A Plastic Nightmare
1988-11-25
N/A
103 min
Pin, a plastic medical dummy, has been the fixation of Leon since youth. Now grown up and orphaned in an accident, Leon brings Pin home to live with him and his sister Ursula, much to her reluctance. Soon, however, Leon's fixation on Pin spirals out of control, and Ursula must face the devastating consequences.
Interesting and creepy psychodrama/horror involving a mannequin
In the Northeast, a doctor uses an anatomically correct medical dummy named Pin (short for Pinocchio) to teach his son & daughter about how the body works. Years later, when they’re adults, they maintain an attachment to the mannequin as the sister (Cynthia Preston) starts dating a guy (John Pyper-Ferguson), which interrupts her uneasy brother (David Hewlett)
"Pin" (1988) is a slow burn Hitchcock-ian psychological drama/horror that mixes “Psycho” (1960), “Flowers in the Attic” (1987) and a little “Paper Man” (1971) with the creepy mannequins of several 70's movies/shows, like Kolchak: The Night Stalker’s "The Trevi Collection.”
The low-key commentary on the negative effects of legalism is interesting, augmented by the fact that it’s nonreligious legalism relating to a well-to-do, educated family, which is the opposite of the situation in “Carrie” (1976). Yet legalism is only one of the mental conditions explored.
The flick is smart to not spell everything out, making the viewer seek for answers. For instance, is ventriloquism being used or not? Meanwhile the ending ties everything up with a nigh ‘wow’ factor.
I shouldn’t fail to mention that redhead Helene Udy is on hand for an effective sequence.
The movie runs 1 hour, 43 minutes, and was shot in Iberville, Québec, which is about 15 miles southeast of Montreal and 20 miles north of Lake Champlain & the US border, as well as Saint-Lambert, which is just across the river from Montreal.
GRADE: B+
