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      The Pit

      R Released Oct 23, 1981 1h 36m Horror List
      Reviews 39% 250+ Ratings Audience Score Left with a baby sitter (Jeannie Elias), a bad boy (Sammy Snyders) with a teddy bear finds a pit with four hungry monsters. Read More Read Less

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      The Pit

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (4) Critics Reviews
      Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com An entertaining, if ultimately silly and predictable genre film, The Pit is an intriguing oddity worth a look for genre hounds. Rated: 2.5/5 Sep 30, 2020 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Though the gore is minimal and the scares almost nonexistent, the story has enough potential to inspire a bigger-budgeted remake. Rated: 6/10 Sep 6, 2020 Full Review Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy The 97-minute running time seems every bit of 20 minutes longer than the filmmakers were ready for. Rated: 3/10 Jun 26, 2013 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 6, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Shayla S Unintentionally funny, definitely a "so bad it's good" type of film. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/14/22 Full Review jjjjjj j A unique and weird low budget 70s horror. This film is not really scary but still delivers as an overall entertaining movie. The Pit in some ways, almost seems like a very avant-garde horror film. What I mean is that it touches on many themes that horror films before it for the most part had not really talked about and in someways is a bit experimental, and like all experimental films has its own weakness from that. For example the plot borderline switches narratives halfway through which is a bit weird.. I also think this film may have taken influenced by H.G. Wells Time Machine, which gives it a few extra credit points in my book. I liked this movie and would recommend it to any horror lover that is looking for a low key, wacky horror film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review jon h I watched this hoping it was going to be so bad it would be good. Actually I thought it was just good. Ok there's some laughably ridiculous moments and they in themselves are entertaining and fun. But actually once you get past all that it's actually quite a good film with some interesting ideas. Once the creatures climb out of the pit the film loses its way and ultimately it's intrigue. There's also the start to the film which confuses the timeline and the whole thing is repeated later in the film. If that last sentence confused you it's just as confusing watching it. The acting for the main couple of characters is ok, the idea itself is good. You also have to remember it's of it's time in terms of the nudity and general creepiness towards women of the main character. Yes I've listed lots of problems, and the film certainly has lots of problems, but I like it. It reminds me of the kind of film I'd come across as a kid on late night television and watch. If you can put its issues aside I'd recommend giving it a go if you've never seen it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Canadian director Lew Lehman makes a troubled childhood movie with critters Sammy Snyders plays Jamie, a young boy who has difficulty making friends Everyone he comes across is unfriendly and hostile towards him and he's so curious about females An older woman Sandy played by Jeanine O'Reilly babysits him majoring in psychology hoping to understand his thinking process But Jamie has a dark secret; he talks to his teddy bear about his problems but deep in the woods is a pit underground in which he pushes unsuspecting victims into containing small monsters called "Trogs" that feast on anything Snyders playing this kid is quite disturbing given his anti-social behavior His unusual attraction for his babysitter is off-putting as well These creatures he visits are something out of a fairy tale and to him seem like the solution for getting rid of his enemies This is more of a revenge kid story than a straight up creature movie scaring you every few seconds Pretty silly and predictable yet it's still funny to watch certain portions take a tonal shift It's true people being bullied and hurt isn't funny so Jamie does the only thing he feels is just to make himself feel better Managing troubling behaviors and hostility is mostly what the movie does, the creatures feel like the template but there are spurts of psychological depth Jamie has to contend with Sure a lot of this feels incomplete narrative-wise and it doesn't know what it wants to be for specific audience but it is still a unique gem of Canadian horror Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member "Do you know why my mother washes me so much? Is she really trying to make me clean?" A real pervvy bastard of a kid (who was labeled "exceptional" then and who'd be full of meds, hormones, and other therapies today) causes all sorts of shenanigans through his awkwardness and shitiness. He discovers a pit in the woods which is full of hungry monsters. Going full Professor Chaos, the little turd leads a slew of people to their demise by feeding his trolls in a hole. Starting with his daywalking tormentor, followed by a blind old bitty, then anyone he feels slighted or mildly inconvenienced by until he runs out of folks. Looking like the result of miscegenation between Ewoks and Chewbacca, the hairy devils develop a lust for the most forbidden of meats. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member I have no idea what mania exists within Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, but that's where this movie comes from and man, you know how people say that movies feel like transmissions from another dimension? They only think they know what they're talking about and really wish that they had seen this movie. Everybody in town hates Jamie Benjamin. The kids in school, other kids who don't go to school with him, eben old ladies, everyone he meets either makes fun of him or abuses him. His only friend is Teddy, his stuffed bear, which may be sort of strange, as he's twelve. And yeah, he's starting to get into girls thanks to puberty, including his babysitter, who he soon takes to show one more secret. You see, Jamie has a pit in the woods filled with Trogs that he feeds with raw meat. Teddy suggests feeding everyone who treats him badly to these monsters and Jamie agrees, but then Sandy gets knocked into the pit and gets devoured. A bitter Jamie allows the Trogs to escape and they attack the town before a militia kills them and he's sent to live with his grandparents. Is puberty a pit filled with hairy beasts that love to destroy human beings? This film believes that. It's also a movie that has no interest in the thing you call real life. I mean, the original script definitely felt that way, as the Trogs were only in the mind of Jamie and not real. This is the only movie Lew Lehman ever directed. He did write several films — Phobia — and for the Police Surgeon series, a TV show he also was worked on as the music supervisor. His wife wouldn't allow him to shoot the nude scenes, so the story goes that the screenwriter shot them instead. The only shot involving nudity that Lehman was allowed to film was the skinny dipping scene and only because the actress was his daughter Jennifer, adding one more bit of weirdness to an odd movie. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Pit

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Left with a baby sitter (Jeannie Elias), a bad boy (Sammy Snyders) with a teddy bear finds a pit with four hungry monsters.
      Director
      Lew Lehman
      Producer
      John F. Bassett
      Screenwriter
      Ian A. Stuart
      Distributor
      New World Pictures
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Oct 23, 1981, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 30, 2021
      Runtime
      1h 36m
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