Incubo in corsia

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.

Fun insane zombie crossed mad doctor style late 80s low-budget horror with hazy atmospheric lighting of illuminating blues and an otherworldly music score sure to drive anyone crazy. Think along the lines of someone banging pots and in doing so, capturing the suffocating madness of the institute. One of those - forget about making sense of it too, as with little thought in its narrative and visuals, it's hellish abandonment throws everything at you, but the kitchen sink.

After a minor quake breaks a seal of a hidden tomb in the cellar of a mental hospital. A surgeon returns from the dead as a demonic figure (who can make his eyes glow red whenever he wants). Still dressed up in his scrubs, and making sure he's wearing rubber gloves (a hard to break habit I guess?). He goes about continuing his horrific experiments on the physical brain and its connection to the mind on the unknowing staff and patients. While also scarring, and constantly showing himself (even waving) to a new patient that suffers from amnesia and who spends quite lot of time wandering the corridors in a revealing attire (that comes to the forefront in one daft dream sequence), or simply freaking out. You can see why they casted Cheryl Lawson. Her character's amnesia and hypnosis sittings organized by the head doctor (Jeremy Slater who comes out the best of the lot) are a tool for a predictably contrived plot twist that shouldn't come as a surprise.

What did though was the excessive, delirious third act, as the surgeon's ghouls come out from a glowing green pit and go on a gory rampage tearing people apart. The special effects (miniature model sets) and makeup do provide some killer goodies at the backend, like open brain surgery and skin melting. Did the latter make sense, not really, but nothing does here.

I saw "The Dead Pit" first time some 15 years ago and since late at night on television. I couldn't remember the title until few years ago, and recently I manage to find it on DVD.

Surprisingly magic is still there. Without getting too much into plot, movie is about doctor who performs illegal brain surgeries until his college kills him for moral reasons, sealing him into his "Dead Pit". Twenty years after, Jane Doe (girl who lost her memories) comes into the very same hospital. Soon after, earthquake crack the wall of "Dead Pit" and good old doctor comes back to life, unleashing his horde of undead.

I don't know why many people complain about this movie, seems they are forgetting that this is '80 low budget movie (times when literally everything you thought of could be put on screen). It's a descent '80 zombie flick, bit unusual because of it's narrative style and nightmarish atmosphere it has. It was a first feature of now well known director Brett Leonard, who manage to capture otherworldly atmosphere in what is now considered cult classic. His obvious influences are Wes Craven and his Elm Street (director acknowledged this in audio commentary for Dead Pit DVD). Story gets bit spread here and there, but it never gets too confusing nor it tries to be more then it actually is - a low budget horror flick.

Altho movie starts bit slow (but it has some nice scenes to keep you interested for the first half of the movie), it really comes to life in second half when all hell breaks lose and zombies start to rampage through asylum. Characters aren't deeply developed, but they are interesting enough to keep you watching at screen (good looking Cheryl Lawson helps in that department. Did I mention she walks around in her underwear most of the time?)

SF goes from terrific to silly, but most of the time, they are looking quite good, especially when it comes to gore scenes. It's bloody and will satisfy every zombie fan, because FX here have all the necessary requirement for good zombie gorefest.

Highlight of this little flick are cinematography, which was really well done and music score, which goes from moody to creepy. (Cheryl Lawson looks are also big highlight of this movie.)

Bad: Some scenes are bit longer then they should be, some plot elements that aren't really needed and bit corny ending, and "innovative" way of killing zombies that might cause laugh for hardcore zombie fans.

Overall, it's a descent flick, worth checking out if you are fan of horror movies and for some reason you haven't seen it already.

This can't be really taken TOO seriously, mostly because of the cliches in, but the atmosfear (in a way, similar to Re-animator) is deadly and creepy. This is quite nice zombie movie. If you are a horror fan, this is definately recommended.

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.