The Dead Pit
The Dead Pit
R | 01 October 1989 (USA)
The Dead Pit Trailers

The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.

Reviews
GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
GL84 Found wandering the streets, a woman is admitted to a mental health facility where she refutes her case of amnesia and begins to have crazy nightmares about a former doctor who practiced medical experiments to reanimate the dead and must race to stop him unleash a horde of undead into our world.This here is one of the very best 80s cheesefests ever made. One of the main reasons for that is the rather great story to this, as there's much more to this one than what's expected. The fact that it throws in much more than normal, from the nightmarish dreams to the therapy sessions and her connection to the doctor's past through the flash visions that pop up, this one does manage to stay interesting for the seemingly disparate story elements are nicely woven together into a rich story that has a lot of twists and turns to keep it going. When it hits the second half, there's as much goodness from the action as the first half, which includes the zombie massacre on the staff and patients that offers up some great moments, and there's also the big scenes in the basement of the facility where all the zombies are kept and operated on. There's also the greatness of the finale where the film goes for a larger scale than expected and really makes this fun as there's some solid chasing around the abandoned buildings as well as the complete destruction of a water tower and the resulting flood it unleashes manages to employ some nice action into the proceedings to make it come to an end. The other really big part of this is that there's so much bloodshed in the film. This is incredibly bloody, packed with loads of gore and messy features as there's literally no end to the ripped off limbs, a lobotomy pick through the eyes, scores of decapitations, brain surgeries and really great gunshots to the head. Even the dead are bloody, full of wounds, all slimy and blood-streaked, many of them bald in spotted and mildewed hospital gowns as they shuffle and stutter their way to wreak havoc. There are many great scenes of them coming for the main characters lit from behind in an awesome setting which just makes them that much more impressive-looking. Alongside the mental hospital setting, which is completely creepy, offers up some unnerving atmosphere and just gives the whole thing a really uneasy feeling, these here are what make the film worthwhile as it doesn't have a whole lot of flaws to it. The main one is that the plot is rather hard to get into. There's a lot of things going on in here, from the amnesia victim to the past relationship that's remained hidden and the rather clichéd manner in which it all manages to occur at the end, and while all of these make the film feel smart, trying to piece together the way it all unfolds is just plain exhausting. Worse is the whole cliché spook of the main character that can only see the main villain's ridiculous vanishing act ploy, as there's not a lot of them, but what they lack in number they make up for in groaning ability. Otherwise, there isn't much wrong with this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.
Molly Celaschi (carlykristen) 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
haildevilman Should have revived the Zombie genre.No awards for plot originality. But the effects were as good as ever. And the creepiness was THERE.Haunted asylums with psycho Doctors are hardly original, but they made up for it with the assault from hell at the end.A combination of a women in prison flick, zombie flick, with a dash of occult flick.I was hoping this would inspire the new blood to make more zombie flicks. Unfortunately, the critics nor the censors allowed it much of a chance.The British accented professor/patient was a bit much though. The actor did OK. I just can't figure the chances of that really happening.But then...that's fantasy.
choppyno 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.