Main page appearance Hello This is a note to let the main editors of this article know that it will be appearing as the main page featured article on April 8 2011 You can view the TFA blurb at Wikipedia Today s featured article April 8 2011 If you think it is necessary to change the main date you can request it with the featured article director If the previous blurb needs tweaking you might change it following the instructions of the suggested formatting If this article needs any attention or maintenance it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn t look bad D Thanks The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman starring Vincent Price Barbara Steele John Kerr and Luana Anders The screenplay by Richard Matheson was based on Edgar Allan Poe s short story of the same name Set in 16th 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 his lunatic brother in law during the film s climactic sequence The film was the second title in the popular series of Poe based movies released by American International Pictures the first having been Corman s House of Usher released the previous year A critical and box office hit Pit s commercial success convinced AIP and Corman to continue adapting Poe stories for another six films five of them starring Price Film critic Tim Lucas and writer Ernesto Gastaldi have both noted the film s strong influence on numerous subsequent Italian thrillers Stephen King has described one of Pit s major shock sequences as being among the most important moments in the post 1960 horror film more