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The difference between a monster and a wild animal is just a matter of perspective. Polar bears may seem cute and cuddly when seen from a distance, but you’d be screaming your lungs out if you were ever close enough to notice the dried specks of blood on their snow-white fur. Fortunately, even the deadliest predators tend to avoid human beings when given the chance, which is why genre films sometimes pair animals with equally predatory humans in order to make them seem even more dangerous.

Case in point: Sean Byrne’s latest thriller Dangerous Animals, which hits theaters this Friday, follows a surfer as she attempts to flee from a deranged man hell-bent on feeding her to his pet sharks. So, in anticipatipn, we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six homicidal pets in horror movies! After all, no machete can compete with a weapon...

What appears on the page is not always what appears on the screen. The screenwriter has most times defined what he/she hopes to see translated, but that’s not always the case (and when it isn’t, it’s usually for the worse). However, sometimes a film will morph from the pen to the multiplex in a post-faithful state that exceeds expectations. One such film is The Pit (1981), a Canadian made, Us lensed flick that started out as a psychological breakdown of a delusional little boy, and ended up in B Movie Heaven, where it is personally fanned and fed grapes by Ed Wood and William Castle on a daily basis. There’s no other film quite like it.

The Pit, Aka Teddy, was thrust upon an unsuspecting public October 23rd by New World Pictures in the States. Produced by Amulet Pictures (the fine folks who later begat Spring Fever...

Welcome back for Day 11 of Daily Dead’s fourth annual Holiday Gift Guide, readers! Once again, our goal is to help you navigate through the horrors of the 2016 shopping season with our tips on unique gift ideas, and we’ll hopefully help you save a few bucks over the next few weeks, too. For our second-to-last day of this year’s Gift Guide, we’re going to be featuring several great cult films that arrived on Blu-ray in 2016, as well as Star Wars books, a ton of horror-themed enamel pins, the amazing artwork of Hero Complex Gallery, FiverFingerTees, and much more!

This year’s Holiday Gift Guide is sponsored by several amazing companies, including Mondo, Anchor Bay Entertainment, DC Entertainment, and Magnolia Home Entertainment, who have all donated an assortment of goodies to help get you into the spirit of the season. Daily Dead also recently teamed up with...

I first saw The Pit a few years back, when I was doing research for an article on cult horror films and discovered that it was playing for free on YouTube. Falling under the unofficial "Canuxploitation" label (owing to its Canadian origins), the film is an utterly bizarre '80s oddity about a bullied, mentally unstable 12-year-old boy who discovers a hole infested with monsters known as "Tra-la-logs" in the forest near his home. And then...he starts throwing people into it. On the orders of his talking teddy bear. No, The Pit -- Lew Lehman's sole directorial credit -- isn't a good movie. But it is weirdly compelling, a one-of-a-kind artifact, and -- clearly catching on to the film's cult reputation -- Kino Lorber has now given the film a 2K restoration and will re-release it in select theaters later this month, allowing fans who never had the...

“The Pit” is an odd film, to say the least. It was originally released in 1981 and wasn’t a rousing success by any stretch of the imagination, but it has gained a cult following over the succeeding years due to its absurd plot and acting. Now fans of the “Canuxploitation” genre can revisit it with fresh eyes, as the film is returning to theaters in a new 2K restoration.

Read More: 12 Arthouse Horror Directors Who Are Reinventing The Genre

The premise of the only film ever directed by Lew Lehman is almost too silly to believe.

Continue reading Re-Release Trailer For Newly Restored Canuxploitation Classic ‘The Pit’ Introduces A Creepy Kid & His Evil Teddy Bear at The Playlist.

Fans of the 1981 horror film The Pit should be pleased to know that Kino Lorber has announced an upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release of the cult movie.

Starring Sammy Snyders, Jeannie Elias, Sonja Smits, Laura Hollingsworth and Richard Alden, The Pit (1981) will come out on Blu-ray and DVD with a new HD master, according to Kino Lorber’s Facebook page.

The cover art, special features, and release date for The Pit Blu-ray and DVD have yet to be revealed, but we’ll keep Daily Dead readers updated on future announcements.

The Pit was directed by Lew Lehman from Ian A. Stuart’s screenplay. For those unfamiliar with the film, we have its official synopsis (via Blu-ray.com):

“A solitary and strange boy wreaks revenge on the people who harasses him when he makes a disturbing discovery in the depth of a forest.”

The post Kino Lorber to Release The Pit...

Reviewed by Kevin Scott

MoreHorror.com

The Pit (1981)

Written by: Ian A. Stuart

Directed by: Lew Lehman

Cast: Sammy Snyders (Jamie), Jeannie Elias (Sandy O’Reilly), Sonja Smits (Mrs. Lynde), Laura Hollingsworth (Marg Livingstone), Laura Press (Mrs. Benjamin), Paul Grisham (Freddy), Wendy Schmidt (Christina), Andrea Swartz (Abergail), Richard Alden (Mr. Benjamin), Patrick Patterson (Butcher), Harris Kal (Trog), Alison McCuaig (Trog), Paul Martin (Trog), Tom Martin (Trog)

Every now and then, you may watch a film, old or new that rests magnificently on its own plane of unintentional weirdness. I think that adequately describes “The Pit” from 1981. It’s an evil muppet movie with the muppets being voracious carnivores, and the kid that interacts with them being a complete and total weirdo pervy creep. That being said, it’s one of the best films I’ve seen lately that flew a stealth mission through my horror radar as a kid. I...

It was the early '80s. Reagan was president, Kool and the Gang was still cool, and slashers roamed our movie screens searching for unaware teens having sex. But elsewhere in the horror realm, director Lew Lehman was making a creepy movie called The Pit. The Pit is…uh, really f’n creepy. Sorry to begin with such a brisk, un-profound statement, but that is the only way I can sum up this film. All elements are eerie - the acting, the plot, the filming, and most of the background facts. But this one is not your standard “scary” style of “creepy." This is much more of a “finding out that the kid next door has been watching you shower” kind of creepy. The final product is a fun little horror flick; unfortunately, some of the uncomfortable elements make it a bit too un-cohesive for standard horror viewers. The Pit...

"Forget Kill Bill, Death Wish And Straw Dogs: here is a revenge fantasy you can actually relate to. At 12-years-old, Jamie Benjamin already has a CV of torture that would make Dawn Weiner blush: the hot librarian at elementary school tears up the erotic collages he makes with her photos; the cool kid at recess splits his lip open; Jamie’s nubile live-in babysitter only has eyes for an indifferent jock; and even the old woman down the street tries to mow him down with her motorized scooter (“he’ll probably grow into one of those hippies…”). It’s not clear exactly what’s wrong with the kid—he shows signs of autism, and a creepily over-affectionate mother might have something to do with it—but he finds solace in friendship with his teddy bear and the afternoons he spends visiting a pit in the woods full of bloodthirsty,...