Dead Pit

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.

The Dead Pit (1989)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A demented doctor is doing experiments on mentally ill patients at a hospital. Another doctor learns of the experiments and kills him, leaving his body in the basement. Twenty-years later an earthquake causes the evil doctor to return to life and soon his experiments continue.

If you were around in the video store era then you probably saw THE DEAD PIT on your local video store. The movie was a major staple back in the day and the amazing looking case is something that grabbed your attention even if you weren't a fan of the genre. With that said, the film itself certainly couldn't live up to that VHS cover and the end result certainly isn't something I'd recommend.

The biggest problem with this film is that there's really not much going on for the first hour. At 101-minutes, the film is way too long for its own good and especially since there's nothing going on during the first hour. We're introduced to the mad doctor. We're introduced to the current Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson) who lives in the updated mental hospital. The majority of the running time has her running around, screaming and basically being scared of something in the hospital. This gets very boring very quickly.

The film finally comes to life during the final thirty-minutes when all Hell breaks loose. This is where the good stuff happens and that includes plenty of gore, zombies and some violence. If you're a fan of the zombie genre then I'd still recommend this movie but I'd keep the remote handy so that you can fast-forward to the finale. These final scenes are certainly a lot of fun and it helps that the energy level picks up.

THE DEAD PIT is a very flawed movie but I give director Brett Leonard credit for at least making the finale good. It's really too bad that the first hour didn't have a better pacing to it and it's really too bad that it took so long for the zombies to show up.

It's fair to say I've earned my stripes in regard to zombie movies. Through the course I've taken to delve deep into horror, I've seen countless titles given the highest honors to the lowest scum-of-the- earth production values cinema has ever witnessed. From A to Z grade, however, there stands a few shining stars that are worth discussing. "The Dead Pit" is one of these last glimmers of hope. Brett Leonard, the man responsible for both writing and directing 1992's "The Lawnmower Man," made his directorial debut with this undead feature; he did a fine job in presenting it.

The story begins at a mental hospital in California. Dr. Ramzi, a deranged doctor at the facility, has been murdering and experimenting on patients in the basement. Dr. Gerald Swan learns of his sinister activities; in fear of jeopardizing his career at the hospital, he decides to eliminate Dr. Ramzi and bury the truth for 20 years. Jane Doe, an unidentified woman suffering from amnesia, is admitted to the facility. After an earthquake occurs, visions allow her to slowly uncover the dark secret buried deep beneath.

This movie seems to function greatly for a variety of reasons. Although a few typical 80s production clichés exist they all seem to apply perfectly in the given scenarios the plot uncovers - the use of smoke machines in correlation with intense back lighting are exhausted thoroughly. The bumbling policemen standing outside discussing donuts was also a nice touch. I expect certain predictable elements to exist within the era I'm experiencing. It all works tremendously. The vacant hospital wings that were chosen as set pieces for this film are outstanding. The director clearly knew what he was doing; as a viewer, I felt isolated. The cast of actors/actresses hired to fill the character roles did a decent job - certainly no Emmy nominations to be had, but a solid enough attempt in their own right. As far as the musical score is concerned, expect typical, 80s off-beat harmonics - which, in my opinion, is what I look forward to. Clearly anything with a dark melody is par for the course.

This film can be classified as a zombie flick but it requires a bit of patience from the viewer. The pace seems sluggish for the first 40 minutes of the film but picks up nicely. There is plenty of violence and gore to satiate the blood thirst of any gore hound. The special effects and makeup are worth noting. Although I reserve a special pedestal for Tom Savini, the artists responsible for "The Dead Pit" are truly remarkable and come in a close second - their work displayed here is even a few notches down from , in my humble opinion, the greatest zombie masterpiece of all time, George A. Romero's 1985 feature "Day of the Dead." I consider this a true accomplishment; many Z grade zombie flicks from the 80s, primarily ones with an Italian-schlock quality (I'm not including Lucio Fulci when I speak of schlock, so please don't send a lynch mob to my doorstep!), fail miserably in achieving the same success.

When it comes to zombie movies in general, I think most could agree that Romero was responsible for reinventing and trend-setting a particular brand of undead fiend in 1968's "Night of the Living Dead." I don't consider it a crime if his influence is shared by directors and production teams alike. Although not in the top 5 of classic zombie re- tellings, "The Dead Pit" surely makes the top 10 - give it a try and you won't be disappointed.

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

An avid horror fan this one has somehow evaded me since 1989, until I picked up a copy on VHS. Set in a mental institution (always a good location for horror movies) The Dead Pit delivers zombies, a crazed, evil doctor, a buxom heroine, lots of gore, some laughs (some possibly unintentionally?) and a very good use of colours (blue, green and red) 1980's style. This is a B-movie so expect some cardboard acting (Stephen Gregory Foster in particular), and some of the special effects/make up looks a bit cheap, it is also perhaps a tad long, but it is fun, perhaps best watched with a few beers.