Review: Pin (1988)

Directed by: Sandor Stern
Starring: David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'Quinn
Written by: Sandor Stern
Music by: Peter Manning Robinson
Country: Canada
Not currently available on physical media
IMDb

Pin, Sandor Stern’s 1988 adaptation of Andrew Neiderman’s novel of the same name, landed right around the same time as a slew of killer doll movies like Dolls (1987), Child’s Play (1988), Puppet Master (1989), and Dolly Dearest (1991), so it gets lumped in with that subgenre — and, frankly, the film’s marketing does absolutely nothing to convince anyone otherwise. But this screwy little Canadian film is much less about the murderous antics of animated playthings than it is about a kid’s unsettling descent into nuttiness via an unhealthy attachment to an inanimate plaything, giving off the same vibes as something like The Pit (1981).

David Hewlett plays Leon, who, along with his sister Ursula, is raised under the cold, distant tutelage of his doctor dad (Terry O’Quinn, excellent as always). Daddy likes to use an anatomically correct doll named Pin to teach his kiddos about life via the disconcerting magic of ventriloquism (though the whispery plastic boy is actually voiced by Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad). They learn about the body from Pin’s body and learn about penises from Pin’s penis. The doctor’s nurse also likes to learn about Pin’s penis, in one of this quite dark and disturbing film’s more unpleasant moments, which it then casually moves past like you didn’t just watch a nurse casually jack herself off with a doll. Anyway. As one may surmise, Leon’s view of the world grows slightly more cracked as the years pass, losing interest in real-world friends as he consoles himself with Pin’s private counsel, having learned a few voice-throwing tricks from pops.

Pin never quite goes where you expect it to go. Sometimes this is a good thing, leaving you with a plethora of scenes that disarm you with their what-the-fuckness. In that way, this is a pretty unique watch that will render you surprised and often uncomfortable, as Leon’s connection with Pin becomes more complicated and bizarre. Also fascinating is Ursula’s indifference toward helping Leon back to reality. She’s kind of worried about her brother’s budding insanity, but she also kind of thinks Pin is the bee’s knees, so humors Leon more than is ideal. Normally, psychological horror of this sort has a counterbalance, an anchor to rational thinking, but nah. This is a car with no brakes driven by two teenagers who only vaguely understand the concept of a car.

Pin’s divergence from expectations also breeds some disappointment. This is way more of a low-key, if very weird, trip into psychosis than you might find yourself wanting. Though there is some doll-related death, there’s not much. The stage is set for Leon to fly completely off his pretty boy hinges and savagely enact Pin’s more deadly advice, but it never really happens. The film is more restrained on violence of the physical type than it is the psychological.

Stern’s film is always compelling and strange, though, and I always appreciate an offbeat tune. Pin is one of those movies that takes some wild swings that don’t always connect, but you still give it the ol’ attaboy-way-to-go-for-it because it manages to differentiate itself from a lot of other garbage from the time going through the Chucky motions.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10