The Pit and The Pendulum Stop Motion

Our good friends over at Dread Central just got word that the stop motion version of "The Pit and The Pendulum" has just finished post production. Not only does this sound like a very cool idea but it is also going under the Ray Harryhausen Presents banner.

This project has a very long and treacherous past. Marc Lougee, who has worked on several stop motion projects including MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch, told Dread Central.

"..last April Arnold (Rays Producer), Ray and I settled on doing "The Pit and the Pendulum" [instead], as it seemed the most readily accessible short story of Poe's that we all felt strongly about, and it's got a relatively limited scope of sets, puppets, etc." he explained. "When I had pitched "The Pit and the Pendulum" to Ray and Arnold, I wanted to pay homage to Ray’s pioneering work by creating a "classic" feel for the film (as though it was shot 50 years ago) by animating the main characters via stop-motion while seamlessly integrating CG 3D elements."

Now this sounds fantastic. Apparently they worked on the film from 9 am to 12-1 am the next morning, 6 days a week for 4 1/2 weeks. All that just so they could screen the film for Ray in July.

I really like stop motion movies like "Mad Monster Party", so this one looks amazing. Since the film is practically finished they have been sprucing up a new website for the film that you can check out here that even includes a nice little teaser trailer. You can also read more in depth about the film and check out some more stills over at Dread Central. They haven't set a release date yet but as soon as they do I'll be sure to pass the knowledge on to you.