Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

ObscureCinema101 THE DEAD PIT is a movie that seems to divide people on whether they like it or not. Straight zombie fans say it's too slasher-esque in the middle. Straight slasher fans dislike the zombie angle. I happen to be both, so I quite enjoyed it.Dr. Colin Ramzi is a psychotic scientist who experiments on the patients at the mental institution he works for. His associate, Dr. Swan, has had enough, so he confronts him in his basement laboratory, shoots him in the head, and throws him in the pit where he stored the dead bodies. Twenty years later, a woman who calls herself Jane Doe enters the institution because the doctors say she has amnesia, yet she knows her memory was taken from her. She manages to befriend one patient by the name of Chris, who's in there for his habit of building bombs (Golly, I'll bet that won't come in handy later in the film!). Well, after a large earthquake, Dr. Ramzi and all the corpses in the dead pit awaken and wreak havoc on the hospital. Can Jane and Chris save the day? I liked THE DEAD PIT. The movie had a lot of good things going for it, even though it doesn't fully utilize some of its potential, but as it stands, it's a fun ride. All the actors were pretty good, with the exception of Cheryl Lawson as Jane. She's fine during scenes where she just has to talk, but in her "emotional" scenes, like crying and such, she was horrible. She was a good screamer, though, and she was easy on the eyes, but she began to really get on my nerves after a while.THE DEAD PIT is a very well-made movie as well. Director Brett Leonard obviously knew what he was doing, and it's no surprise he went on to do bigger things like direct the sci-fi film THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Leonard uses lots of fog and colored lights to build atmosphere, and he does so surprisingly well.The gore is also top-notch, especially during a period where the MPAA basically neutered a lot of these gore films. There's a lot of gory brain-munching, head-drilling, and decapitations, courtesy of Dr. ramzi and co.While the last forty or so minutes are pure zombie-filled bliss, the previous hour was one half characterization and one half stalk 'n' slash with some pretty good and nasty kills. This seems to annoy people expecting a straight-forward zombie movie, but I liked it.Of course, the film does have its flaws. There are some obvious miniatures, especially near the end, but personally, the added to the fun for me. There are some slow parts, but that doesn't take too much out of it. There's also a REALLY obvious "twist" that I guessed in the first fifteen minutes.Overall, THE DEAD PIT is a really fun movie that plays it straight, yet with a sense of fun all throughout. It's gory, occasionally funny (for both intended and unintended reasons), and some the characters are likable. Dr. Ramzi is a great villain, and the zombie effects are great as well.Check it out.

Woodyanders Mysterious amnesia victim Jane Doe (a game portrayal by luscious brunette stuntwoman Cheryl Lawson) gets sent to an asylum where twenty years ago the deranged Dr. Colin Ramzi (a pleasingly creepy Danny Gochnauer) was conducting sadistic brain experiments on the hapless inmates. A sudden earthquake resurrects Dr. Ramzi so he can embark on a new campaign of terror. Director/co-writer Brett Leonard and co-writer Gimel Everett do a bang-up job of creating and maintaining a grim, morbid and absolutely twisted brooding gloom-doom atmosphere: the dank and depressing tone rarely lets up for a minute, there's no goofy comic relief to speak of (however, this film does have a wickedly macabre sense of pitch-black gallows humor), Ramzi's lobotomized zombie victims are genuinely hideous and unsettling (the climactic lively zombie rampage seriously smokes, too), and we've got a handy helping of grisly gore (brains are scooped out, the tops of heads are cut off to expose peoples' glistening cerebrums, and long, sharp needles are thrust into several folks' skulls). The slick cinematography by Marty Collins makes neat use of shadowy lighting and gives the picture an attractive glossy look. Dan Wyman's spirited shivery'n'spooky score likewise does the skin-crawling trick. Moreover, the solid cast all play their parts with tremendous enthusiasm: Steffen Gregory Foster delivers an utterly engaging performance as charming explosives expert Christian Meyers, Joan Bechtel is deliciously hateful as the cruel and domineering Nurse Kygar, plus there's sturdy supporting work from Jeremy Slate as friendly head psychiatrist Dr. Gerald Swan, Geha Getz as unhinged nun Sister Clair, Mara Everett as the sweet Nurse Robbins, and Jack A. Sunseri as affable orderly Jimmy. As a yummy extra bonus, the gorgeously voluptuous Lawson spends a fair share of her screen time clad only in a tight tank top and skimpy panties (and she also even briefly bares her beautifully bountiful breasts as well!). All in all, this fright feature sizes up as a great deal of good'n'ghastly ghoulish fun.

