6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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.
Starring: Jeremy Slate, Cheryl Lawson, Stephen Gregory Foster, John Patrick (III)Horror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
If you were a certain age at a certain time, there were two VHS boxes at the local video store that stood out from the pack. The first was “Frankenhooker,” which featured a sound button that chirped “Wanna date?” when firmly pressed. It was fun. The film was not. 1989’s “The Dead Pit” also successfully worked a bottom shelf gimmick, offering a button that activated flashing green eyes on the cover’s lead zombie, attracting attention to an otherwise forgettable release. The green lights aren’t around anymore, but “The Dead Pit” has remained, with co-writer/director Brett Leonard (“The Lawnmower Man,” “Virtuosity”) trying to make the most of his helming debut, looking to use some Romero-esque undead action to fuel an extremely low-budget genre offering of terror. There’s gore and panic, but Leonard isn’t committed to a tighter edit of the endeavor, allowing padding to become the star of the show, not frightening situations of survival.
Listed as a "2K scan from the original negative with extensive scene-by-scene correction," "The Dead Pit" comes to Blu-ray with an AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation. Color is indeed the highlight of the viewing experience, with the acid greens of the undead uprising coming through as intended, joined by washes of red lighting. Hospital interiors retain satisfactory whites and blues, and skintones are natural. Gore zone visits also keep their vivid hues. Detail is largely soft, lacking definition normally associated with negative work. Grain is blocky at times. Source is in decent condition, with some mild wobble.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix suffers from age, presenting muddier dialogue exchanges that aren't always easy to follow (subtitles are not included on this release). Voices struggle with clarity, and sibilance issues are present. Scoring cues aren't better, providing a flatter sound for suspense sequences, without sharp instrumentation.
Zombie activity emerges in the extended final act, and blasts of makeup effects and general gore helps the cause, but ugliness doesn't magically make "The Dead Pit" more interesting. Leonard struggles with his script (co-written by Gimel Everett), which is trying to pull off a major event of evil with very little money, and the run time (102 minutes) is unusually long for this type of B-movie entertainment, in need of pruning to tighten horror elements and storytelling. "The Dead Pit" eventually gets something grotesque going in the end, trying to provide a significant punch of grisliness and near-apocalyptic action as the players scramble to stop the flow of the undead. However, the conclusion of the film doesn't pay off the slow build of the material, it merely generates temporary excitement in an otherwise talky, needlessly overlong endeavor.
2013
1990
1988
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1979
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1982
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1990