From the Ashes: The Pit Review
Director: Abdullah Bamajboor
Date Created: 2026-01-23 02:49
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From the Ashes: The Pit Review: Netflix’s Saudi Arabian movie جرس إنذار الحفرة is directed by Abdullah Bamajboor and led by a cast that includes Moudi Abdullah, Aseel Morya, and Aseel Seraj, along with Adwa Fahad, Darin AlBayed, Aisha Al Rifaie, Aseel Seraj, Wafa Alwafi, and Razan Yamani. The film runs for 88 minutes, and the setup is simple but scary: after a violent storm hits, three schoolgirls end up trapped in a pit, and what follows is not just about escaping, it’s about surviving each other.
From the Ashes: The Pit Review
What particularly drew my interest to Jaras Enzar 2 was viewing the main character’s reaction to the storm and what seemed to be disaster-like circumstances following their previous ongoing struggles. I thought that, as a Disaster Thriller, it would provide me with a fast-paced movie filled with breathtaking action combined with continued peril from beginning to end; however, while that is an overwhelming amount of danger in the movie, it seems that it was intended for a different purpose. The underground area functions as a chamber which creates intense pressure. The real danger proceeds from both the water and the injuries. When people experience fear, their most dangerous part emerges, which represents the bigger threat.
The part which I liked most stands as my favourite. This film contains no suspenseful moments, which occur every ten minutes, through which it tries to surprise its audience. The film uses personalised techniques to create tension, which develops at a slower pace than standard methods. The character’s intense emotional baggage, combined with the small physical space, creates a situation where all walls appear to restrict their movement. The movie successfully delivers the feeling of being trapped in a bad argument which has no resolution, but it presents this situation through an extremely intense scenario. The film failed to work completely for me because of this aspect.
The film From the Ashes: The Pit is more about mental endurance than action sequences. Although the plot begins with a disaster, the majority of what follows focuses on fighting with each other, blaming each other, and remembering their mistakes long before becoming trapped. At times, the film felt visceral; the story was saying that there is no escape from the past. Many times, however, emotions were too volatile; it became exhausting watching the characters react so explosively.
There was also a point where I wished the film had spent more time on the adventure of escaping through creative problem-solving, using the contents within their environment, creating signals with each other, and having to make hard choices concerning their chances of survival. I found myself wishing that the filmmakers had not relied on the constant fighting of the main characters to build the tension of the film.
While the emotional side of this film is very important, the filmmakers have not achieved a balanced approach to telling the story. If you enjoy films that are quiet, intense character studies, then you might find the style of this film to be one you appreciate. On the other hand, if you want a film that will provide you with a steady stream of excitement, Netflix’s From the Ashes: The Pit may feel slow-paced in the middle.
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The film excellently transforms the pit from a simple staging area to a genuine representation of shame, guilt, and anxiety; therefore, the girls are not simply trapped in the earth; they are trapped within themselves. As the water rises, so too do the girls’ emotional masks. They say things they had previously kept secret, admitting to things they avoided discussing. Ultimately, when forced to confront each other as real people, the characters can no longer hide behind labels and identity as classmates. Unlike other typical survival films that are often meant to entertain through fear, you can see that the intent of this film was to invoke discomfort in its viewers. The film achieves this successfully.
The film could have had better success in conveying the idea of being trapped by society by allowing the characters to have deeper conversations. At times, the character interactions felt like lessons, whereas the conversations could have felt more real and natural with more subtlety. I did find the performances of the girls to be among the film’s strongest points, as they were convincing in expressing their fear and panic. The emotional honesty exhibited in the portrayals made the film hold true for those experiencing similar themes. Being a film almost completely set in a confined space, the overall emotion portrayed was critical to the success of the film.
Director Abdullah Bamajboor has also effectively utilised the setting throughout the movie, with the camera remaining at times almost completely vertical to his subjects, while not presenting the pit in any way as being “cool.” Instead, director Bamajboor’s cinematography presents the pit as being both claustrophobic and unsafe, providing the viewer with an immediate connection to the environment. You can feel the humidity and the fear of being trapped.
While my biggest complaint regarding the film is its pacing. At 88 minutes long, I still found parts of the Netflix movie From The Ashes: The Pit to be drawn out and lacking in flow. The film presents several emotional beats throughout the film that occur repeatedly, such as “fight, calm down, fight again” more than was necessary. After you experience all of this emotional tension for a while, you become acclimated to it and want the story to progress more quickly.
In addition, I also felt that some of the character transformations were sudden. Some characters behave in one manner for most of the film and then suddenly have a drastic change of character due to plot necessity. I understand that people go through drastic changes of character during life-threatening events, and I wanted to see that change develop through some of the character’s experiences.
Netflix From The Ashes: The Pit Review: Summing Up
In my opinion, From The Ashes: The Pit is a mixture of good and bad, but the positives outweigh the negatives overall. The film does not treat any of its lead characters merely as props in order to scare the audience, and instead, it actually has a central theme and message regarding the value of friendship and the consequences of our actions.
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