Die Grube des Grauens

Jamie is a 12 year old boy that cannot seem to get attention from his parents or avoid getting picked on. Left home alone with the babysitter, he begins to fixate on her. And when he discovers a pit full of Trogs (man-eating creatures), he seeks his revenge on his bullies.

Jamie is exceptionally creepy and well-acted by Sammy Snyders. Director Lehman effectively shows the child's abuse at the hands of his peers and how he is outcast. He is punched for wanting to join a club, called a weirdo for admiring a young girl's bike, and called a hippie by an old lady for just standing on a sidewalk. But there are the more disturbing scenes like when he talks to his Teddy and Teddy talks back! When his parents abandon him amidst his weird personality changes, he begins to fall in love with his nubile babysitter Sandy. Sandy is cherub faced and acts just as angelic with her endless patience with the weird kid. There are a variety of scenes with Jamie hitting on Sandy. He sneaks in when she showers, watches her sleep with her breast exposed (because women never notice drafts!), and makes her bath him in a tub because he is "dirty".

When he discovers the Trogs, he notices that they like fresh meat. He begins buying meat wherever he can get it and then turns to people when the money runs out. Soon he is luring random "mean" people into the woods and then into the pit. He even hijacks an old lady in a wheelchair and pushes her through the city, through the woods, into the pit, and then the cruises around in her wheelchair after.

There is a cute scene where he has exhausted his resources meat-wise and must feed the Trogs. He attempts to kidnap a cow, but it won't budge. He talks to it and tries to convince it that it will die anyway, so might as well be for his friends. It doesn't work by the way.

Jamie begins to run into trouble when a pesky librarian notices his penchant for art (nudes) and animal husbandry (carnivores). One scene of interest would be when he sneaks to her house, phones in as a man that kidnapped her daughter, and makes her strip in front of the window for him to take pictures! Produced by Amulet Pictures, it clocks in at a solid 96 minutes with an Aspect Ratio of 1.85:1.

Weird Fact: The director's wife refused to let him shoot the nude scenes, so the screenwriter shot them instead. The only shot involving nudity that the director was allowed to film was the "skinny dipping" scene and only because the actress was his daughter. Umm, this sounds incredibly gross and creepy to me. Also, this is the only film Lehman ever directed.

Favorite Quote: An 8 year old girl asks her mom, "What is wrong with boys? Is that boy Jamie crazy? They are all the same. Always stressing." DVD Extras: Just the poster and some stills.

Bottom Line: The movie is a weird combo of a serial killer flick and a troll movie. Good acting plus the strange premise helps it to hold up well over time.

Rating: 7/10 by Molly Celaschi www.HorrorYearbook.com

The description on the box said our protagonist is autistic and taunted by other children, which would surely make him a very sympathetic character. However after watching the film, either the box was in error or the writers didn't know anything about autism. The character displays no symptoms of autism, but instead just appears to be a very creepy and disturbed kid. There are a couple of kids that make fun of him, but other than that the movie revolves mostly around his peering in windows at naked women and luring people to this pit in the woods. Instead of feeling sorry for him, you want just want him to die.

I totally agree with Mike from K.C. This film is obviously bad, but you will definitely find yourself enjoying it. I am lucky enough to have a local video store that carries loads of obscure horror movies quite like this. I am spending much of my free time in the summer watching eccentric horror movies at night and this time I wasn't let down. I personally believed Jeannie Elias (Ms. O' Reilly) was a total babe. The funniest thing about this film was the fact that the little trolls resemble the stage costume of Rob Zombie. G'day, eh!

The Pit is a great film not in the traditional sense. If you are looking for an award winning movie, go look at something else. The Pit is great on B movie levels. This is the definition of a cult classic.

Jamie is what you call an "Autistic" child. Getting in trouble by running around in his underwear with a superman cape on at the age of 12 is rather unusual. He also has a good friend, that being his Teddy, his Teddy bear. He also has a few more friends. They live in a big hole in the ground. They are called trollalogs and they like to eat... people that is! When Jamie discovers that they aren't getting enough food and that they may die, Teddy tells him he should start luring all the people that have been mean to him to the pit.

This is such a strange movie. Originally, I don't even think it was suppose to be a horror film. The idea of the pit, originally, was suppose to all be in Jamie's head but the directer didn't want to have such a serious approach. Thus, we end up with the silliness that is The Pit. Not to say that the film doesn't have a few gory moments or not to say that this movie dosen't have a few decent scary moments in it, because it does have a few very memorable scenes, in general it is just hilarious though. Look for scenes like when Jamie is pushing an old blind lady in a wheelchair to the pit. If you don't laugh during that scene there is something seriously wrong with you.

Anyway, The Pit is an awesome film and if you are a fan of B horror I highly recommend this movie. 9/10

The Pit could be the most unintentionally funny movie that I have ever watched. And let me say that I've seen a lot of those. There are some parts that are so funny. Like ever time someone accidentally falls into the huge, gaping hole in the ground that no one can seem to see. The wheelchair scene is a standout. And I'm not saying that the movie is bad. I own it and I recommend it to friends. Mainly because of the dark comedy elements. And also because Jamie gives me the creeps. He's way scarier than the Tra-la-logs. The back of the box mentions that he is autistic, but no where in the movie is the word autism ever used. Instead, you hear words like weird, stupid, crazy, funny person, and even hippie. The Pit is an extremely ridiculous movie, and I hope no one takes it too seriously.