Review of Pin (1988) by George V — 28 Apr 2008

There is definitely something very unusual and original about this film as I've never seen anything quite like it. It's not horror in a typical sense at all really, definitely psychological horror I'd say. I also found that no matter what I'd read about this film, it was nothing in comparison to actually seeing it, very hard to describe yet bizarrely impressive and disturbing.

Even in the beginning of the film you can tell something isn't quite right with the Linden family. Ma and Pa are really weird folks who work at a medical clinic and their two children Ursula and Leon look like something out of Village Of The Damned. Then there is the other "member of the family" a medical dummy named "Pin" which is short for Pinocchio. See Pin's purpose is to teach the children about sex and other medical questions they may have, Pin "talks" through their father bouncing his voice.

Ursula knows Pin is just a dummy and that her father is a ventriloquist, but Leon definitely disagrees. Then their folks get in a car accident and things start to go really screwy. It takes a "Psycho" style twist but I don't really want to ruin everything because I almost feel like I've ruined too much. It's low budget but it actually is really effective and it's hard to tell.

The surreal quality the film has keeps it actually quite captivating and easy to watch, but it's hard to tell what's going on for quite some time so you'll need to be patient. This isn't some gorefest or typical film in any manner so it may not be for everyone, but if you want to see a highly creative and entertaining film, this fits the bill.