{jatabs type="content" position="top" height="auto" skipAnim="true" mouseType="click" animType="animFade"}

[tab title="Movie Review"]

The Dead Pit

This place gives me nightmares!

Ever felt buried by all your work?  The Dead Pit takes that saying literally and concerns itself with a mad doctor who, 20 years ago, was killed and buried alongside his human experiments . . . in the basement of an asylum.  The hope was that he’d never be heard from again, but director Brett Leonard (The Lawnmower Man) brings him back from the dead in this his directorial debut!

"horrendously entertaining in that “it's so bad that it’s actually good” sort of way"


But, thanks to a very exposed Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson) as a hot, new amnesia patient to the asylum and an unexpected earthquake, the mad doctor (Danny Gochnauer as Dr. Ramzi) has been awakened and is ready to resume his murderous duties alongside all his zombie friends.

Full of some incredibly bad acting, a lot of great screaming, and a whole lot of gore, gore, gore, The Dead Pit is horrendously entertaining in that “it's so bad that it’s actually good” sort of way.  Trust me, the DIY insanity of this film - in which brains are pierced with needles and zombies climb stairs and ladders - is part of its charm. {googleads}

As an added bonus, you get to witness a whole horde of nihilistic-looking zombies rise from the dead in the abandoned wing of the asylum!  Of course, this horror film doesn’t go full-on zombie mode until the last 25-minutes of its 102 minute running time, but getting there is part of the goofy fun as Lawson runs around in the buff screaming her head off.

You’ll laugh and cry all at the same time as this cult classic - filmed in Agnew's Development Center in Santa Clara, California (the same location that One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed at) - sheds Lawson’s clothes (and underwear) right off of her body thanks to a high-powered hose held by a laughing nurse.  The Dead Pit

The characters, as expected for an asylum,  are insane in this madhouse and the doctors are ten times worse, letting orderlies beat the living shit out of the patients before putting them in straitjackets.  Even the nurses are in on the delusions witnessed here! 

The undead Dr. Ramzi, in his converse sneakers no less, wanders the halls of the asylum stalking new and crazy patients to join him and his walking dead army.  Shock effects abound in The Dead Pit, now on blu-ray and uncut from Code Red and Dark Force Entertainment

For dead people, they sure are smart!

4/5 beers

[/tab]

[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

The Dead Pit

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Dark Force Entertainment Exclusive
Available on Blu-ray
- July 4, 2019
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles
: None
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

From Code Red DVD and Dark Force Entertainment comes the 2nd pressing of The Dead Pit Collector’s Edition, complete with a new 2K restoration, hours of color corrections, an alternate customized slipcover, and some glow-in-the-dark features!  You can’t lose as Dr. Ramzi (Danny Gochnauer), a deviant who enjoys torturing his patients, is killed by a fellow doctor and buried in the basement of a mental health facility. Twenty years later, the hospital is up and running again and a "Jane Doe" (Cheryl Lawson) arrives at the institute with amnesia . Upon her arrival, a major earthquake rocks the building and unearths the now undead Dr. Ramzi and his legion of zombie patients so he can continue his work. 

Video:

The new 2K restoration with extensive scene-by-scene color corrections looks absolutely fabulous.  Presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, this restoration is mined from the original camera negative and the results are glorious.  The details are scrumptious both in and surrounding the California houses included here.  Black levels are strong throughout, too.  Colors are bolder and brighter than ever before and the gore is deeper in hues, too.  The details are clear and well-defined.  There's a bit of softness to the image but this is more due to the style of the time period than the result of noise reduction.  Skin and clothing textures are perfectly saturated.  Zombie make-ups are slimy and textures are insanely detailed, showing off great creature designs.  

Audio:

A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English Language track is included for the movie.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

Special features include on-screen interviews from Brett Leonard and late actor Jeremy Slate as well as an interview with Cheryl Lawson, the original theatrical trailer, and other trailers for upcoming Code Red releases. The version released by Code Red is an unrated director's cut, featuring six additional minutes of cut footage.

  • On-Camera Interview with Cheryl Lawson
  • On-Camera Interview with Jeremy Slate
  • On-Camera Interview with Director Brett Leonard
  • On-Camera Interview with Writer/Producer Gimel Everett
  • Original Theatrical Trailer

Blu-ray Rating:

  Movie 4/5 stars
  Video  4/5 stars
  Audio 3/5 stars
  Extras 3/5 stars

Overall Blu-ray Experience

3.5/5 stars

{googleads}

[/tab]

[tab title="Film Details"]

The Dead Pit

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime:
95 mins
Director
: Brett Leonard
Writer:
Brett Leonard, Gimel Everett
Cast:
Jeremy Slate, Cheryl Lawson, Stephen Gregory Foster
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
They're out.
Memorable Movie Quote: "I've done life; now I'm doing death."
Distributor:
Best Film & Video Corp.
Official Site:
Release Date:
January 29, 1990 (video)
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
July 4, 2019.
Synopsis: A renegade doctor is shot dead and entombed with his fiendish experiments in the basement of an abandoned wing of a mental hospital. Twenty years later, a mysterious woman is admitted with amnesia, and her arrival is marked by an earthquake - which cracks the seal to the Dead Pit, freeing the evil doctor to continue his work.

{googleads}

[/tab]

[tab title="Art"]

The Dead Pit

[/tab]

{/jatabs}