(This will be a fun one.)
Pin (1988) horror movie about inaccessibility, if one were to go by the poster.
It is actually about a boy who believes an anatomy doll is his imaginary friend. That sounds like a great premise. The poster is also great.
The official title is Pin: A Plastic Nightmare.
This is actually a really good movie. I know the claim "It's not a horror movie, it's a psychological thriller," is usually a way for people to justify watching a horror movie. Trust me, I don't feel guilty about watching dumb horror movie. Pin is an odd combination of a generic '80s horror movie and tense psychological thriller. If you are interested at all, watch it before reading this review, as it has some twists and my post will ruin them.
The ellipses are so tense, you could hear a Pin drop.
Four boys stare up at an old house with a man staring out the window. They wonder whether he is paralyzed, dead, or a dummy.
One boy decides that the best way to determine this is to climb up the side of house. He pulls back the window curtain and the man says "Get out"
So clearly, it is a real person.
Also, the boy calmly climbs down after this.
Fifteen years earlier, it was night time and there was a car parked in front of the house. That's about it.
Two impossibly perfect children eat lunch. Their impossibly perfect mother cleans up. They ask their father if they can go to bed.
He asks his daughter, Ursula, to count to ten for him. She does.
He asks his son, Leon, to count backwards from 100 by sevens.
Damn it, this is how the gender wage gap gets started.
He messes up 72 to 66. The father says that they will work on it.
The father is a doctor. A quirky doctor, who does a ventriliquism with a anatomy doll during check-ups. The doctor asks the doll whether he thinks the patient has a temperature.
Also, his kids watch. The father will probably regret this later on when he has to pay for the therapists.
The anatomy doll is named Pin (1998)
The doctors and Pin "argue" about whether Pin should get a coat. After a few rounds of the puppetry routine, the patient seems relieved to go get a blood test.
Given the Pin situation, I would be relieved as well.
The doctor and patient leave. Ursula and the son talk to Pin about the clothes..
Right then, the father comes back and stops in the doorway. He uses ventriloquism to make Pin tell his kids that the clothes idea is dumb.
Seriously, this is the sort of repressed memory that a psychologist will dig out of the kids years later...
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| His name is Frank |
The kids leave, but Leon lags behind just long enough to hear Frank argue with Pin about the diagnosis.
At least patients don't have to pay extra for a second opinion.
In an odd transition, a shot of Leon's face fades to white and then cuts back to this house with ethereal as if it were a memory.
The mother yells at Leon because his friend tracked in dirt from outside. Then she slaps him.
Leon goes outside. Generic bullies yell at him and hit him with a ball.
Leon goes to talk to Frank, but he drives away.
I think the twist at the end of the movie will be that everyone else had a bet on who could make Leon snap into either Carrie (1976) or Pin (1988)
Leon goes to his father's office to talk to the anatomy doll. Definitely give your traumatized child the ability to access your office where the source of his trauma and a lot of confidential information reside. He tells Pin that he has no other friends to talk to besides Ursula, but she's a girl.
So the social order is
1.Male Humans
2. Male Dolls
3. Female Humans
4. Female Dolls
This is called the Pediorchy
Leon hides as a nurse comes in. He watches as, well...
When I started this blog, I assumed I was going to be watching some odd and disturbing scenes.
I would never have guess I was going to see a woman have sex with a anatomy doll.
Okay, she doesn't actually take her clothes off, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.
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| I'm all for using anatomy dolls for sex education, but this is taking it a little too far. |
AND HE SNAPS.
At Ursula's birthday party, she gets one present from her parents and one from Pin. Leon and Pin look around 13. It would be nice if the movie indicated the time more.
Leon excitedly asks to see what Pin got her. So much for the trauma of seeing a woman have sex with Pin.
Pin got Ursula a music box with a ballerina. That night, Leon stares at the music box while Ursula looks at pre-internet pornographic magazine and questions when she will grow breasts.
This movie is more disturbing than the one last week with all the slit throats and strangling.
Nice job breaking gender stereotypes. The girl is looking at pictures of naked women and the boy is staring at a ballerina music box.
Ursula casually mentions that Pin is an office dummy. Leon attacks her and their mother comes in. She confiscates the magazine.
I joked about using Pin for sex education. but now Frank is actually using Pin for sex eduction.
Ursula looks behind her at her Frank. He knows that Ursula knows Pin isn't real, but they play along for Leon.
