"One of the patients is Code Red...!"
I first encountered mention of `The Dead Pit' in Jamie Russell's zombie cinema guide, "Book of the Dead", wherein Russell declares the film to be uniformly terrible. He is, however, quite wrong. Whilst `The Dead Pit' is indeed a derivative piece of work, creatively in hock to far superior and more well-known Italian efforts, it is definitely an agreeable little film and a perfectly enjoyable way to while away 100 minutes.
The plot concerns an insane asylum where Doctor Swan (the late Jeremy Slate, giving the proceedings a certain gravitas) discovers that his colleague, Doctor Ramzi, is carrying out unnatural experiments with the inmates. Swan responds by shooting Ramzi through the head and sealing both him and his dead victims up in the basement of a hospital building. Flashforward 20 years, and just as amnesiac Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson) arrives at the asylum, an unexpected earthquake `breaks the seal' and seems to set the now undead Dr. Ramzi loose...
A medical setting is always a fine match for zombie cinema (think of the hospital scenes in `The Beyond' and `The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue'), and director Brett Leonard is a man clearly in love with low, skewed camera angles, all the better to highlight the sinister nature of his locale. So what works and what doesn't in this film? Well, as noted, the film seems quite heavily influenced by more continental fare, particularly the aforementioned `Beyond', though it simply doesn't have the sense of sheer mad stylishness that prime-era Fulci would have given it. Endearing co-star Steffen Gregory Foster (as demolition-expert inmate Chris) comes across as very much a cut-price David Warbeck, and certain scenes where he and Lawson fend off the undead have an irresistible familiarity to them. However, the acting in general is not wholly convincing, the worst offender being Danny Gochnauer as Dr. Ramzi, who completely overplays his character to unthreatening cod-demonic extremes, not helped by glowing action-figure eyes and a set of eyebrows that Angel Blake from `Blood On Satan's Claw' would have been proud of! Ironically, Ramzi's portrayal is one area where `The Dead Pit' should have cribbed more heavily from Schweick in `The Beyond' and Freudstein in `House By The Cemetery' - a less hammy, more shambling, decaying doctor would have worked wonders. Meanwhile, the buxom Lawson is passable in a role that doesn't require her to do much more than scream and run around wearing little (admirers of hers will probably enjoy a completely gratuitous dream-sequence in which her top is hosed off by sub-Nurse Ratched medico, Nurse Kygar.)
If the above sounds a little damning, where do the film's charms emerge? Well, while often uninspired, it's definitely a solid film with plenty to keep the attention, particularly in the scenes where the crazies congregate in the common room. There's certainly some sense of visual flair, particularly the green-lit spiral staircase and a nice shot of a partially-obscured nurse through a circular aperture. Though the first hour is somewhat protracted, the film definitely kicks into gear for its final third, when zombies rampage across the grounds of the asylum, though the undead themselves do tend to overact wildly, possibly taking a cue from their master. Furthermore, the film makes clever use of a character who seems simply a throwaway loon, but who in fact holds the secret to dealing with the zombie situation. And while it comes a little out of leftfield, the solution to the threat of the Dead Pit is actually quite clever and satisfying. Furthermore, while the mystery of Jane Doe's missing memories and her personal connection to events will not prove surprising to any alert viewer, the director does make good use of intercut flashbacks to his heroine's childhood, to counterpoint her predicament at the film's climax.
In terms of the DVD itself, while the film is a little grainy on occasion (mostly the outdoor night-time shots when the zombies are rampaging), this is simply the nature of the movie, and Code Red DVD have done a fine job with the transfer. As ever, Code Red are to be utterly commended for their dedication to low-budget obscurities, and here they reward viewers with an audio commentary and on-camera interviews with many of the film's key personnel. Of particular note is the fact that Cheryl Lawson, some twenty years on from making the film, actually looks better now than she did then!
Overall then, whilst it has its hammy moments and never quite reaches the heights it aspires to, `The Dead Pit' is plenty of fun. The film itself gets a 3-and-a-half out of five - the extra half mark in this review is in recognition of Code Red's sterling efforts.
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