I watched House of Usher earlier in the day. I don't understand how these are both rated the same. House of Usher (7/10) is decent - it has good atmosphere (even with garish color), a very good supporting cast, the Mark Damon character being the weak point there and satisfactory dialogue.
Pit and the Pendulum is just plain awful which is odd since it came out the next year. The dialogue is very poor (can't believe this was written by Matheson) and the acting awful - even from the generally reliable Price. There's no atmosphere at all in this one. The last sequence of scenes is fairly good for the most part but you have to watch 70 minutes of drek before you get there.
Pit and the Pendulum is just plain awful which is odd since it came out the next year. The dialogue is very poor (can't believe this was written by Matheson) and the acting awful - even from the generally reliable Price. There's no atmosphere at all in this one. The last sequence of scenes is fairly good for the most part but you have to watch 70 minutes of drek before you get there.