Pin tells Leon to take the towel off of his lap so that they can see his "male sexual apparatus."
Firstly, that's cisnormative.
Secondly, are you trying to sabotage your son's sexuality?
Leon and Ursula talk about how they are looking forwards to having sex. The first twenty minutes of this movie are more disturbing than every other movie I have reviewed. Combined.
Okay, maybe not.
Fade to white again. It's high-school.
So fading to white indicates a time skip.
This is definitely an accurate representation of a 1988 horror movie high school.
Leon walks around with this expression on his face
I can't imagine what kind of traumatic experiences made him that way.
Bullies graffiti his locker.
That's not nice. What did the owner of the other locker do?
Leon goes to the dance (that is going on in the school) and asks a girl named Marsha if she's seen Ursula.
Marsha says she say Ursula dancing with someone named Eddie and asks Leon wants to dance.
Leon declines because Marsha isn't an anatomy doll.
Leon runs outside and sees a car rocking from side to side. Ursula and Eddie are having sex inside.
This gives Leon justification to drag Eddie out and beat him up for not being an anatomy doll.
Leon angrily asks whether Ursula has engaged in intercourse with the entire football team.
Definitely a 80's horror movie high school.
He tells her that if she ever has sex with another guy, he will stop being her brother.
...that sounds like a win-win situation for her.
In their backyard, Ursula walks past their parents and sits down next to Leon reading a book. This is the actual dialogue in this scene:
Ursula: Hi
Leon: Hey. This calculus is killing me.
Ursula: I think i'm pregnant.
Leon says that Ursula can't go to the doctor without them notifying their father because Ursula is 15.
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| Pictured: An actual 15 year-old girl. |
15 in 80's horror movie years is about 26, by the way.
Leon tells Ursula to just go ask Pin. Ursula almost tells Leon that Pin isn't real, but stops herself. She just tells him that Pin won't talk without their father there.
This brings up a question. Does Frank still do the ventriloquism routine while Leon is in high-school? If not, has Pin not talked since they were kids?
Actually, Pin does talk! Kind of. Leon uses ventriloquism to make Pin say that they should tell their father.
Ursula understandably freaks out and runs outside.
I guess they told their father, because now Ursula and Leon sit in the office. Frank says he will examine Ursula and chastises Leon for not wanting to "stay and observe."
Clearly, Leon's sexuality isn't confused enough for his father.
At a half-hour in, this movie is great. It's really creepy and subdued. Still waiting for the promised wheelchair on the poster.
Frank forces Leon to fill out some college applications before leaving for a speech with their mother. Halfway there, he realizes he left medical histories in his office and goes back to find Leon talking to Pin.
"Gee son, I thought traumatizing you and teaching you lesson through an anatomy wouldn't have an negative ramifications. Guess I was wrong."
Frank tells Leon to go home and confiscates Pin. He tells their mother that he need him for a "visual aid" and will leave Pin at the university
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| Most emotional movie moment involving an anatomy doll. |
Frank drives while the mother nervously glances behind her at Pin. Pin is covered in a sheet.
A sudden curve in the road causes the sheet to fall off. Franks keeps glancing at Pin's reflection.
Then he crashes, the car flips over, and the parents die.
They were Pinned against their seats.
The police bring Ursula and Leon to the crash site. Leon is relived that the anatomy doll is safe, as he was waiting on Pins and needles.
Leon and Ursula go back to their house, Their aunt promises to move in with them by next week.
They rip the plastic off the furniture, and order pizza for dinner. everything worked out fine for them in the end!
The cans intrigued me so much that I looked up Diet Pepsi cans from 1988.
I wonder whether Pepsi paid them or if they just used the cans and Pepsi didn't care about this obscure horror movie about an anatomy doll. One would think that, if it was product placement, they would make the labels more prominent.
Speaking of the anatomy doll, Ursula wakes up the the sound of a music box. She sneaks into her brothers room and sees Pin sitting in a chair. Dressed in a suit.
She is surprised, but shouldn't. There's over an hour of movie left!
Ursula says that Aunt Dorothy won't like Pin being their. Leon tells Ursula that Pin is family, be he will store Pin in the attic. Also, Aunt Dorothy probably won't be there for long.
Ursula decides the best way to approach this situation is to go to the library and read some books on schizophrenia.
Remember, this is before WedMD.