Molly Celaschi (carlykristen) The Dead Pit 1989 (*VHS "R") – Directed by Brett Leonard An evil doctor that experiments on his mentally ill patients is entombed in the basement of an abandoned wing. 20 years later, an amnesia patient known only as Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson), arrives. An earthquake breaks the seal releasing the doctor to continue his dirty work. The dead patients also rise to wreck havoc.The biggest complaint I heard from other reviewers was about Lawson's acting ability, which I do not think is that bad considering this is her first feature. She is not Scream Queen material though and would be better suited for a Lifetime movie. (She won acting awards for this role and has since had a long career as a stunt woman). And why is she running around in her underwear? Not only would this be considered unethical treatment for patients, but since when are bikini panties standard issue? She would be wearing granny undies. One size fits all… This movie suspiciously looks a lot like Nightmare on Elm Street, which was released 5 years prior to this. Our Jane Doe looks identical to Elm Street's heroine Nancy Thompson. And the scenes where she is running in a dreamlike state evading the evil man in her dreams… But what really made me take notice was the scene where she is following her recently deceased friend only to be lead to Freddy, uhhh….I mean the evil doctor.This venture was a bit disappointing for director Leonard (Lawnmower Man, Feed) especially considering he co-wrote the script. There are a few script problems that should have been tweaked during script rewrites. Why do the doctors and nurses speak to patients like best friends? If there is limited funding for this mental institute, then why do they admit someone with amnesia and other minor illnesses? How likely is it that not one, but two patients are snooping around and solving mysteries? The biggest problem is that I guessed the surprise ending early on in the film.And while the film touches on controversial subjects like performing illegal lobotomies on patients, but never digs deep enough to leave a lasting impression on the viewer. There were a few scenes cut from the R rated version I watched such as an open brain surgery. Hopefully these scenes will be added in the upcoming DVD release.What stands out in the film are the top notch special effects provided by Ed Martinez. The zombies were the most exciting part of the movie although they come late at the 67 minute mark. You know the fun starts once the zombies emerge from the dead pit bald, rotting, and slimy. The patients later learn that a little bit of holy water goes a long way and we are treated to many melting faces.My favorite scene was toward the end when the "good" doctor (played by the late Jeremy Slate) walks down a hall hearing this disgusting gurgling, choking noise. When he enters the bathroom, it is covered with blood and the nurse walks towards him looking not so hot at the moment.Overall, I think they didn't try hard enough in the first part of the movie. With 2 writers on board, they should have been able to make a clever script with cool dialogue. They have a mental institution, a nun, amnesia, zombies, etc and they still struggled to make it interesting. Maybe they could have shown the orderlies and nurses being abusive towards the patients to make the first half of the film more dramatic and the zombies killing them in the second half bittersweet. Or why not add more religious themes since they had the nun patient blessing holy water? And if they insist on making Jane run around in panties, then why not sleaze it up to make it more fun? There were several different directions this film could have gone, but seemed to just tiptoe around the subjects instead of tackling them head on.Favorite Quote: None. The dialogue was lackluster. And shamefully, it wasn't even goofy enough to make me laugh.Extras: *This was the VHS version with no extras other than a few trailers at the beginning. (It won "The Best Video Box of the Year" by Entertainment magazine when it was first released). A special DVD release is in the process now with SFX artist Ed Martinez providing commentary and SFX extras. Commentary has already been recorded with director Brett Leonard, producer Gimel Everett, and the late actor Jeremy Slate. See the Ed Martinez Interview with HorrorYearbook for details.To hear about the upcoming The Dead Pit DVD release and the unfortunate passing of actor Jeremy Slate, read distributor Code Red's Blog here: http://www.codereddvd.com/nublog/.Bottom Line: A must see for Leonard fans interested in his filmography. Has some noteworthy scenes, but fails to be controversial or very scary.Rating: 7/10 Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com

choppyno Brett Leonard (Lawnmower Man, Hideaway) gives us in his directorial debut a pastiche of De Moro's HELLHOLE and Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, and it holds it's own with those two heavy-weights from opposite poles of the extreme-film spectrum. This movie has raving mental patients, psychotic doctors, people being buried alive, ritual murders in boiler rooms, flesh-hungry zombies, high-quality gore effects, and hot women. Very atmospheric for taking place in a clichéd setting = a mental asylum. Probably the creepiest one caught on film. There are dead bodies all over this movie. Amazing dialog like this doesn't hurt either: -"My God! You're a Doctor! You're supposed to be saving lives!" -"I've done life. Now I'm doing death." Not a disappointment for zombie fans looking for something different, or slasher fans doing the same. Solid. A must see.