Canada, 2026
Review:JA Kerswell
An estranged brother and sister’s attempts to reconnect in the great outdoors go disastrously wrong when they and their friends are hunted by a hulking madman. If films such as WRONG TURN (2003) were nods to 80s backwoods slashers such as JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981), then James Kondelik’s PITFALL draws inspiration from those post-millennium throwbacks. Blessed with excellent cinematography and some exciting set pieces, the film ultimately flounders due to a fragmented narrative and an unnecessarily earnest approach, undermined by some cackhanded moments.
Ashley (Alexandra Essoe) and her brother Scott (Marshall Williams) have barely spoken since the car accident on a remote forest road that killed their parents and nearly took their lives. Both blame themselves, and, suffering from survivor’s guilt, Ashley finds it difficult to forgive her brother for saving her over her gravely injured mother (and her existential turmoil is exacerbated by learning she is pregnant). Wary but wanting to find a way forward, the pair agree to a three-day hiking trip near where the accident happened with Ashley’s boyfriend Charlie (Matt Hamilton) and Scott’s partner Gwen (Jordan Claire Robbins)—as well as their old childhood friend Lars (Richard Harmon). It turns out that group therapy might have been the safer choice.
Ignoring the myriad missing posters adorning a sign at the start of the hiking trail, the thirty-something group heads off into the woods, unaware that they have attracted the attention of a psychotic backwoods man, The Hunter (Randy Couture). As we see in the flashback that opens the film, he was seemingly driven mad by witnessing his father murder his mother and dump him with her lifeless body in a pit deep in the woods. After setting up camp one night, Scott and Charlie go to the river to fish, but on their return they get separated when wolves chase them. Scott falls into a pit lined with sharpened wooden spikes, impaling one of his legs and leaving him him immobilised. Meanwhile, Charlie returns to camp to alert the others, and they set out to find their friend. However, they are still unaware that the backwoods loon has initiated a deadly game of cat and mouse, in which they must not only avoid his arrows flying from the darkness but also navigate his many traps if they want to live to see morning …
PITFALL resembles the first WRONG TURN film in more ways than one. While it jettisons the idea of mutant hillbillies, it plays things pretty straight, veering between gory slasher horror and backwoods survival thriller. The film adds an interesting wrinkle by keeping Scott trapped in the pit for a third of the movie. This adds a good dose of suspense, but it is somewhat undercut by the fact that, despite a massive piece of wood piercing his leg, he seems almost oblivious to pain. Credulity is further stretched by Scott’s hallucinations mere hours after falling into the hole. The script aims for pathos as the brother and sister navigate their fractured relationship, and it is no surprise that they come together through extreme adversity by the end. Unfortunately, the sibling rivalry doesn’t ring true and isn’t helped by a flashback sequence showing the aftermath of the crash, in which Scott spies the headlights of a truck, also blinded by the fog, hurtling towards the stricken vehicle as he struggles to free his mother and sister from the wreck. It’s a suspense trick as old as silent movies, but it works fine here until the sequence is strung out for such a ludicrously long time that it feels like five minutes have elapsed since Scott first saw the truck’s headlights racing towards them at speed, meaning the thrills quickly give way to unintentional laughs at what should be the film’s pivotal heart-wrenching moment.
None of this would matter if the film didn’t take itself so seriously. Unfortunately, the would-be emotional rawness only highlights some of the film’s shortcomings and presumably unintentionally silly moments. Another howler is the sequence where Ashley and Gwen wake in their tent to watch the zipper move as someone opens the flap from outside. Despite no one answering when they ask who was there, they ultimately dismiss it as nothing untoward and go back to sleep! In true FRIDAY THE 13TH style, there is also another random group of people in the woods—including a pair of teenage girls who look like they got lost on the way to a Zumba class—who The Hunter multitasks by chasing down and gorily dispatching. Speaking of The Hunter, ex-wrestler turned actor Randy Couture has the right hulking presence and fighting prowess, but his thespian abilities aren't stretched beyond being asked to grimace on occasion. It perhaps also doesn’t help that the script simply shrugs and suggests that seeing his mother killed is an explanation enough for why the character turned into a backwoods psycho who randomly kills people.
Whilst PITFALL doesn’t really succeed overall, it still gets some things right. The cinematography by Robert Zawistowski is stunning given the budget, and much of the staging of the chase and fight sequences is handled expertly by director James Kondelik (especially in a scene where arrows fly past someone swinging upside down after being caught in one of The Hunter’s traps). The film doesn’t stint on the red stuff either, with a mix of mostly practical gore gags, including necks severed by spinning axes or heads pierced by swinging spiked balls (although most of these traps only work by happenstance, when the victim is standing in the right place for them to be triggered). Richard Harmon, as Lars, probably fares best as the sardonic reluctant camper. However, genre regular Alexandra Essoe, who was so good in STARRY EYES (2014), perhaps struggles with a dour role, not helped by a script that fails to nail down the emotional resonance needed to make it work. To be honest, given that it is largely flubbed, the film would probably work better shorn of the grief subplot entirely and just concentrate on thrills and gut-spilling backwoods chase and slaughter.
Filmed on location in British Columbia, Canada, for about $200,000, PITFALL received a very limited theatrical release in the United States in May 2026.
BODY COUNT 11:
Female 6 / Male 5
PITFALL (2026) Trailer
