Pit, The

Year: 1981 Directed by: Lew Lehman Cast: Sammy Snyders Jeannie Elias Sonja Smits Laura Hollingsworth

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 A small boy, who has no friends and talks to his
teddy bear, discovers a hole in the ground where
monstrous and hungry creatures live. Soon the boy
starts feeding the creatures with various people
who've been bothering the boy.

When you can't tell if a movie is serious or a comedy
, you know something isn't right... It starts out
for some reason with a scene which really occurs
half through the film (where it's repeated) with a
teen couple bumped off, sporting some really dorky
dialogue ("I can't go any further, I'm scared of
being here! Something will get me!" the girl whines
with her macho boyfriend responding "Nothing's
getting nobody while I'm here!").

Then after some badly edited pre-credits we move on
to what seems like an attempted psychological drama
of an annoying, obnoxious brat who have some weird
conversations with his deformed teddy bear (who
answers back with the boy's voice in echo mode).
The boy also spies on his pretty babysitter (the
film features constant close-ups of her breasts),
the most innocent one since Jamie Lee Curtis in
"Halloween" - even though her acting skills aren't
as impressive...

And so we line up the fodder... that means supporting
characters with "GOING TO DIE" practically printed
on their foreheads. A bunch of actors who seems to
be reading their lines right out from the script.
The babysitter is naturally dating the stereotypical
football jock with a heart. He tries to be nice to
the boy but the boy is jealous. And the creatures in
the pit are hungry. Guess what happens...? There's
an evil red-haired bully who in one inspired moment
when the boy bumps into her blurts "Well, if it isn't
Clumsy Stupid?"

Then the boy suddenly goes from annoying brat to
horny pervert as he forces his teacher to strip in
her living room by faking a kidnapping of her
daughter via the phone. And then we get some funny
but misplaced humor as the boy (after feeding the
hungry creatures chocolate bars) starts stealing
cows and bumping down old ladies in wheelchairs to
feed his hungry pets. There's not much logic as none
of the victims seems to see the huge hole, not even
in broad daylight...

The creatures by the way look like some kind of
combination between Gremlins, Ewoks and porcupines.
They seem to be played by midgets while their noises
sounds like it's been dubbed by Godzilla. To wrap
things up, this kills off the sole sympathetic
character early on and has a stupid, predictable
ending. This one has its amusing moments, both
intended and unintentional, but isn't
really worth it...

The creatures stay down in their pit and munch on
their victims off-screen for most
of the film.... so no.

Ambitious but campy and often badly fitting.

Starts out as attempt at psychological drama and
moves on to fun but misplaced humor. The boy is
obnoxious and perverted, the sole sympathetic
character are bumped off early, the supporting cast
read their lines right of the script and the
monsters look like a combination of Gremlins and
Ewoks. Don't say you weren’t warned...

Review By: Slicer-Dicer