It took me a long time to finally get around to tracking this one down and checking it out. I first saw the box for this in a video store well-over a decade ago and that cheap-looking box art has stayed in my head for so long it's a wonder that with all of my b-movie obsessiveness, I didn't find this one earlier. I really wish I had because now that I've seen it, it joins the ranks of "The Burning" and "Sleepaway Camp" as one of my favorite 80s horror flicks. Although it's less-than-perfect, there's a certain charm to it that kinda defies explanation.
Although it doesn't have quite the replay value of "The Burning" (I dunno, maybe time will tell), nor does it have any recognizable faces or an abundance of gore. What it does have is pure originality. This is one crazy little flick. That's for sure.
(Note: The movie starts with one of the strangest openings I've ever witnessed. I don't want to give too much away but the same five-minute scene is repeated half-way into the movie. Yeah, it's a cool scene and all and it definitely gets your attention but it kinda spoils a little of what's about to come so I'm going to start my summary of what happens after that scene)
See, this twelve year-old kid Jamie is that awkward-looking, somewhat introverted kid you might remember from your own school days. He's got this vibe about him that tends to repel and creep people out, while making him the target for constant abuse and rejection. A born-loner, it goes without saying that he has no friends. He's taunted by a little girl for looking at her bicycle, yelled at and called a "hippie" by an elderly blind woman in a wheelchair(for no apparent reason), and punched in the face by an older kid for asking if he can join his club. To top things off, his folks are about to leave him with a babysitter for an indefinite amount of time (why they're leaving is never really explained, although it's presumed that they just want a break from their son). In fact, things are going so badly for the kid that I really sorta felt sorry for him at first. See, people are creeped out by Jamie for a purpose. He's more than just a little creepy. He talks to his teddy bear, "Teddy", and (get this) the bear even talks back. Oh, and did I mention that Jamie is a perv with a capitol "P"? He's already developed a crush on his new babysitter, Sandy, and he's not above a little peeping-tom business either. Jamie also has four other friends who reside in a hole in the ground out in the woods. When Jamie takes it upon himself to start feeding these troll-like critters ("tralalags"), he discovers that they are indeed carnivorous and a twelve-year old kid can't afford that much hamburger meat. Well, you probably see where I'm going with this.
It's never made clear if Jamie was this screwed up from the beginning or if he was supposed to have just snapped at some point. Maybe it was a gradual thing. Who knows and who cares? All I know is that I'm glad that the film-makers never took the matter serious enough to delve too deeply into Jamie's noggin because "the Pit" is so much fun to watch that any explanation for Jamie's insanity probably would have dulled the overall effect. It seems like the crazier that Jamie gets, the more crazy the film gets. While it may be predictable in places, there's so many odd moments thrown into it that you won't even care. And the ending is a force to be reckoned with. Those last twenty minutes are a hoot and just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again right now.
Yeah, there's LOADS of stuff for any MST3K-wannabes out there to have a field day but a lot of the laughs, I'm sure, HAD to be intentional. First off, this "pit" is a 15' by 6' hole that's maybe 10' deep. A decent sized hole, but yet half of the victims run right into it without even noticing it's there (in broad daylight, no less). Good stuff. What about the scene where Jamie takes an old lady in a wheel chair, wheels her out in the woods, dumps her in the hole, and then later rides around in the wheelchair? Oh, and what about the scene where a Sheriff finds the very same wheelchair, sits in it, then runs it into a wall. You can't tell me that there's any director in the history of cinema who could've ever filmed a scene like that with a serious-minded approach. Then there's the matter of the dialog. I can rattle off at least a dozen quotes right away and I've only seen the film once. This has some of the quirkiest dialog I've ever seen in a horror flick and that's a good thing.
All in all, "The Pit" sounds like something that shouldn't work at all, but somehow, as a whole, despite it's flaws and its (awesome) weirdness, it works way better than you would think and it's loads of fun to watch.
Although it doesn't have quite the replay value of "The Burning" (I dunno, maybe time will tell), nor does it have any recognizable faces or an abundance of gore. What it does have is pure originality. This is one crazy little flick. That's for sure.
(Note: The movie starts with one of the strangest openings I've ever witnessed. I don't want to give too much away but the same five-minute scene is repeated half-way into the movie. Yeah, it's a cool scene and all and it definitely gets your attention but it kinda spoils a little of what's about to come so I'm going to start my summary of what happens after that scene)
See, this twelve year-old kid Jamie is that awkward-looking, somewhat introverted kid you might remember from your own school days. He's got this vibe about him that tends to repel and creep people out, while making him the target for constant abuse and rejection. A born-loner, it goes without saying that he has no friends. He's taunted by a little girl for looking at her bicycle, yelled at and called a "hippie" by an elderly blind woman in a wheelchair(for no apparent reason), and punched in the face by an older kid for asking if he can join his club. To top things off, his folks are about to leave him with a babysitter for an indefinite amount of time (why they're leaving is never really explained, although it's presumed that they just want a break from their son). In fact, things are going so badly for the kid that I really sorta felt sorry for him at first. See, people are creeped out by Jamie for a purpose. He's more than just a little creepy. He talks to his teddy bear, "Teddy", and (get this) the bear even talks back. Oh, and did I mention that Jamie is a perv with a capitol "P"? He's already developed a crush on his new babysitter, Sandy, and he's not above a little peeping-tom business either. Jamie also has four other friends who reside in a hole in the ground out in the woods. When Jamie takes it upon himself to start feeding these troll-like critters ("tralalags"), he discovers that they are indeed carnivorous and a twelve-year old kid can't afford that much hamburger meat. Well, you probably see where I'm going with this.
It's never made clear if Jamie was this screwed up from the beginning or if he was supposed to have just snapped at some point. Maybe it was a gradual thing. Who knows and who cares? All I know is that I'm glad that the film-makers never took the matter serious enough to delve too deeply into Jamie's noggin because "the Pit" is so much fun to watch that any explanation for Jamie's insanity probably would have dulled the overall effect. It seems like the crazier that Jamie gets, the more crazy the film gets. While it may be predictable in places, there's so many odd moments thrown into it that you won't even care. And the ending is a force to be reckoned with. Those last twenty minutes are a hoot and just thinking about it makes me want to watch it again right now.
Yeah, there's LOADS of stuff for any MST3K-wannabes out there to have a field day but a lot of the laughs, I'm sure, HAD to be intentional. First off, this "pit" is a 15' by 6' hole that's maybe 10' deep. A decent sized hole, but yet half of the victims run right into it without even noticing it's there (in broad daylight, no less). Good stuff. What about the scene where Jamie takes an old lady in a wheel chair, wheels her out in the woods, dumps her in the hole, and then later rides around in the wheelchair? Oh, and what about the scene where a Sheriff finds the very same wheelchair, sits in it, then runs it into a wall. You can't tell me that there's any director in the history of cinema who could've ever filmed a scene like that with a serious-minded approach. Then there's the matter of the dialog. I can rattle off at least a dozen quotes right away and I've only seen the film once. This has some of the quirkiest dialog I've ever seen in a horror flick and that's a good thing.
All in all, "The Pit" sounds like something that shouldn't work at all, but somehow, as a whole, despite it's flaws and its (awesome) weirdness, it works way better than you would think and it's loads of fun to watch.