PITFALL (2025)

New on digital download and On Demand from Cineverse!
Directed by James Kondelik.
Written by James Kondelik, Victor Rose.
Check out the trailer here!

Five years ago, Scott (Marshall Williams) and his sister Ashley (Alexandra Essoe) were the sole survivors of a car crash that took the lives of their parents. Now, both siblings deal with the loss in their own ways. They decide it is a good idea to complete the camping trip their family was never able to take and bring along their significant others, Scott’s longtime girlfriend Monica (Brenna Llewellyn), Ashley’s latest boyfriend Charlie (Matt Hamilton), along with Scott’s longtime buddy Lars (Richard Harmon) tagging along as the fifth wheel. But what the group doesn’t know is that this particular stretch of woods is the hunting ground for a sadistic woodsman (Randy Couture) who has littered the land with all sorts of traps to capture and kill his human prey. And hunting season’s open!

PITFALL hits the ground running by picking up on the tail end of the last group of trespassing people the Hunter massacres. Even as this new quintet of unlucky campers are loading up and beginning their hike, it’s pretty cool that the story begins at the tail-end of an earlier story—a movie that doesn’t exist, but still, it is a great way to throw the viewer right into the action. And PITFALL doesn’t really stop running, falling, jumping, and killing until the credits roll. The momentum of the first half of the film is admirable as in between the getting-to-know-you moments of the new group, the filmmaker sprinkles what’s left of another group attempting to find a way out of the woods and the hunter’s sights.

PITFALL has some decent characters with some pretty strong trauma they need to work though. I’m a huge fan of Alexandra Essoe and have been since STARRY EYES. I’ve enjoyed watching her become somewhat of a scream queen as she has appeared in some fantastic horror through the years; from DOCTOR SLEEP to HOMEWRECKER. Here she isn’t necessarily doing anything new, but her experience with other horror movies gives her an edge. Also, her stubborn attitude plays against the usual final girl template.

The other lead, Marshall Williams, who plays Ashley’s brother Scott, I know less about. Apparently, he has worked in a lot of Lifetime style movies and not a lot of horror. He’s good here as the burly brother who is only slightly better adjusted compared to his sister, but I couldn’t help but feel that this film has one too many lead protagonists. It doesn’t help that another genre vet, Richard Harmon, is there too as Lars and again, the baggage he carries from other horror ventures serves as a good shortcut here, saving the viewer time to get to know him, as his snarky character is basically the same as his role in FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES.

Again though, the thing that kept bugging me is that I think it would have worked better if Alexandra Essoe’s Ashley would have been the one stuck in the hole and forced to face her demons as she seems to be the one who is the most messed up of the two siblings. Turns out, Scott needed some hole therapy after getting lost from the rest of the group and falling into a spiked pit trap built by the hunter. This makes for some cool psychologically potent scenes of Scott confronting his own fears and survivor’s guilt. Scott’s role also required quite a bit of physicality, which might have been why Essoe didn’t do it. But to me, it would make for sense that the most messed up in the group, Ashley, would have been forced to face herself and crawl out of the hole as a form of catharsis.

I don’t follow UFC, so all I know Randy Couture from is his appearances in THE EXPENDABLES movies. Still, he is a wonderful force of nature in PITFALL. I really love the way he stalks the group, blending into the environment, silently watching and studying his prey. There are a few great scenes that reminded me of HALLOWEEN’s Michael Myers as the scene shifts to a wooded area, and suddenly you notice the Hunter standing in the background silently stalking. This occurs a few times in the film and I loved it each time. Yes, he is a monster of a man, physically imposing, but what really impressed me is the arsenal of weapons Couture uses during his hunt. Reminding me of another popular slasher, Jason Voorhees, it’s fun the way Couture’s Hunter switches killing tools from one victim to the next, mixing his physical force with his expertise in edged, silent weaponry like hatchets, knives, and bow and arrows. This is one slasher that is memorable and franchisable. And even though you never really see Couture’s full face, he is recognizable as this monster hunter in the woods.

PITFALL is a fun slasher thrill-ride. There’s some fun play with reality vs. hallucination with Scott when he is trapped in the hole, giving the film a psychologically dark edge. On the other hand, the Hunter unleashes some hardcore deep-woods carnage over and again, making this one work on the action front as well. Fans of 80’s camping/hiking horror are going to have a lot to love with PITFALL. Recommended.