The Dead Pit: Unrated Directors Cut (1989) | Code Red | (DVD) | SEALED

Title: The Dead Pit (1989)

Genre: Horror

Plot Synopsis
A woman with amnesia is admitted to a psychiatric hospital with a dark past and a mysterious identity. As she undergoes treatment and befriends other patients, an earthquake and a series of unexplainable events awaken the facility’s buried horrors. A doctor, presumed dead for decades, rises from his grave beneath the institution and begins to manipulate and murder his victims, unleashing a horde of the undead from a glowing pit of formaldehyde zombies.

Cast and Crew

• Director: Brett Leonard

• Writers: Brett Leonard, Gimel Everett

• Cast:

  • Cheryl Lawson as Jane Doe

  • Danny Gochnauer as Dr. Ramzi

  • Jeremy Slate as Dr. Gerald Swan

  • Stephen Gregory Foster as Christian Meyers

  • Lewis Arquette as Dr. Clemens

IMDb Link: The Dead Pit (1989) 

Reviews from Letterboxd

1. belial_carboni – ★★★½☆
   “Shlocky, sleazy and filled with endless charm it takes me back to those glorious 90s sleepovers and video store adventures. The faint glow of late 80s surrealism, glowing green eyes, smoke machines, cheap limb props and endless ambition. Now that’s some skimpy hospital attire! … Not to mention the bizarre dream sequence where our lead is wandering the halls … what? It isn’t long before Jane Doe is being doused with the hose causing her shirt to tear right off! Boobs a-flailing as the water continues to drench said boobs.”

2. c h r i s – ★★★★☆
   “Horrible… horrible acting, but it just makes everything funnier. Zombie effects are top notch & the gore is gross and excellent! There’s a lot happening in this that will be pretty memorable. 20 minutes too long unfortunately.”

3. Thrashtastic Jimmy – ★★★☆☆
   “Good news: the delivery on the titular ‘Dead Pit’ almost immediately like not even five minutes in so that’s cool. Bad news: the rest of the movie kinda blows. Boring asylum shit with some fun melt-gore towards the end but also a lame twist and nun stuff.”

4. Jason – ★★★☆☆
   “Cheesy 80s horror to the max, A Nightmare on Elm Street-ish movie taking place in a mental hospital where the arrival of a new patient awakens a long dead killer doctor with glowing eyes surrounded by green misty lighting. No real scares to speak of, but a few legit WTF moments.”

5. bummer_buddy – ★★☆☆☆
   “I’ve wanted to see this forever and… it wasn’t worth the anticipation. What a snoozer!”

Meta Description:
A cult 1989 horror film set in a haunted psychiatric hospital where buried experiments spring to life in a glowing pit of undead terror.