The Princess Bride (1987) Rob Reiner offers Westley (Cary Elwes) some guidance as torturer Mel Smith looks on in The Princess Bride’s Pit of Despair. For budgetary reasons, the medieval torture chamber was the only surviving section of the subterranean Zoo of Death of William Goldman’s novel. Outside the Shepperton-filmed chambers and corridors, the shoot took in British and Irish locations including County Clare, Ireland (the Cliffs of Insanity), Haddon Hall, Derbyshire (Florin City) and Burnham Beeches.