In the quest to save souls, the Spanish Inquisition will stop at nothing and knows no boundaries for evil. Under the direction of Torquemada (LANCE HENRIKSEN – “Alien,” “Pumpkinhead,” “Millennium”) the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Maria, a young baker’s wife, is falsely accused of witchcraft and dragged before the Inquisition and the Cardinal (OLIVER REED – “Gladiator,” “Three Musketeers”). Torquemada is enchanted by Maria’s beauty and subjects her husband Antonio to heinous tortures hoping to prove that his own desires for her are a result of her magic, that she has “bewitched him.” With the help of Esmeralda, Maria’s cellmate and confessed witch, Maria must find the power to save Antonio from Torquemada’s ultimate machine of torture: the inevitable, razor sharp PENDULUM poised over the inescapable PIT of hell.

Vincent Price plays a 16th century Spanish nobleman who slowly goes crazy when he thinks that his wife has been buried alive. It’s all a joint plot between the supposed dead wife and her doctor/lover to get Price’s money. Price now totally insane, assumes his father’s identity (that of a grand inquisitor) and starts to murder!