Boy, I started this movie because their was someone in a wheelchair on the cover. There's no wheelchair so far, but there is a disability anyway.
Ursula sees a Help Wanted sign in the library
Next week, Aunt Dorothy comes in an immediately tells Leon to put the covers back on the furniture. God damn it, Leon.
At dinner, Leon says that he stored the plastic covers in the attic but the door is locked. Aunt Dorothy says she will call the locksmith.
Ursula says that she got the job at the library. Leon asks why she applied when she doesn't need the money. Aunt Dorothy replies that it is good for mental health. Not too subtle. Leon leaves.
Leon goes to the attic. Pin says...
From now on, I will use "Pin says" as shorthand for "Leon makes Pin say."
Pin says that Aunt Dorothy is changing Ursula and advises Leon to get rid of her.
That night, a voice whispers "Dorothy" creepily. Aunt Dorothy wakes up, rolls over, and sees Pin next to her. Pin sits up.
Leon stands up from behind the bed.
So...
Leon snuck into Aunt Dorothy's room while she was asleep, put pin next to her, and lay down without her waking up?
I can buy that.
With Aunt Dorothy gone, Leon bring Pin back down. Ursula watches.
The next...
Sometime in the future, (This movie has a hard time indicating passage of time) Ursula comes home to Pin wearing their father's clothes and a mask.
Leon tells Ursula that he wants to be a writer. Ursula snaps that she has a problem with It (2017), pointing at Pin.
Ursula runs upstairs to her room. Leon follows and yells at her. He tells her to either apologize to Pin or leave the house. She decides to apologize.
Another transition to an indeterminite point in the future. Ursula works in the library and a guy named Stan hits on her.
Ursula tells Leon this and Leon replies that Ursula is a "beautiful young woman."
I want to say that this moment is the point where Ursula should seek medical help, but she should have done a long time ago.
And getting the book on schizophrenia doesn't help.
Stan and Ursula start dating. Ursula says that she is going out to dinner and a movie with Stan, to Leon's creepy dismay.
When she comes home from the date, Leon is angry that she
Later, Leon calls Marsha to make a date for Saturday. That girl from near the beginning of the movie.
Pin tells Leon that he is just jealous of Ursula and this movie spiraled into some passive-agressive incestuous revenge plot. I love it.
Leon and Marsha go to the movies. Leon is bored and Marsha...
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| I hate it when person next to me chews loudly! |
Ursula gives Stan a watch that beeps every hour. That may or may not be important later.
Marsha and Leon move to their room to have sex. Marsha undresses, but Leon doesn't, because Pin could come in.
He tells Marsha that Pin is a friend who is staying with them.
Leon decides not to have sex with Marsha because she is not an anatomy doll. He leaves.
Marsha walks downstairs and calls out for Leon to give her her jacket. She wanders around in the dark.
This scene looks like a typical horror movie scene, but it is very effective because there has been an hour of subdued build-up.
Marsha picks up her jacket and puts it on. Pin appears out of the darkness
 |
| Hello, Marsha. |
I mean
 |
| Hello, Marsha |
Pin chases Marsha...somehow. There's a motor. Marsha runs to the door and Ursula comes in. She yells at Leon, who is controlling an electric wheelchair with Pin in it.
This is the first movie I've reviewed where the doll has the disability.
In the morning, Ursula decides to get some psychiatric help for Leon.
That's what would happen if she were smart. Instead, she agrees to invite Stan over to meet Pin. Obviously.
Stan comes over with a box of chocolates for Ursula. Instead, Leon grabs them because "Pin loves chocolates".
Leon tells Ursula to go check on the rice while he goes up to introduce Stan to Pin.
Ursula had warned Stan about Pin, but he is still uncomfortable at the meeting. Pin says he likes the chocolates.
Pin is not at the dinner, which makes Leon unhappy. Stan brings up Leon's poetry and asks to hear some of it after dinner.
Stan's watch beeps. This may or may not be important.
The poetry reading turns out to be a bad idea. Stan, Ursula, and Pin listen as Leon reads his epic poem about a "modern day Beowulf out to gain immortality by creating as much progeny as he can."
Poem
Closer she came to him,
Moving, it seemed, in silent motion
His heart beat steadily within the caverns of his bosom
Driving hot, thick blood down,
Down into the depths of his loins
He lunged from the deepest, darkest
Passions in us all
She turned without a sound and faced him
He stopped abruptly
It was if a knife had performed an instant castration
He was looking to the eyes
of his sister
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| "Seriously, Leon? That didn't even rhyme!" |
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| "I don't want to assume anything, but this feels like a red flag." |
Leon excitedly rolls Pin into his room, claiming that Stan liked his poetry.
