The Dead Pit (1989)

Truly Dreadful Film

An absolute waste of money

A Major Disappointment

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This movie deserves a negative 10 score. HORRIBLE acting, zero budget effects and just plain stupid. I suspect the others that gave it rave reviews must have been people that were involved in making this piece of trash movie. It was just plain stupid, not stupid fun it was just stupid. DO not waste your time watching this piece of trash. ............ This movie deserves a negative 10 score. HORRIBLE acting, zero budget effects and just plain stupid. I suspect the others that gave it rave reviews must have been people that were involved in making this piece of trash movie. It was just plain stupid, not stupid fun it was just stupid. DO not waste your time watching this piece of trash. .......... This movie deserves a negative 10 score. HORRIBLE acting, zero budget effects and just plain stupid. I suspect the others that gave it rave reviews must have been people that were involved in making this piece of trash movie. It was just plain stupid, not stupid fun it was just stupid. DO not waste your time watching this piece of trash.

...i wish the script writer was as intelligent! (the zombies have removed a key engine component required to start the car) i sooo want to love this movie. it has great atmosphere, LIGHTING, camera shots, etc.. the glowing red eyes on the doctor were fantastic, was that a high cost effect? cause they sure should have used them more! its such a shame because with a few extra tweaks to the screenplay, they could have made the gaping plot holes a bit more believable. i mean seriously. im a guy that loves supernatural, undead, etc. films, so i can obviously suspend belief pretty well, but why has the doctor come back? why is the protagonist the only one who can see the zombies throughout most of the film? i loved the lighting, the shots of the spiral staircase, the filming location was PERFECT and totally creepy, but with just A LITTLE more plot development and continuity this could have been a pretty fantastic movie. another thing: i know many horror fans are stoked on nudity/skin in horror flicks, granted its a staple in the genre to a degree, but FIRST of all, the protagonist isn't THAT attractive, and i find it kind of odd that she'd be walking around an asylum where she didn't feel she belonged in skimpy underwear and a see thru white crop top. i could go on and on about the ridiculous aspects of this film, but it really pains me, because there were so many camera shots, scenes, and elements that could have made this a pretty good zombie film. perhaps im being a bit hard on it, but with the obvious talent behind the camera, you'd think they could have created something far better.

If you were a kid cruising the shelves of the video store throughout the horror section, I'm sure you came across the interactive video box of Brett Leonard's THE DEAD PIT, with the ghoul rising from a pit, a button you could push that made the fiend's eyes glow..those days were so cool because distributors put effort in their releases, finding innovative ways to market their products for the home video crowd. I never rented the movie at the time, but thanks to the fine folks at Code Red I was finally able to sit and watch THE DEAD PIT, provided uncut and in a proper transfer.The story-line is beyond bonkers and bizarre regarding this evil neurosurgeon(..based on the haunted recollections of director Leonard who based this guy on a neurosurgeon who was his mother's doctor(..his mom had brain cancer))who was shot point blank in the forehead by his colleague, Dr. Gerald Swan(Jeremy Slate)because of his diabolical transorbital lobotomies on asylum patients. Swan boards up the secret area where these procedures took place(..featuring a pit where the bodies of the dead patients were stored)along with the neurosurgeon's body and moves on with his life, burying the past away..that is until a new patient is brought to his institution twenty years later, an amnesiac, "Jane Doe"(Cheryl Lawson)who might just have some kind of connection with the dead neurosurgeon. An earthquake of heavy magnitude opens the boarded secret room and the neurosurgeon rises from his pit to gather up new victims, nurses and patients of Swan's, while also terrorizing Jane in the process. Jane befriends a relatively sane patient, Chris Meyers(Stephen Gregory Foster), in the institution as punishment for his activities as a dangerous bomb expert! Funny how this unique ability will come in handy at a later point in the film! While the killer neurosurgeon ghoul moves across the grounds at night collecting his new victims, Swan attempts to unlock the repressed memories of Jane to establish just who she is, and how she might relate to Ramzi(Danny Gocknauer), explaining to us why this menacing bastard haunts her so.I think THE DEAD PIT achieves in certain areas, while it suffers in others..despite an incoherent plot and many gaping holes, Brett Leonard's debut feature has very impressive make-up / prosthetic effects, with stunning camera work(..photographed by Marty Collins), & striking use of color and light(..blue and green, in particular). When it becomes a certified zombie film with past patients of Ramzi's rising from the green-glowing pit, blood-soaked, many featuring open wounds, THE DEAD PIT is sure to win the hearts of undead genre fans everywhere. These zombies are the things of nightmares and the way they are shot, using back light which introduces them often in the form of shadowed silhouettes, accompanied by misty fog, marching towards potential victims, is quite visually arresting. The interesting marriage of asylum and zombie genres enhances THE DEAD PIT, I believe, and the setting of a former mental institution, Agnews Developmental Center(..certain areas falling apart while the more sound buildings produce just as much disturbing ambiance)provides a really spooky aesthetic that should be pleasing to the eyes of horror fans. Cheryl Lawson, as Jane Doe, services the movie as major eye candy, a short T-shirt and panties her wardrobe for most of the screen time. Some phenomenally gruesome gore(..it's a testament to the f/x wizards to achieve such work under the tight budgetary constraints) includes heads opened revealing brains(..including one nifty sequence where Ramzi uses needles to purposely cause certain sensations to a victim, inserting them into an exposed brain, while also jamming picks into faces, causing immediate lobotomy right on the spot, surprising certain victims who were caught off-guard by the demented psychopath). There are also some really cool melting effects(..always a major plus to me)featuring faces deteriorating into skeletal remains. Ramzi's glowing red eyes are a bit too much, perhaps eliciting unintentional laughs instead of fright, and throughout the forehead bullet hole remains an eyesore / distraction. And, the inclusion of "blessed holy water" as a means to possibly defeat Ramzi, is a bit goofy, particularly when the one blessing it is a patient pretending to be a nun! Still, as a low budget shocker, I think THE DEAD PIT is a success and has much to offer horror fans who can drown out the film's many deficiencies, appreciating the atmosphere and wicked visceral aspects.

