'Pitfall' Review: A Brutal Final Act Can't Quite Escape an Uneven Journey
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Becca Johnson - July 7, 2026
Directed by James Kondelik (Airplane vs Volcano), Pitfall promises thrills and chills as it offers not one but two threats - if the fall doesn’t kill you, he will. After a young man is separated from his friends in the woods, he falls into a ten-foot deep pit of spikes, impaling him through his leg and leaving him trapped. He quickly learns that he fall was not an accident. With a solid cast including Alex Essoe (Midnight Mass) and Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Pitfall boasts nasty gore and excellent use of its location, though the pairing of an over-inflated run-time with repetitive character drama makes for an uneven viewing.
If Pitfall gets anything completely right, it’s the admirably simplistic approach towards the backwoods horror genre. The plot is very straightforward - group of friends stalked in the woods by a hooded man - giving it a digestible and easily watchable edge that feels reminiscent of earlier iterations of this genre. It’s really fun to be back in the forest location, which features all of the elements you can wish for - looming darkness, winding up lost and plenty of dangerous traps. With the villain, want you see is what you get, his mean-spirited nature carrying the audience through the cat and mouse game he inflicts on anyone who is unlucky enough to step foot in his territory. There is a little bit of backstory there, aiming to flesh out and give context to his maniacal decisions, but he’s effective enough without this. The horror, mostly arriving in the format of gore and body horror, does feel sparse but totally hits the mark when it arrives. The kills are brutal and gnarly, the script ensuring to add in some new characters along the way to increase that death toll and give us some entertaining, throwaway horror to increase the fun factor. Given the modest budget, the effects are solid and much of the body horror is certainly wince-inducing.
Pitfall doubles up as both a horror thriller and a character drama, which becomes a blessing and a curse. Our group of friends, headed by siblings, have a lot of shared trauma due to the loss of their parents during a car crash. At first, their fractured relationship adds some tension and an awkward dynamic that gives the script another layer to support the horror. However, as the film progresses, this discourse around their guilt, depression and inability to see eye to eye becomes quite repetitive and dull. It also leads to a predictable outcome for the family that you can see coming from the first ten minutes. As horrific as their experience was, seeing their parents die in front of them, the constant focus on this really bogs the movie down, detracting from the reason most of us have pushed play - the horror. Luckily, the cast carry the emotional beats believably enough, especially Alex Essoe, which suitably sees you through to the final act in which most of our brutality and action lies. There’s definitely something to be said in this script, particularly about shared trauma within familial relationships, but the same ideas being rehashed doesn’t provide enough impact.
Clocking in at 108 minutes, Pitfall definitely feels too long for the story being told, which also points to the idea of chopping some of the sibling drama creating a more cohesive viewing experience. Due to the simplicity of the story at play, this run-time length doesn’t mesh well, especially when most of the good stuff is during the final act. The first half an hour meanders, fleshing out the characters and their dynamic before allowing any horror or tension to take place.
In many cases, additional development for our leads serves the narrative well, but within, it creates an unbearably slow build-up. The characters also aren't as well written as they should be outside of their trauma, meaning we’re getting heavy backstory for a cast that are tricky to care about. Increasingly dumb decisions and annoying personalities plague the group, preventing the audience from latching on to anyone too strongly. Once one of our characters succumbs to the pit, and the audience are forced to spend time down their with him whilst he hallucinates and dwells on his past, it’s easy to consider if a more engaging version of this story is out there.
Almost every element of Pitfall has both a positive and negative to it, making for a true middle of the road watch. The cast deliver, but their characters are lacking. The horror and gore is gruesome and effective, but there’s not enough of it. The discourse surrounding grief, trauma and guilt is initially intriguing, but isn’t explored well enough. Pitfall is definitely worth a viewing, especially for that final act that really is quite kick ass, though the journey to get there leaves much to be desired.
'Pitfall' released on digital platforms on June 29, 2026.
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