The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope
1983 · 15 min · ★ 6.8 · Animation, Horror, Mystery
Animated short film based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's "A Torture by Hope".
Directed by Jan Švankmajer · Written by Jan Švankmajer
Your Rating
Cast
Make it a double feature
27m together
Both from Jan Švankmajer.
More from Jan ŠvankmajerSee all →
The Three Veterans · 1984The Three Veterans
★ 7.81984
MovieFamilyFantasy
It is a story of three veterans released from the army. During one night spent camping in the country they one by one wake up and meet three elvish brothers. Each of the veterans is given a magic item - one gets magic harp that provides him with servants by wish, other one endless pouch of gold and the last one owns magic hat that can create all the staff excluding money and people.
The Visitors · 1983The Visitors
★ 7.61983
SeriesSci-Fi & FantasyFamily
It's the year 2484 and the Earth is threatened by a rogue comet which could fatally change its orbit. The solution is surprising - Adam Bernau, the greatest genius of 20th century developed 500 years ago an ingenious formula for easy transporting of continents and even worlds. Unfortunately, he made this discovery at the age of 11 and the exercise book containing it was destroyed in the fire. But this is not a challenge to Academic Filip who decides to send an expedition back in time to retrieve the precious exercise book from the fire. But everything is not so simple as it seems...
Dimensions of Dialogue · 1983Dimensions of Dialogue
★ 7.61983
MovieAnimationComedy
Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society.
Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet · 1978Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet
★ 7.51978
MovieComedyCrime
When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a swamp...
Darkness, Light, Darkness · 1990Darkness, Light, Darkness
★ 7.51990
MovieAnimationComedy
A human body gradually reconstructs itself as its various component parts crowd themselves into a small room and eventually, after much experimentation, sort out which part goes where.
Alice · 1988Alice
★ 7.41988
MovieAnimationFantasy
A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter how twisted or odd that way must be.
Faust · 1994Faust
★ 7.41994
MovieFantasy
A very free adaptation of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", Goethe's "Faust" and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds himself immersed in an indescribably weird version of the play, blending live actors, clay animation and giant puppets.
The Garden · 1968The Garden
★ 7.21968
MovieDramaComedy
Frank visits his friend Josef, who introduces him to his pedigree rabbits and his wife Mary. Frank is more interested in the slightly unsettling fact that Josef and Mary's garden fence is entirely made up of living people holding hands.
Little Otik · 2001Little Otik
★ 7.02001
MovieComedyFantasy
When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real.
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) · 2010Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)
★ 6.92010
MovieComedyFantasy
Eugene, an aging man, leads a double life - one real, the other in his dreams. He goes to see a psychoanalyst, who tries to interpret the meaning of his dreams. Eugene finds a way of entering his dream-world at will and finds out about his childhood and what really happened to his parents.
Virile Games · 1988Virile Games
★ 6.81988
MovieAnimationComedy
A man sits down to watch a football match, which seems to consist of the players being violently mutilated in various inventive ways. The players then leave the football pitch and invade the spectator's flat.
Down to the Cellar · 1983Down to the Cellar
★ 6.81983
MovieAnimationHorror
A little girl goes down to the basement cellar to fetch some potatoes, and finds all her hidden fears about the cellar depicted in animated form.
Castle of Otranto · 1977Castle of Otranto
★ 6.81977
MovieAnimationMystery
An adaptation of the 1764 work of the same name, the first Gothic novel. In this mockumentary, the amateur archaeologist Dr. Vozáb has set to prove that the supernatural ghost love story takes place not in Italy, but in Otranto Castle near Náchod in Czechia.
Conspirators of Pleasure · 1996Conspirators of Pleasure
★ 6.71996
MovieDramaAnimation
Six Prague residents pursue bizarre rituals. Mr. Peony builds a chicken costume to wear while enacting homicidal fantasies toward neighbor Mrs. Loubalova, who does the same dressed as a dominatrix. Their mail carrier, Mrs. Malkova, inhales tiny balls of bread. Newsstand operator Mr. Kula obsessively watches the broadcasts of news anchor Mrs. Beltinska, whose husband regularly scrubs his body.
Lunacy · 2005Lunacy
★ 6.72005
MovieComedyHorror
A man takes up residence with a mysterious marquis and is soon persuaded to enter into an asylum for preventative therapy. Things are not what they seem, and the marquis may be even more sinister than what the young man might have predicted.
Jabberwocky · 1971Jabberwocky
★ 6.61971
MovieAnimation
In stop-motion animation, a wardrobe moves through the countryside. It arrives in a house, a child's voice recites Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," and various objects, such as toys and dolls, move about, disintegrate, and play out archetypal scenes. Like Carroll's verse, the images are at once familiar and unfamiliar. A child's play suit, hanging in the wardrobe, becomes the adventure's protagonist.
More Like This
The Most Dangerous Game · 1932The Most Dangerous Game
★ 6.91932
MovieThrillerAdventure
When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad · 1949The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
★ 6.51949
MovieHorrorFantasy
The Wind in the Willows: Concise version of Kenneth Grahame's story of the same name. J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car. This desire for the very latest lands him in much trouble with the wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Rat and Badger to save him from himself. - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Retelling of Washington Irving's story set in a tiny New England town. Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster, falls for the town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, and the town Bully Brom Bones decides that he is a little too successful and needs "convincing" that Katrina is not for him.
Jindabyne · 2006Jindabyne
★ 5.42006
MovieCrimeDrama
Outside the Australian town of Jindabyne, local man Stuart Kane is on a fishing trip with friends when they discover the body of a murdered girl.
The Lawnmower Man · 1992The Lawnmower Man
★ 5.61992
MovieScience FictionHorror
A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
Trucks · 1997Trucks
★ 4.61997
MovieHorrorScience Fiction
A group of seemingly humanistic trucks takeover a truck stop and starts killing everything in sight. The remaining townsfolk must band together and come up with a way to murder the inanimate objects, a seemingly difficult task considering the abnormal circumstances.
Cat's Eye · 1985Cat's Eye
★ 6.71985
MovieHorrorThriller
Three short stories linked by a stray cat that roams from one tale to the next, in this creepy triptych that begins as Dick tries to quit smoking by any means necessary. Next, we meet Johnny, an adulterous man who's forced by his lover's husband onto a building's hazardous ledge. Finally, Amanda is threatened by an evil gnome who throws suspicion on the family cat.
