The Movie That Truly Traumatized Stephen King Is a 1961 Allan Poe-Inspired Horror
The king of horror isn’t easy to scare, but a scene from Roger Carman’s old movie has been haunting King ever since he was a teenager.
Stephen King’s stories might have cost his many fans just as many sleepless nights, but this is probably because the writer has been dealing with horrors ever since he was a kid, somehow getting used to screamers and frightful plot twists showing up on the screen.
In many interviews, King has repeatedly mentioned that he’s been a huge fan of cinema since childhood and often would sneak out of the house to see something that kids weren’t actually supposed to see.
This is also the case for a 1961 movie that at the time 14-year-old King went to check out with his friend — only to realize that this would turn into something he would be terrified of decades later.
Stephen King Was Deeply Affected by Roger Carman’s ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’
Anticipating his future career as a horror writer at the moment, King made a fateful decision to go and see the movie when it was first released in theatres, accompanied by his childhood friend Chris Chesley.
However, The Pit and the Pendulum not only did have an impact on both boys’ minds, but also left King contemplating one specific scene that he just can’t get out of his head decades later.
“The best scene, and the one which froze Chris and me into our seats, depicted John Kerr digging into a castle wall and discovering the corpse of his sister, who was obviously buried alive. I have never forgotten the corpse’s close-up. Shot through a red filter and a distorting lens which elongated the face into a huge silent scream”, King once wrote in On Writing.
‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ Started Roger Corman’s Allan Poe-Inspired Franchise
- On Rotten Tomatoes, The Pit and the Pendulum has scores of 89% and 75% from critics and audiences
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 7/10
Loosely inspired by Allan Poe’s 1842 short story of the same name, The Pit and the Pendulum was Corman’s second movie adapted from the horror writer’s novels, following a young Englishman who embarks on his own investigation of his sister’s mysterious death.
The movie had a major success in the box office at the time, grossing around $2 million against its initial budget of $300.000.
The audiences’ raving reaction to The Pit and the Pendulum eventually convinced Corman to continue with six more movies based on Allan Poe’s novels or short stories; the series came to its end in 1964.