So...he carried the chair up the stairs by himself?
Leon goes downstairs and overhears Stan telling Ursula that he needs psychiatric help.
THANK YOU.
Stan worries about the whole "writing poetry about raping his sister" thing. Ursula tells him to wait 23 years and see how popular Game of Thrones will become.
Leon runs back upstairs.
Ursula has diagnosed Leon with paranoid schizophrenia, but she refuses to report it.
Pin tells Leon that he must get rid of Stan.
"Cut" to Leon practicing chopping up firewood.
There are about 25 minutes left in this 1:42:33 movie and no murders so far. But it's really good and creepy. I hope that
Ursula thanks Leon for being nice to Stan and it's important that they like each other. Leon hypothetically what would happen if he didn't like Stan. While angrily chopping firewood.
Ursula sees no problem with this.
Leon calls Stan asking if he can come over in an hour to help with Ursula's surprise birthday party.
Leon poisons some Scotch and sits down with Stan and Pin. So this isn't going to turn into The Shining.
At work, the librarian allows Ursula to leave early because she is distracted.
During the cut to the library, Stan drank the scotch. The movie could have made that clearer. Leon tells Stan that he and Pin care about Ursula. Stan starts drowsing off. Leon thinks he was plotting to put him in a mental institution
Stan collapses. Pin tells Leon to get Stan. Leon uses a horse statue to kill Stan.
Apparently Leon didn't give the medicine enough to time to kill Stan.
Pin starts talking to Leon, telling him to hide the body in the river and clean up the blood.
Unfortunately, Ursula calls to to tell him that she is coming home early.
Pin uses flexible thinking to reach a solution. Put the body underneath the woodpile,drive Stan's car away, and clean up the blood.
Ursula comes home. Leon tells her that Stan's friend got sick and he had to leave to see him and couldn't have Ursula for...some reason
Leon has made a lot of food in the meantime. He ominously points at the dishes with a knife.
Leon and Ursula sit down to have pot roast, but Ursula is worried. Leon uses the following logic:
If you trust him, you shouldn't worry about him.
Leon casually mentions that their dad would turn over in his grave if he knew they were drinking wine.
Ursula snaps and tells him that life was better when their parents were alive because, among other things, "the food tasted good"
Leon asks if Ursula wants to here the new stanza in his poem.
She doesn't seem to react negatively to this suggestion. The poem about the incestuous rape.
Ursula checks on the fire when...
She hears Stan's watch beep.
I hate to admit it, but I didn't see that coming when they set the watch up twice.
Ursula looks around for Stan as Pin sits creepily. She finds the watch and broken mantle under the couch.
Hold up.
Leon cleaned up the entire area of blood but missed the mantle and watch?
Ursula confronts Leon. Leon Pins the blame on the doll
Ursula runs away. Leon asks why Pin didn't lie for him.
"I don't know how [to lie] and neither do you and that's why you do it so badly"
Ursula comes back and has a brief Shining moment.
Later, the police uncover the body bag from under the logs. Ursula sits in the car. Somehow, stan is alive.
So far I have loved this movie and there are only three minutes left. Ready for the obligitory twist?
Ursula goes upstairs and talks to someone in a wheelchair staring out the window. She calls him Pin. Pin says he misses Leon.
Ursula: So do I.
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| Final shot |
That ties back to the opening.
This twist is kind of unfair. Ursula clearly swung the ax at Leon. Apparently, at the last second, she changed direction and smashed Pin instead, I guess. And then the trauma of seeing Pin destroyed made Leon take on his personality permanently.
She clearly hit Leon!
I used to think that abstinence-only sex education was ineffective because teenagers will have sex even if you tell them not to.
But if you replace the current curriculum with just showing the Pin and woman sex scene to eighth-graders, it will put them off sex for a while.
Also, the conservative parents won't have a problem with this, as Pin identifies as male and the woman as female.
Seriously, I loved this movie. It's slow but it builds to an actually creepy atmosphere. The incestuous hints make it more disturbing. I was hoping to do a bad horror film for Halloween, but I ended up doing a great one.
I wonder if Hitchcock saw this movie before he made Psycho (1960)
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