"The Dead Pit" offers a grim & chilling atmosphere, sublime settings and some of the most exhilarating gore effects I've ever seen, and yet... it's all ruined by truly amateurish production values and incompetent acting performances. What a crying shame, as Brett Leonard's ("Feed", "Hideaway") debut easily could have been one of the late 80's most grueling horror accomplishments, with its disturbingly gloom psychiatric clinic setting and the fairly unique 'zombifying' process that involves scalping people and sticking needles in their exposed brains. When you watch many independent low-budget horror flicks, you tend to get used to bad acting and lousy editing jobs, but it becomes a lot more difficult to overlook when the story actually has such great potential. Then you're just left behind with feelings of disappointment and anger. This film would have been a lot better if everyone – with the exception of Jeremy Slate – just kept their mouths shut and focused more on the blood-soaked zombies that come crawling out of the eerie pit in the asylum's secret basement. The living dead are experiment cases of the gifted Dr. Colin Ramzi, who went a little ballistic in his search for discovering the medical causes of insanity. His former partner Dr. Swan killed him and walled him up underneath the asylum but now, twenty years later, the arrival of a mysteriously amnesic girl and a heavy earthquake brought him back and he's more satanic than he ever was. The plot makes no sense and it's full of holes, but it's a really creepy film that features absolutely no comic reliefs or sympathetic characters. The good characters (like the innocent young nurse) are slaughtered just as relentlessly as the wicked ones, and you shouldn't root for a happy ending, either! The odd music contributes to the unsettling atmosphere as well and that abandoned dark hospital building is honestly one of the creepiest horror setting in history. One sequence in particular, when Dr. Ramzi is standing over the pit with his arms spread whilst an army of undead souls emerges, is vintage 80's terror in my humble opinion. But now let's rant a little about the negative elements. They show right away, with the ineptly edited opening credits! The whole history between Dr. Swan and Dr. Ramzi gets constantly intercut with credits, which looks very amateurish and overly interrupts the pace. The clumsy editing remains the main problem throughout the entire film, as relocations are always indicated by stagnant images of a full moon. That one same shot of the moon must feature in the film for a total of 15 times or something. Most of the acting performances are just hopeless, especially Stephen Foster as the heroic male lead and Danny Gochnauer as the malicious, flashy red-eyed zombie doctor. His character should have just been a silent one. Cheryl Lawson isn't the world's greatest actress neither, but at least she looks nice and walks around scarcely dressed most of the time. Those are very nice undies you're wearing, Cheryl... And a sexy top, too!