TH3 PIT

Cinzia is a mother concerned about her son Ivan's asocial behavior, locked in his room in front of the computer for a whole year now, since his best friend Tania committed suicide. Cinzia has the feeling that Ivan is chatting with Tania, and the suicide of other peers in recent weeks alarms her. The woman then decides to turn to a psychiatrist who asks her to film their entire days with a video camera. Another example of horror mockumentary, but this time made in Italy, which goes to add to the still meager amount of Italian films that use this language and are represented so far by the now cult "Road to L. - The Mystery of Lovecraft", "The Gerber Syndrome" and the still unreleased "Circuito Chiuso". "Th3 Pit" (with the "3" instead of the "e", mind you!) is a peculiar work that stands out from the crowd, for better or worse. First of all, it had a productive reality that not only makes it an independent film like its "cousins" but a true zero-budget film, as we can define a work that benefited from a production of only 3000 euros. Therefore, regardless of everything, if a crew manages to complete a film with "nothing", with all the difficulties that filming a film entails, the compliments are already due for the tenacity, the commitment, and the achievement of a concrete result. If then a good film also comes out, then the compliment is double. In the case of "Th3 Pit", we have a partially successful work. The film directed by the debutant Filippo De Masi takes advantage of an engaging subject that tries to insert the thorny issue of hikikomori into a horror context. But what is it about? Hikikomori is the so-called "internet disease", a phenomenon that involves millions of people around the world who become estranged from reality, falling into internet addiction and often ending up victims of depression. Obviously, hikikomori is a word of Japanese origin, the place where these phenomena initially manifested themselves more frequently, and it is no coincidence that "Th3 Pit" recalls a certain vision of technology typically belonging to Asian cinema. The technological means, in this case, the internet, is demonized, appearing as the primary vehicle that evil uses to manifest itself in everyday life. The ghosts of "Th3 Pit" use the web not only to communicate with the living, deeply alone, but also to hurl their own anathemas toward a world that has excluded them. The afterlife of "Th3 Pit" is a suspended, dark, nihilistic dimension that recalls, probably not by chance - see also the theme of suicide -, the Japanese "Kairo - Pulse" by Kyioshi Kurosawa, excluding however the metaphorical discourse that was behind it. In De Masi's film, the curse that strikes the young protagonists pushes them to suicide initially for a specific guilt that the potential victims have committed, but then it spreads to others like a disease, as if it were a chain reaction that reminds us, precisely, of certain cinema that, since "The Ring", has proliferated all over the world, with some references also to the American "Paura.com" for the primary attention that is given to the site/chat/social network th3 pit, around which everything revolves. The primary limitations of "Th3 Pit" are fundamentally two: the screenplay and the management of the mockumentary style. Lorenzo De Luca's script shows some difficulties in structuring itself into a plot that is too simple, where the twists are never such but often widely announced, and the repetitiveness of the action reigns supreme. Despite there being a sometimes concerning perpetuation of events, "Th3 Pit" has a good pace and manages to keep the attention alive in anticipation of some unexpected turn, also generated by a flashback construction placed at the beginning of the film. A real turn, however, there is not, and what is most missed is a final climax that remains well imprinted in the spectator's mind; on the contrary, the film has a too constant progression that never finds a real take-off or arrival point. We were talking about the mockumentary style, a language that undoubtedly helps the rendering of the low budget and in these years is particularly appreciated by the public. In the case of "Th3 Pit", however, there is an uncertainty or lack of knowledge of the technique in question, in the sense that the pervasiveness of the video camera is sometimes unconvincing, the use of shots from inside the computer or the subjectives of the girl in the forest are not justified (especially in relation to the home montage of the footage, since those points of view could not be obtained!) and the continuous presence of a soundtrack and horror movie sound effects clash with the supposed veracity of the footage. In short, De Masi did not find the right compromises between fiction and supposed reality. Very good the performance of the actress Yassmin Pucci, already seen in other independent horrors like "Darkness Surrounds Roberta", "La canzone della notte" and "Finché morte non vi separi", although she seems a bit too young to be the mother of a 14-year-old boy. Also good is Riccardo Mei in the role of the psychiatrist Riccardo Freda (oh, oh, the citationist names should be avoided!!!) and the intense Chiara Nicolanti in the role of the deceased Tania, a bit less expressive the young Marco De Masi who plays the problematic Ivan. "Th3 Pit" is therefore a work with pros and cons, fluid and certainly interesting also for the productive reality that is behind it, but with some limits related to the uncertainties about the chosen technique and a weak narrative progression.