Into The Gravel Pit

The specifics of this drug are left vague, creating a plutonium nyborg-like conglomeration of schedule-one beauties. It looks like pink biker speed, hits like DMT, and has similar side effects as PCP. It is also eaten rolled up in a tortilla. Never—none—never have I seen a drug like that, as this is some Dr. Seuss-level s**t. It’s the perfect dastardly concoction for a good old-fashioned drug horror movie.

I’m not talking narcotic horror, which is horrifying enough on its own. I am talking about the old celluloid urban myths filled with dismembered LSD takers who thought they could fly. Bressler imposes on the narrative the same amphetamine logic of sudden wildcat violence that defined the dope warnings of yesteryear.

Once the movie drugs take effect, people are reduced to a level of Buñuel-like savagery. While the exaggeration of hallucinogenic peril is a point of hilarity in this sub-genre, Bressler harnesses the outrageousness and distills something truly terrifying.

Yes, you will see some nails sticking out of the carpet you will pass out on. Walker’s drug dealer has a little too much pepper in his meth and almost overdoses on ham. The cancer storyline barrels in from nowhere and bums you out hard, man. And the whole thing looks like it was shot on a budget of a nickel bag.

“You will squirm in your seat most delightfully.”

But when Into The Gravel Pit makes its major moves, it hits you like a full-body orgasm. You will squirm in your seat most delightfully.

The plot structure Bressler and Mercado employ harkens back to the anthology storyline movies of the ’90s, with several things going on simultaneously that all come together somehow. It has that satisfaction of not seeing any way it can all be tied up at the end—when it suddenly does.

The built-in horror of the bad trips gets catapulted by the grotesquery of the drug scare. The drug effects are simple and highly potent, with some of the best damn drug lightings you can get if you know where to get it.

You are also treated to some career-defining acting by two horror movie veterans. Wilcox, who fought Freddy in the day, handles some of the rawest despair unleashed in a horror flick. Taylor, who has played Pinhead, has to react to some dark, dark stuff.

At first, I questioned how appropriate the cancer storyline was for a drug horror film, as it is the kind of real-life horror that is usually left out of scary movies. Trust me, it all comes together in the sickest way possible—you will love it.

Into The Gravel Pit is a fantastic return of the anti-drug cult movie that is fun to take drugs to. You will want to keep tabs on this one.