My initial reaction to this film was to ignore it. Any video that must resort to a flashing gimmick on the box must be in danger of being ignored otherwise, so I chose to stay away. Then I stumbled across all of the positive remarks about the movie...and became intrigued.

Well I hate to be a spoil sport, but this one grated on my nerves.

Cheryl Lawson, this movie's primary "chica-in-trouble", has one of the most annoying screams in movie history. Her voice reminded me of Lulu, the irritating daughter who screamed and squealed a lot in John Waters' "Polyester" (except in that case, she was trying to be annoying). Cheryl plays a young woman referred to as "Jane Doe" who gets tossed into the loony bin for nary a reason. It seems she's lost her memory, and naturally the proper thing to do is incarcerate her with a bunch of raving lunatics while the doctors use hypnotherapy to treat her. Well they're not all raving lunatics...there are one or two semi-coherent individuals, since the plot does require some other protagonists. The plot also requires Jane to traipse up and down the halls in her underwear a lot, standard practice in any insane asylum that turns up in a B movie.

Let's see, where were we? Well the hospital is in trouble because it has a secret door in the basement, beyond which is a sub-basement where a previous doctor has been conducting experiments involving needles inserted into the exposed brains of his unfortunate subjects (conveniently plucked from the halls of the asylum). When a colleague discovers the true nature of the doctor's work, he shoots the doctor in the head & seals off the secret basement. Jane Doe's arrival at the hospital 20 years later coincides with an earthquake that jolts the door loose, and soon the undead doctor (with flashing red eyes) is appearing and snatching more victims for his needle-work (the purpose of this is never quite clear, but Cheryl screams a lot).

All of this silliness leads up to an obligatory zombie attack, where the residents of the "dead pit" all come lurching out (while Cheryl screams and screams). They wreak havoc on the one or two people left alive in the facility until an elaborate plot is hatched by Cheryl and her male lead to douse the zombie pit with an entire water-tower full of holy water.

Eh, well...I guess I should tell you why I hated it, in spite of the gloriously ridiculous plot (always a plus in B-moviedom). The soundtrack of the film--dialogue, music, and sound effects alike--sounds as if it's been recorded inside of a tin can. The brief attempts at character development include a scene where the movie's main characters meet in the cafeteria of the asylum, their dialogue overwhelmed by the screaming and moaning of the other patients. Most of the film takes place in darkness, and it's often hard to tell what's going on. One illogical scene occurs when three individuals are trapped in an office room with about thirty zombies pounding on the door, and one of the characters must make a long speech, hemming and hawing as if he was trying to remember what he ate for dinner yesterday.

But Oscar-winning performances are not what zombie movies are about. The main reason I hated "The Dead Pit", in spite of the excruciatingly awful sound quality, is that the movie has a serious conflict in style going on. It's filmed in darkness with lots of gothic imagery (shadowy forms backlit by eerie light, the ominous interiors of the hospital, the rotting basement), yet the movie throws in screwball humor at the weirdest times. For instance, one zombie attack is preceded by two policemen casually discussing the local donut shops, and the whole holy-water-tower finale is quite laughable. The director also finds the place for a gratuitous breast shot as Jane Doe is hosed down with water, and why on Earth would Jane want to wander around a dark hospital corridor in her skimpy underwear?

These moments, and others, undermine any sense of dread the director is able to dredge up from the material. Overall I was really disappointed with "The Dead Pit". The idea could have made for a creepy film, or even a creepy spoof, but the result is a jumbled mess, and probably one of the worst movies you will ever hear. I should have left the box with the flashing eyes alone.