he’s still an ass.
The pit and pendulum set in the climax is a pretty impressive contraption. The actual torture scene in the end is dragged out a bit too long, but otherwise, it’s well paced and well acted.