Why was the baker a super-hero?

Seems a little odd that he'd be impervious to the pain of torture (the fire chair scene), not to mention being capable of taking on a whole host of guards in true Batman style.

Not really. This is a Stuart Gordon film.

On a slightly different topic, how come the witches turned out to be actual witches with the power of telepathic communication? For a history-based horror movie, it's got a lot of modern nuance, know what I mean.

The Pit and the Pendulum is not a history based horror film.

The original Edgar Allan Poe tale The Pit and the Pendulum was first published in 1842. The tale concerns the torture endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition but as with most of Poe’s tales based on real events, Poe often skewed historical accuracy and his tale The Pit and the Pendulum is no exception. It’s well documented that Poe played fast and loose with the facts and took great dramatic and artistic license in his portrayal of the operations of the Spanish Inquisition.

So before we even get to Stuart Gordon’s film, first we have Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, which is a beautifully crafted, fear-inducing tale but nonetheless, hugely flawed in terms of historical accuracy.

Roger Corman’s 1961 version was adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s tale by Richard Matheson. That film is a more faithful rendition of Poe’s tale. Stuart Gordon’s film rightly acknowledges Poe for the story in the writing credits, but unlike Matheson’s screenplay, which retained many elements of the original tale, Gordon’s long time collaborative writer Dennis Paoli ignores virtually all elements of Poe’s original tale.

Gordon and Paoli, as with all their previous collaborative endeavours, were more concerned with hitting both comic and dramatic notes, and they do so admirably but even by Gordon’s own admission, his film The Pit and the Pendulum is not and was never considered or intended to be a historical statement.


Suicide, it’s a suicide

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Better question is why does the baker has a super wife?

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Late late late reply, but I just watched this the other day: I agree the Batman-esque fight scenes were a bit silly, obviously the flick isn't totally grounded in reality. I did want to note RE: "Seems a little odd that he'd be impervious to the pain of torture (the fire chair scene)"

He wasn't impervious to this pain: In this scene, the cut to his feet, which they show him (in spite of being locked down) pulling against the restraints, writhing in pain. He was definitely just faking that he couldn't feel the pain as part of his trap.

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To show people that the Atkins Diet and others of the like are rubbish. Carb loading is necessary to take on an army single-handedly!


"In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

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