Lonely and burdened with an usual sexual appetite for his age, a preteen boy finds unexpected solace with a group of monsters trapped inside a pit who he feeds and takes care of like the pets he never had in this very weird horror film from Canada. Sammy Snyders is perfectly creepy (while remaining sympathetic) as the confused lad in question with some truly oddball scenes as he tries to seduce his babysitter and as he plays one of the most imaginative telephone pranks ever committed to screen. 'The Pit' gets most of its edge though from its black comedy undertones; there is a hilarious scene in which he tries (but fails) to pull a cow towards the pit for his monster pets to feed on, the difficulty of which naturally causes him to consider using human meat instead! The biggest weakness of the film is the monster effects. There are some effective point-of-view shots as they stare up at Snyders from their dark abyss in the ground but they are not terrifying in the least when they become far more visible in the film's final third. That said, the movie ends on an incredibly strong note with an unforgettable freeze frame. Also, monsters or not, it is hard not to like the deeper messages that come with the offbeat narrative here as the entire project is underpinned by the negative effects of ostracising those who are different. At least the pit monsters are non-judgemental creatures!

You got problems… check your nearby woods and maybe they'll be solved. Twelve-year-old Jamie is a strange, sexually obsessed loner whose only real friend is a sinister, scheming stuffed teddy bear that talks to him. He has secret that in the nearby woods he finds a large hole in the ground which harbours a pack of prehistoric beasts known as troglodytes. He doesn't know what to feed them, until reads up on them and learns they're carnivorous. So those people who have harassed him or got on his bad side will soon find out about Jamie's secret. However he did tell his secret to one other; the attractive babysitter looking after him since his parents have gone away… but maybe that wasn't such a good idea."The Pit" is a very peculiar, but hypnotic b-grade l, drive-in rural psycho-kid outing that's a lot of fun. If you enjoy something rather twisted, senseless and perverse with a dark sense of humour. What it really has going for it is the extra creepy and disquieting performance of Sammy Snyders as Jamie. He striking visual features standout and he superbly plays a disturb mindset, as if he entirely lives in his own world along with his teddy. Quite a seedy little teddy, but still don't know if its because of his imagination or if it was possessed due to one sequence which has its head moving with Jamie being nowhere in the scene. The dialogues between the two are dementedly funny, but still there's a real sincerity about it. The lovely Jeannie Ellis plays the concerned babysitter who tries to communicate and understand him, but she finds out he's truly a little monster. Director Lew Lehman plays it as it is, never trying for anything truly clever. While its low-scale restrictions show it up at times (don't know why it began with a scene that shows up later on), but Lehman's vivid creativity shows in sequences along with the mean-spirited vibe and immensely unpredictable nature. There's a little touch sleaze (the voyeuristic peeping) and blood and gore, but the killings mainly happened off-screen (some moments were quite rib-tickling with how certain people just don't seem to see the pit before taking the trip in) and monsters are nothing more than cheesy costumes with the striking element being the glowing eyes. Most of the time they're in a dark pit, until later on when they come to the surface to cause havoc. The music score is sweepingly full of life, but terribly overwrought and the final shot ends on such a perfectly foreboding and ironic note that goes down so well.

I've got news for all of you. All twelve year old boys are obsessed with boobs. Well, most of them are. Sammy Snyders really makes this movie stand out as he really amps up the creep factor as Jamie Benjamin the neighborhood outcast that nobody, and I mean nobody, likes. This misfit is beaten up at school, teased by the local redheaded brat, looked down upon by most adults and has a strained relationship with his father who has grown tired of his antics. The only "friend" Jamie can confide in is Teddy, his stuffed animal that talks back to him and him alone. When his parents leave for an extended period of time they hire Sandy who is just the latest in a string of hired help that must look after the little pervert while keeping the house clean. Jamie is immediately smitten by Sandy and begins his own special way of wooing the older woman like staring at her naked breasts while she is asleep. Not a good start. After this odd morning encounter Jamie tells Sandy his secret. There is a massive pit about a mile from the house and inside this pit are little apelike trolls that only Jamie knows about. Sandy immediately dismisses the story as pure fantasy and tries to reign the little sex-fiend in. When Jamie learns that the "tralops" or whatever he calls them are carnivorous he at first tries to keep them fed by buying meat bought from a butcher until his money supply becomes quickly depleted. Teddy gives Jamie the idea of feeding the monsters all the bad people who have angered him over the years. This leads to one of the most amusing scenes as Jamie lures the people to the hole, knocks them in, quips sarcastically, and exits the forest with whatever booty he acquired from the victims. Eventually taking care of the beasts prove to be too much so Jamie drops a line down into the pit allowing the trogs to run rampant in town. A very enjoyable horror flick from the early eighties with enough naked breasts, goofy plots, and the aforementioned disturbing performance by Sammy Snyders. My only gripe is the fact that the relationship with Teddy is never really hashed out. In one scene the bear's head turns on its own indicating a supernatural explanation rather than Jamie just hearing his own voice during his conversations with it. What was the connection between Teddy and the monsters in the pit or was it just two separate details that just happened to have converged? Needless to say, this doesn't really detract from the movie as even the ending is pretty satisfying. A rather obscure movie that not a whole lot of people refer to when talking about good horror movies of the early eighties and I didn't even need my teddy to tell me that.

The horror, oh the horror this movie put me through... THE PIT is one seriously messed up movie. Plain wrong, even, and it inflicted great horror on me, in a most peculiar way. For one reason, basically: The kid. That incredibly annoying, 12-year-old kid. I never ever loathed a child-actor so much in any film. His ugly face. His atrocious hair-do. His big stupid nose. His irritating voice. All his unfortunate facial characteristics fueled by the intolerable things he says and the way he stood there in every scene, acting his way horrendously throughout the whole movie... A friend of mine messed me up quite severely with having me watch this film. It evoked feelings deep inside me I didn't know were there. I hated that kid. I wanted to reach into my TV-set and hit him repeatedly. Frankly put: I wanted him to die, badly. So, can you imagine my joy when I witnessed what finally happened to him at the end.During the first half of this film, I was convinced I'd be flunking it. I just couldn't get over that little brat. But... my friend was right by telling me I had to see this film, as it's simply an undefinable, demented piece of work. It really is a mess, as the script shows no coherence whatsoever, incorporating so many different elements that you never have any idea where this all is going to lead to. We have: psycho-trite (messed-up kid with imaginary friends), sleaze (all nudity in this film caries seriously disturbing undertones), creature features (trolls in the woods!?!?), demented humor (pulling cows and chasing chickens?), a stuffed toy bear (It moved! Withouth the kid being around even! It frickin' moved, I tell ya!) a warped variety of victims (from kids to wheelchair-bound blind grannies!), ghosts (I'll say that again: Ghosts?) of victims coming back from beyond, a stupid vigilante mob (they honestly believed it was a pack of wild dogs they shot?) and... to top it off: a wonderful, highly memorable 'freeze-frame shock ending' at the end (which I just felt coming during that final scene, and was so hoping for). THE PIT indeed is so "ga-ga", it belongs up there with William Girdler's THE MANITOU and Ulli Lommel's THE BOOGEYMAN. I hope, for his sake, director Lew Lehman checked himself into rehab after this film, because that must have been some serious dope he was on while making it.