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The Word About Town on Edgar Allan Poe’s THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
“Awesome…Haunting, frightening and creepy.”
- Harry Knowles, Ain’t It Cool News. com
‘The subtle, swirling soundtrack perfectly complements the creepy visuals…Mr. Poe would be proud.” - Rue Morgue Magazine
‘An effective, atmospheric peice driven by realiztic animation and highly detailed design. Very Nice.” – TWITCH Film
“Every Bit as amazing as I expected”.
- Dark Carnival
‘An incredible piece of work!”.
- Rogue Cinema
“The great Ray Harryhausen, the dean of special-effects animators, executive-produced Marc Lougee’s disturbing stop-motion adaptation of classic Poe tale “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and it’s easy to see why: Lougee’s characters move with the same unnerving combination of naturalism and otherworldliness that Harryhausen’s legendary creations (think Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans) possessed. Poe’s elliptical story has provided fodder for many elaborate feature-film retellings, but Lougee’s ruthlessly efficient take is short and to the point, packing in a whole lot of tension into seven slim minutes.”
- New York Magazine Review
“The Pit and the Pendulum” is one of the finest examples of gothic animation I’ve seen since “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” If anything Lougee’s film proves that you can still tell compelling stories with the advent of pure stop-motion, and goodness, is he a storyteller worth watching for. Not to mention it one of the finest art house animated films since “Blood Tea and Red String.” Lougee’s film is told in the grim setting of Poe’s classic horror story, expertly condensed in a little under ten minutes.”
- Cinema-Crazed.com
“Director Marc Lougee has perfectly captured the feel and tone of the short story, and the look of the film is pitch perfect in every way. I was completely absorbed with this film and he extras on the film resulted in an impressive feast o’ film making delights. With numerous crew interviews detailing several of the many steps to create this fantastic film, The Pit and the Pendulum DVD is practically its own personal master’s course on film study. While the interview with director Mar Lougee on the construction of the puppets and how they work is required viewing, the interviews with animators, screen writers, the composer and other production designers are both fascinating and educational.”
- Where The Long Tail Ends.com
“As much as we love writer Richard Matheson’s adaptation of THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM from 1961 starring Vincent Price, the story works better as Poe had intended: a tight, concise, thrilling short. Marc Lougee’s THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM engulfs you into an inescapable nightmare of impending doom, leaving you with only two ways out, the pit or the pendulum. Edgar Allan Poe couldn’t have planned it better.”
- American Vulture
“Done in the same style as The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch, Pit has the distinction of giving life to the story. I will go out on a limb and say Lougee’s adaptation has a humanity behind it that none of the other mentioned films achieved.The result really is beautiful to behold. Overall, The Pit and the Pendulum is 7 minutes of pure beauty and power.”
- ScreenGeeks.com
“Ray Harryhausen Presents: The Pit and the Pendulum” is one of the best animated short films that has not been nominated for an Academy Award.”
- FILM ARCADE
“This a fantastic short, done in singular style. Marc Lougee continues the grand tradition of stop motion animation and displays a high level of skill that makes me look forward to what he has up his sleeve next.”
- Blog Critics Review
“For a short like this you really need to see it to get the full impact of how well done it is. Everything about The Pit and the Pendulum was so carefully laid out ahead of time, it’s difficult to explain how well the movie works. It felt like a great first film to showcase how well Poe’s dark works can be interpreted with the use of stop motion animation, making them just as effective, if not more so, than a live action retelling would be. “
- Dread Central
