The Pit | Blu-ray Review

The little known horror obscurity The Pit gets resuscitated for appreciation, a 1981 oddity falling under the subgenre Canuxploitation (an exploitation movement like any other, but directly credited to a significant tax break from the Canadian government which allowed for an onslaught of genre efforts, technically ending in 1982 but still used to describe a number of regional B-grade efforts since). The solo directorial effort of screenwriter Lew Lehman (who had penned the screenplay for the ill-received John Huston film Phobia only a year prior), it’s a creature feature melded with the psychological eeriness in the vein of The Bad Seed, a precocious outsider finding a convenient way to dispose of community members contributing to his status as a social pariah. A schlocky production design and some subpar performances make this a questionable choice for reappropriation in the cult canon, but several creepy elements enhances the better-than-average pallor.

Jamie (Sammy Snyders) is a misunderstood twelve-year old. Without any friends at school, and teased for his weirdness, Jamie retreats into his own world where he talks to his imaginary friend, a teddy bear (who, we come to find, can talk back). When Jamie is assigned a nanny, Sandy (Jeannie Elias), the young boy’s fascination with sex suddenly takes on profound dimensions. But when he finds a pit of mutant troglodytes stuck in a pit in the woods, Jamie and teddy decide they know just where to put all the nasty people who have treated him poorly.

Disturbed protagonists engaging with imaginary friends in the shape of macabre stuffed animals is nothing new, a trope resurrected time and again (Donnie Darko, 2001), or the more recent Marcal Flores film Animals (2012). Little Sammy Snyders, a child actor of some renown thanks to playing Tom Sawyer in the television series “Huckleberry Finn and His Friends,” gives a reasonably unnerving if self-aware performance as an increasingly sociopathic young mind, although conversations with his evil teddy seem a lot sillier when compared to the film’s disturbing implications about his sexual development. But the correlation between Jamie’s teddy bear and the strange troglodyte creatures in the titular pit (who have appendages, but can’t seem to help figure out they could escape quite easily) is never explained, while his questionable relationship with his parents is vaguely outlined in order to give him more creepy moments with Jennie Elias’ strange role as a nanny/caretaker/guardian, who deftly disarms the young boy’s increasingly aggressive advances. Of course, everything falls into a predictable pattern when Jamie starts luring all his enemies to the pit.

Scribe Ian A. Stuart, formerly a documentarian, crafts the usual despicable sleights for its loner protagonist, from the old hag who insinuates Jamie is gay, to a young girl who laughs carelessly when he punched in the face, but somehow forgets to make his main character sympathetic (though this may be in part to the sometimes obnoxious performance of Snyders). In many ways, the tone is reminiscent of another forgotten Canadian genre effort around the same period, Pin (1988) from director Sandor Stern, about a young boy who finds companionship with a creepy inanimate doll. Between teddy and the hirsute pit crew of Lehman’s film, this is more of a campy curio (while reports of Lehman’s wife not allowing him to film the nude sequences speaks to a certain level of compromised intentions on more than one front).

Disc Review:

Kino Lorber unleashes The Pit as part of their Studio Classics label, presented in 1.85:1. Picture and sound quality are alright considering the altogether cheap production design and feel of the film. Audio commentary from Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com and film historian Jason Pichonsky, as well as a handful of interviews from cast and crew promise something more exciting than what The Pit actually delivers.

Sammy Snyders Interview:
Sammy Snyders appears for this sixteen minute interview, discussing how he became a child actor and his involvement in The Pit.

Jeannie Elias Interview:
The actor appears for this seven minute interview, discussing her career and her only lead role in a feature film with The Pit.

Ian A. Stuart Interview:
Screenwriter Ian A. Stuart is on hand for this twelve minute segment, discussing how interest was initially generated in the project.

Victor Davies Interview:
Composer Victor Davies recounts his experiences with Lehman and his contributions to The Pit with this seven minute interview.

Final Thoughts:

An entertaining, if ultimately silly and predictable genre film, The Pit is an intriguing oddity worth a look for genre hounds.

Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