THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

(A.k.a. RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM)

This short animated retelling of the classic Edgar Allen Poe yarn is set in dark times, where the Inquisition are in the midst of dragging people away from their homes and families, imprisoning them and torturing them into "confessions".

One man becomes their latest victim and it is his plight that we follow; his narration that describes the fear, confusion and -ultimately - the need for faith to pull you through.

Upon being found guilty of an undisclosed crime, the man (voiced by Pete Cugno) is tossed into a stinking cell with a metal hood over his head. When he finally relieves himself of this, he realises the huge pit positioned in the centre of the room. Inevitably, despite his best efforts, he is eventually tossed into it.

And that's where he comes face to face with the infamous pendulum ...

You could tattoo all I know about stop-motion animation on the crack of my arse and still have room to compose a sonnet for Satan there. So I apologise in advance for my inability to write knowledgeably about whether this cuts the mustard in terms of what the craft can offer.

But I can offer my opinion on how the visuals made me feel, and whether what I saw helped the story to compel me.

Matt Taylor's screenplay is pretty basic, offering no dialogue save for the narration and existing as nothing more than a thin connection for each carefully designed sequence. But what more could you expect, or indeed need, for a 7-minute animated feature?

The star of the show is undoubtedly the animation, which is - to these largely ignorant eyes - excellent. Little nuances in characters' faces impress, as does the squalor and moist decadence of the victim's cell. A keen sense of depth and excellent use of light and shade to evoke atmospherics further help the film leave an imprint, along with intelligent and effective sound effects.

Speaking of sound, the action is aided immensely by Philip Stanger's highly dramatic score.

It all builds to the climactic pendulum scene, rats and all, which is a great Gothic achievement - in terms of both sound and visuals.

If stop-motion animation really is a dying art-form, as some suggest, then on the evidence of this little showcase gem it is a crying shame.

The film comes from Canadian director Marc Lougee, who earned his stripes working on the likes of ERASER, ALIEN 3 and television's "Dinosapien". The most impressive names on the credits though are those of the two primary executive producers: Ray Harryhausen (legendary old-school FX artist, famed for the likes of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS) and Fred Fuchs (producer of THE GODFATHER PART 3, BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and many more). Lougee is in good company here!

The story goes that Lougee was invited to make a short film in honour of Harryhausen's 80th birthday bash in 2000. The pair struck up a friendship that day after Harryhausen enjoyed Lougee's effort, and agreed to make a short film together. Harryhausen suggested doing something based on the work of Poe and Lougee set about preparing an adaptation of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. However, this proved to be too large in scale and so the project was altered to accommodate an adaptation of THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM.

The completed short film was released in 2006 and has since gone on to win rapturous critical acclaim, as well as awards at numerous film festivals internationally. There's even a comic book inspired by the film.

The DVD here is an early promo release from BravoFACT!, albeit a great-looking one with nice packaging. It houses the 7-minute short only, presented in widescreen and benefiting from extremely crisp, vivid images.

English 2.0 audio is clean, clear and booming in all the right places. It accentuates the enjoyably Gothic score well.

There were no extras on this disc, just a main menu page offering a "Play" function.

A Special Edition of the film is however available via Lougee's site www.thepitandthependulumshortfilm.com. This features the film with 5.1 audio, plus a plethora of extras including behind-the-scenes crew interviews, stills, storyboards, an FX featurette and much more.

Recommended for those with a penchant for stop-motion animation, or anyone looking for that something a little different.

Review by Stuart Willis