PIN (1988)

Directed by Sandor Stern, Starring: David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'Quinn. Horror, Canada, 1988, 98mins, cert 15.

Dummies and ventriloquists have a history of terrible and terrifying collaborations: Michael Redgrave (DEAD OF NIGHT); Anthony Hopkins (MAGIC); Keith Harris and Orville.

In this lesser-known Canadian example of the dodgy dummy sub-genre, Terry (THE STEPFATHER) O’Quinn is a ventriloquist paediatrician who employs an anatomically accurate medical dummy - resplendent with muscles and organs - to explain the wonders of the human body to his little patients. Nicknamed Pin (after Pinocchio), the dummy exerts a fascination and an increasingly unhealthy hold over Dr. Linden’s son, Leon. His sister Ursula, although younger, is under no illusions that Pin only talks when her father is in the room – but Leon has no other friends and uses Pin as his confidant. Back at the old Linden homestead, whilst their doctor father is testing them with maths questions before bedtime, mum is following after them with a Hoover and covering all the chairs with plastic sheets. It’s not a healthy environment. Then again, back at the medical centre, one of Dr. Linden’s nurses is utilising Pin’s anatomical accuracy for self gratification (presumably Pin’s ‘stiffness’ isn’t confined to his overall build). Meanwhile, prepubescent Leon and Ursula are perusing a porn magazine and speculating on “the need”. Ursula informs her brother that she: “Can’t wait till I’m old enough. I think I’m REALLY gonna like it”. Sure enough, at 15, Ursula (Cynthia Preston) has developed just such a reputation judging by the graffiti on Leon’s High-school locker. She is then caught by Leon in a parked car at the school prom indulging “the need” with a fellow student. Leon (David Hewlett) unceremoniously pulls the unfortunate chap from the car and proceeds to kick him in the “need” area.

Then their parents are killed in a car crash and brother Leon decides that ‘Pin’ should come and live with them: and to give Pin a make-over and one of father’s old suits...

This is a film that had always been on the periphery of my vision and yet somehow I’d never previously got around to watching it. It’s a modestly effective psychological thriller which manages to generate some skin-crawling suggestive inappropriateness. Terry O’Quinn reprises his creepy STEPFATHER (1987) performance as ventriloquist Dr. Linden, culminating in a supremely disturbing scene where he casually invites his son to watch as he performs an abortion on his daughter Ursula. Both Cynthia Preston and David Hewlett give convincing portraits in challenging roles as the grown-up siblings Ursula and David. Director Sandor Stern (who wrote the screenplay for the 1979 AMITYVILLE HORROR) adapted the story from a novel by Andrew (THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE) Neiderman. As is so often the case with screen adaptations, events unfurl at a rapid-fire pace in order to tell the story (particularly the character-forming early years of Ursula and David), but once these vignettes (essential to the plot) are dealt with, the narrative settles down and Stern displays a steady hand with the potentially risible source material. PIN is an unsettling, measured piece (nothing like the misleading shock-fest the trailer promises), but one which provides some memorable images, decent acting and a haunting final image which lingers well past the end-credits.              

*** (out of 5*)

Paul Worts

This review was originally published on the FrightFest website.