It was the early ’80s. Reagan was president, Kool and the Gang was still cool, and slashers roamed our movie screens searching for unaware teens having sex. But elsewhere in the horror realm, director Lew Lehman was making a creepy movie called The Pit. The Pit is…uh, really f’n creepy. Sorry to begin with such a brisk, un-profound statement, but that is the only way I can sum up this film. All elements are eerie – the acting, the plot, the filming, and most of the background facts. But this one is not your standard “scary” style of “creepy.” This is much more of a “finding out that the kid next door has been watching you shower” kind of creepy. The final product is a fun little horror flick; unfortunately, some of the uncomfortable elements make it a bit too un-cohesive for standard horror viewers. The Pit has long since fallen into genre obscurity, making it an excellent entry for this week’s “The Unseen.”
Jamie is a troubled boy with a boatload of emotional problems. Hated by both children and adults, he finds solace in a talking teddy bear and a monster-inhabited pit in the woods. And here is where the weirdness begins. So, the film has two main horror plots working simultaneously: There’s the pit full of little goblin looking dudes called Trogs (think The Gate with a lower budget and more perversions) and then there’s also Jamie’s weird teddy bear come-to-life. The pit portion is definitely the stronger of the two story lines, and apparently the filmmakers realized this as the teddy portion is abruptly dropped midway. The original title of the film was in fact Teddy, and was later changed to The Pit to adjust for the underdeveloped plot.
Jamie seems to live in the ultimate world of assholes. Kids pick on him and punch him for no reason; even little old ladies make fun of him. What did Jamie ever do? I mean besides the talking to his living teddy bear thing. Okay, yeah, this kid is rather freaky. Jamie discovers the pit full of fanged critters in the backyard and begins feeding his foes to them. He also develops a huge crush on his slightly older babysitter. In a weird moment, he asks her to give him a bath. She obliges and proceeds to uncomfortably bath him for like 15 minutes of screen time. Plus, he utilizes this bubbly moment to divulge that his mom used to molest him. Okay, now it’s getting creepy, right? Nope, we can push that weird factor a bit more here. Fun fact I learned from the Internet: Jamie was originally supposed to be 8 years old. That might have made the film a little less uncomfortable playing it more as an “evil kid” flick. But as a pubescent teen, Sammy Snyders’ smarmy fourteen-year-old libido puts the sleaziest of pervs to shame. It was this portrayal that nearly turned me off from this movie to begin with, and it took me a while to adjust to the fact that our protagonist is just uncomfortably weird. Forget the monsters in the pit or live teddy bear. The pervy Jamie trumps them all.
Written by Ian Stuart, the completed film supposedly bears little resemblance to his original script. Along with Jamie’s age, the Tra-la-log pit monsters and Jamie’s talking teddy bear were also adjusted once the cameras began rolling. In the original script, these two elements were supposed to be figments of Jamie’s imagination, but in the finished product they were turned into real entities. Additionally, there was some on-set debate about the director filming nude scenes. Apparently his wife would not allow her director husband to film her nude scenes, so the screenwriter filmed them (How is that less weird?). Further, the director did shoot a nude skinny-dipping scene with his daughter, which enters into an Argento-level of family cinematic awkwardness. Adding to the disturbing tone is the most dreadful and distressing clown cake you have ever seen. He will haunt your dreams with his sweet, sticky malevolence.
Yet somehow, the completely disturbing atmosphere created both on and off camera unites together to create an ingenious hot mess. The Pit is a great time! It is unintentionally hilarious but also packs several scenes that are genuinely sinister and eerie. Though many elements of the film fall just short of triumphant, someone working the camera was able to create several truly effective horror scenes.
The Pit is a tough title to find, so prepare for a bit of a hunt. If you are a collector like me who feels the need to own this piece of cinematic history, the original VHS tapes now go for around $50 on eBay and Amazon. The Pit had a limited DVD release in 2004 as a double feature with the film Hellgate. This DVD now goes for over $20 on a good day. But, The Pit was commonplace at Mom-and-Pop rental shops in the 1980s. I’ve heard from many fans that have been able to find copies still lurking the shelves of some not-yet-closed-down rental hubs. If you just need to witness the awkward chaos for yourself without taking full ownership, then the 2004 double disc is available for rental from Netflix. You’ll laugh, you’ll be mildly traumatized, and ultimately you’ll wish you had your own pit full of monsters to toss folks into.
Enjoy.
