''The Pit'' (also known as ''Teddy'') is a 1981 Canadian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

starring

Sammy Snyders Sam Snyders (also known as "Sammy Snyders"), is a former television and film child actor from Canada. He is best known for his role as Tom Sawyer in the 1979 Canadian television series, ''Huckleberry Finn and His Friends'', alongside Ian Tracey w ...

and Jeannie Elias. Although it is a Canadian production, it was actually filmed in

Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Beaver Dam is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States, along Beaver Dam Lake and the Beaver Dam River. The population was 16,708 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city primarily located in Dodge County. It is the principal city ...

.The pit itself was filmed in Waupun, WI.

Plot

Jamie Benjamin is a misfit 12-year-old boy from

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...

. He's the Canadian-born

whipping boy A whipping boy was a boy educated alongside a prince (or boy monarch) in early modern Europe, who supposedly received corporal punishment for the prince's transgressions in his presence. The prince was not punished himself because his royal st ...

of his classmates, the other kids in the city and the grandmothers who live in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. When he encounters other people, they tease and ridicule him. His only friend is a stuffed bear named Teddy, with whom he regularly holds conversations. The audience hears Teddy's voice as he talks to Jamie. On the cusp of puberty, Jamie develops an unhealthy obsession with girls. Thus, when his parents go away on a business trip and leave the attractive psychology student Sandy O'Reilly to babysit him, he falls completely in love with her. His lust for her is first revealed when he drops his napkin at the dinner table and when he reaches for it, he uses the opportunity to look at Sandy's panties. During one of his conversations with Sandy, Jamie asks her if she can keep a secret. Jamie reveals that in the forest, he has found a pit full of mysterious creatures, which he calls "Trogs", which he takes care of by feeding them raw meat. He steals money from Sandy's purse in order to obtain meat for the creatures. Teddy suggests feeding the people who tormented him to the Trogs, and Jamie takes his advice. After he runs out of people, he takes Sandy to the pit, where she accidentally falls in and is eaten by the monsters. Heartbroken and angry, Jamie lowers a rope into the pit, and the Trogs escape. After rampaging through the countryside, they are tracked down and chased back to their pit, where they are shot by the local militia and buried in it. In order to avoid panic, the killings are blamed on "wild dogs". Jamie goes to live with his grandparents, where he meets a girl named Alicia who says she will be his friend. The film ends with Alicia tricking Jamie into following her into the woods, where she pushes him into her own pit.

Cast

as Jamie Benjamin *Jeannie Elias as Sandy O'Reilly *

Sonja Smits Sonja Smits (born September 8, 1958) is a Canadian actress. She was nominated for two Genie Awards: for ''Videodrome'' (1983) and '' That's My Baby!'' (1984). On television, she starred in '' Street Legal'' (1987-1992) and '' Traders'' (1996-2000) ...

as Mrs. Lynde *Laura Hollingsworth as Marg Livingstone *Richard Alden as Mr. Benjamin *John Auten as Library Janitor *Laura Press as Mrs. Benjamin *Paul Grisham as Freddy *Wendy Schmidt as Christina *Allison Tye as Alicia *Edith Bedker as Louise

Production

Ian A. Stuart's original screenplay was considerably different from the final film. In his screenplay, Jamie was 8 or 9 years old and the Tra-la-logs were figments of his imagination. When Lew Lehman signed on to direct, he made Jamie older, the monsters real and added more humor to the original script. Stuart has expressed dissatisfaction with the final result.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. It is currently ranked as a 42% "freshness" rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Due to its unusual premise and

' effective performance, it has retained a small cult following.

Novelization

''Teddy'' by John Gault is a novelization of the film published in 1980. It appears to adhere closer to Ian A. Stuart's original screenplay than the finished film, containing more character development and a far darker tone.

References

External links

* * *

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pit, The 1981 films 1981 horror films Canadian monster movies 1980s monster movies Films shot in Wisconsin Films about children Films about autism 1980s dark fantasy films Canadian films about revenge Canadian supernatural horror films Canadian fantasy films English-language Canadian films 1980s exploitation films New World Pictures films 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films Canadian exploitation films Films about bullying Horror films about toys