Teddy: La mort en peluche

I first saw this on a couple of UHF (pre-cable for me) stations in the late 80s or early 90s. The first time was, I think, on Grampa Munster's (Al Lewis) Saturday morning B-movie show on TBS (which is a broadcast station for the Atlanta area). The second time was on another Saturday on our then Fox affiliate, WATL. Like any traumatic experience that defines one's life from then on, I have a great love-hate relationship with this movie. The second time I saw it was like looking through a photo album from an extremely romantic and cherished relationship...albeit with the eating of human beings, a teddy bear with an oscillating head, snakes, frogs, abuse of the handicapped elderly, childhood cruelty, jealousy, and lust. This movie really is quite effective. The composition of the shots works well, the movie is technically competent, the acting...is creepy. As mentioned previously, Sandy is almost just as unsettling a presence as Sammy. Personally, a couple of my favorite characters are the cartoonishly prim librarian (check out those glasses) and her butt-ugly daughter who laughs hysterically at Jamie. Oh yea, who can forget the beginning scene with the Halloween party and Jamie getting punched in the face and being laughed at. This film has a...rawness too it that's hard to put into words. It's more disturbing than most movies with twice the dialogue, twice the names and twice the violence. You must see it.

Yes, this is a bad movie - the previous user comments have touched upon some of the more ridiculous parts of it. And the movie doesn't know when to quit! We have those monsters, ghosts, voyeurism, murder, talking teddy bears, nudity, perversion... this movie puts EVERYTHING in it! It's a glorious mess, but it's one that remains quite entertaining all the same, because it's so nutty that you can't help but see just what insanity will come next. As well, the movie actually succeeds in being somewhat disturbing at times, in the portrayal of Jaimie. Having personally encountered autistic children, I can say that Snyder's performance, though uneven to say the least, does at times capture how one of these unfortunate children can act. Autism does happen in various degrees, and Snyder does at times creepily capture the mild infliction of it, as well as the added infliction of being disturbed (to say the least). So although this movie is (entertainingly) bad, there is at least a little something to give genuine praise to.

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 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.

I've heard a lot about this movie, each time hearing it was boring, stupid, pointless, etc. Ok not really boring but definitely the latter of the complaints. I recently acquired a copy and from start to finish, I was having the time of my life. The movie just threw me for a loop time and time again. At first I felt bad for the main character, Jamie. He's looked down upon and pretty much hated by the local people. But after he acted perverted on several occasions (which grants the viewer with a handful of RANDOM GRATUITOUS BREAST SHOTS!!!!) I called into question how I felt about him. And another thing that confused me was Jamie's demonic Teddy Bear (which may have been the main character originally, hence the film's original title "Teddy"). But I ignored that fact since it added to the feeling that maybe Jamie was crazy, or just didn't get the love and appreciation he needed. And the Pit itself? It contains four flesh eating beasties that Jamie names the Tra-la-logs (or Trolls, but that isn't nearly as much fun to say). Jamie kind of treats the monstrous creatures as pets, first feeding them beef he purchases with his babysitters money; later feeding "nasty people" to the Tralalogs. All in all, I liked this one. It's different, it's strange, and there are plenty of funny scenes (and the occasional breast shot for the guys) that keep it interesting. Plus it has a great (but somewhat predictable) ending. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd certainly sit and watch it again.