Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

THE DEAD PIT is a movie that seems to divide people on whether they like it or not. Straight zombie fans say it's too slasher-esque in the middle. Straight slasher fans dislike the zombie angle. I happen to be both, so I quite enjoyed it.Dr. Colin Ramzi is a psychotic scientist who experiments on the patients at the mental institution he works for. His associate, Dr. Swan, has had enough, so he confronts him in his basement laboratory, shoots him in the head, and throws him in the pit where he stored the dead bodies. Twenty years later, a woman who calls herself Jane Doe enters the institution because the doctors say she has amnesia, yet she knows her memory was taken from her. She manages to befriend one patient by the name of Chris, who's in there for his habit of building bombs (Golly, I'll bet that won't come in handy later in the film!). Well, after a large earthquake, Dr. Ramzi and all the corpses in the dead pit awaken and wreak havoc on the hospital. Can Jane and Chris save the day? I liked THE DEAD PIT. The movie had a lot of good things going for it, even though it doesn't fully utilize some of its potential, but as it stands, it's a fun ride. All the actors were pretty good, with the exception of Cheryl Lawson as Jane. She's fine during scenes where she just has to talk, but in her "emotional" scenes, like crying and such, she was horrible. She was a good screamer, though, and she was easy on the eyes, but she began to really get on my nerves after a while.THE DEAD PIT is a very well-made movie as well. Director Brett Leonard obviously knew what he was doing, and it's no surprise he went on to do bigger things like direct the sci-fi film THE LAWNMOWER MAN. Leonard uses lots of fog and colored lights to build atmosphere, and he does so surprisingly well.The gore is also top-notch, especially during a period where the MPAA basically neutered a lot of these gore films. There's a lot of gory brain-munching, head-drilling, and decapitations, courtesy of Dr. ramzi and co.While the last forty or so minutes are pure zombie-filled bliss, the previous hour was one half characterization and one half stalk 'n' slash with some pretty good and nasty kills. This seems to annoy people expecting a straight-forward zombie movie, but I liked it.Of course, the film does have its flaws. There are some obvious miniatures, especially near the end, but personally, the added to the fun for me. There are some slow parts, but that doesn't take too much out of it. There's also a REALLY obvious "twist" that I guessed in the first fifteen minutes.Overall, THE DEAD PIT is a really fun movie that plays it straight, yet with a sense of fun all throughout. It's gory, occasionally funny (for both intended and unintended reasons), and some the characters are likable. Dr. Ramzi is a great villain, and the zombie effects are great as well.Check it out.

Hell.. I have watched scores of horror films of all genres, liked many and trashed quite a few, in this very portal. All said and done, this too is a '80s style horror film, with gore, campy effects, shambling zombies, evil doctors, half-naked females, scary hospitals and whatnot. There are loopholes aplenty, but can we really expect logic in a horror film? They are there for our entertainment - love them or leave them.In this film, the hospital scenes are satisfyingly eerie, the nurses and orderlies expectedly intimidating, and the lead female, Cheryl Lawson, attractive enough. Amazingly, in the apparently high security asylum, male and female patients freely intermingle, and even visit each others rooms. Wow.. now that creates certain possibilities :) Cheryl is endowed with a delicious figure and attractive good looks.. plus she runs around the corridors at night, wearing bikini-cut panties and a short slip. Yummy! Amazingly, neither IMDb nor Wikipedia have any info on Cheryl till date. Seems a pity, considering that she carried the entire film on her.. umm.. shoulders?(I am kidding).Watchable for the antics of Cheryl, the evil doctor and the creepy hospital building, if nothing else. The idea of drenching zombies with holy water seems to be a novel one. Usually, they appear to be indestructible..Post-script: Can anybody explain to me why Hollywood zombies always want to attack and eat living humans? I mean, whats the logic behind it? Oh Jesus.. again I am searching for logic.. how stupid of me :)

...i wish the script writer was as intelligent! (the zombies have removed a key engine component required to start the car) i sooo want to love this movie. it has great atmosphere, LIGHTING, camera shots, etc.. the glowing red eyes on the doctor were fantastic, was that a high cost effect? cause they sure should have used them more! its such a shame because with a few extra tweaks to the screenplay, they could have made the gaping plot holes a bit more believable. i mean seriously. im a guy that loves supernatural, undead, etc. films, so i can obviously suspend belief pretty well, but why has the doctor come back? why is the protagonist the only one who can see the zombies throughout most of the film? i loved the lighting, the shots of the spiral staircase, the filming location was PERFECT and totally creepy, but with just A LITTLE more plot development and continuity this could have been a pretty fantastic movie. another thing: i know many horror fans are stoked on nudity/skin in horror flicks, granted its a staple in the genre to a degree, but FIRST of all, the protagonist isn't THAT attractive, and i find it kind of odd that she'd be walking around an asylum where she didn't feel she belonged in skimpy underwear and a see thru white crop top. i could go on and on about the ridiculous aspects of this film, but it really pains me, because there were so many camera shots, scenes, and elements that could have made this a pretty good zombie film. perhaps im being a bit hard on it, but with the obvious talent behind the camera, you'd think they could have created something far better.

It's a few months since I watched this, but from what I remember I found it to be fairly entertaining and unique, with a large dose of cheese thrown in. The gore comes in more towards the end and there's a great scene where one of the nurses is in a bathroom holding what appears to be a heart that she's been munching on. The best parts in The Dead Pit are mostly towards the end, when the zombies break loose. Everything throughout the film is building up to this point. We also get some hilarious lines such as "I didn't lose my mind, it was taken from me!" All horror and zombie fans should give this a watch. It's not perfect, but is unique enough to make it worth a watch at least once.