The Scare Salon

Thematically, it somewhat resembles the 1978 film Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins, in that it explores the mental deterioration of a man who believes an inanimate human simulacrum (a ventriloquist’s figure in the case of Magic, a medical dummy in the case of Pin) is alive and acting of its own accord. The structure of the two films isn’t really the same, but the vibe is similar. Pin also has a whiff of Psycho about it, in the sense that the main protagonist is clearly mentally ill and dangerous, but is still sympathetic to the audience.

As good as the movie is, it was sadly a victim of circumstance and became unfairly overlooked as a result. It was initially supposed to be the last theatrical release from its distributor, New World Pictures, which was at the time closing down its film division. Still, it was decided at the last minute to release the movie direct to video instead. It didn’t get much traction at all for a long time, but eventually became a cult favorite through word of mouth, so much so that there was even talk of doing a remake of it back in 2011 (which obviously didn’t happen). It’s nice to see a film of this quality finally get some of the attention it so richly deserves.

The film mostly follows a brother and sister named Leon and Ursula (played as adults by David Hewlett and Cynthia Preston respectively). At the beginning, they’re younger kids, and it’s established that they have something of a strange relationship with their parents. Their father, Dr. Frank Linden (Terry O’Quinn), is a very wealthy physician and is rather cold and distant toward them, while their mother (Bronwen Mantel) is a buttoned-up clean freak who won’t let them play outside for fear they’ll get dirty. Neither of the parents is overtly physically abusive, but it’s not a great situation nonetheless.

Dr. Linden has an unsettling medical dummy named Pin in his office. This thing is life-size and anatomically correct, essentially looking like a dude without skin but also featuring piercing blue eyes that are just realistic enough to fall into uncanny valley territory. Using ventriloquism, Dr. Linden talks to the children through Pin, usually teaching them about their bodies and about sex, since it’s presumably too awkward for Dr. Linden to tell the kids these things directly. Both the kids love Pin (who is creepily voiced by Jonathan Banks of Breaking Bad, by the way), though Ursula seems to suspect, even from a young age, that her father is the one doing the voice. But Leon, who is a couple of years older than his sister, totally believes that Pin is alive, probably because he’s not really allowed to have friends over or have any kind of normal “kid” interactions; in other words, he wholeheartedly sees Pin as his only friend and confidante.

Dr. Linden forbids the children from talking to Pin when he isn’t around (for obvious reasons), but one day Leon wants to ask Pin something and sneaks into the office. While in there, he sees one of the nurses use Pin as a sex doll (he’s anatomically correct, as I mentioned), and this seems to horrify him, perhaps exacerbating his developing mental health issues.

After Pin gives the kids the birds and the bees talk, Leon and Ursula matter-of-factly discuss sex, wondering how often their parents feel “the need” and trying to picture them doing it. Ursula asks if Leon ever feels “the need,” and he says no, he’s too young. Ursula then says that she can’t wait to get older and experience sex, as she thinks she’s really going to like it.

We then jump ahead several years; Ursula is about fifteen, and Leon is about eighteen. Someone has scrawled some graffiti on Leon’s locker at school, essentially calling Ursula a slut, and minutes later, he finds her having sex with a boy in a car in the parking lot. Leon is enraged, beating the crap out of the boy and telling Ursula to never do that again.

She doesn’t, but it’s too late; she’s already pregnant. Leon insists that she has to tell their father, but Ursula is terrified to say anything. Leon proposes that they go to Pin and ask for advice, but Ursula tells him that Pin won’t talk to them (because she knows that it was their dad doing the voice). Leon insists, so Ursula reluctantly goes along.

To her uneasy surprise, Pin does actually talk to them, recommending that Ursula tell her father about the pregnancy. This turn of events worries Ursula a great deal, because she starts to realize how profound Leon’s delusion is; he’s now providing Pin’s voice without being aware that he’s doing it.

Despite her misgivings, she and Leon do go to Dr. Linden and tell him about the pregnancy. As usual, Dr. Linden is calm and coldly rational about the whole thing, performing an abortion on his daughter while telling her, “You won’t want to go through this again.” He even asks Leon if he wants to observe the abortion (!!!), but Leon declines.

Not long after this, Dr. Linden is on his way to give a speech at a conference and realizes he forgot some of his notes back at home. He’s already late, and his wife tells him to go without them, but he says he needs them. When he rushes back into the house, though, he catches Leon having a conversation with Pin, and he too twigs onto the fact that his son has some severe psychological issues. Infuriated, he takes Pin and shoves him into the car, intending to use him as a visual aid for his speech and then donate him to the medical college to get him away from Leon.

Well, because Dr. Linden is speeding to make it to the conference on time, and because he’s a bit freaked out by Pin staring at him from the back seat, he crashes the car, killing both him and his wife instantly. In this scene and a few others, the movie flirts with the idea that Pin might be alive after all, an ambiguity that gives the story a bit more spooky tension. Leon is able to spirit Pin out of the wreckage before anyone is the wiser, and he takes his only friend back home.

After their parents’ deaths, Leon and Ursula inherit the huge house and all the money and seem to be set for life. But because Ursula is technically still a minor, their aunt Dorothy (Patricia Collins) comes to live with them. She’s just as fussy and controlling as their mother was, and Leon starts chafing under her supervision. He’s also pissed off that Ursula gets a job at the library, and doubly pissed off that Dorothy thinks this is a good idea. He starts talking to Pin about his concerns, and Pin tells him that Dorothy needs to go. Leon doesn’t kill her outright but uses Pin to frighten her into a heart attack, a death that doesn’t seem suspicious since she had a known heart condition.

After Dorothy “leaves,” the siblings are free once again. But Ursula is not happy about having to share the house with Pin, and she gets even less enthused when Leon starts dressing Pin in their father’s clothes and putting a latex face and wig on him, as well as installing him at the dining room table at dinner time as if he was a real person.

One bright spot in her life, though, is Stan Fraker (John Ferguson), who she meets at the library and starts to fall for. Obviously, given Leon’s messed up feelings about his sister and his need to control her mean that he’s livid about this blossoming relationship, and you just know that things are going to go drastically sideways before too long.

This is an excellent and tragically underappreciated film, an eerie psychological examination of madness done in a low-key but effective way. The acting performances are terrific across the board, and the scenes with Pin are pleasingly chilling. There isn’t a great deal of violence or gore, but the weird relationships between all the characters and Leon’s downward spiral make it a riveting watch. I don’t believe the film ever got a Blu-ray release in the US (it is on DVD, but it’s really expensive) and as of this writing, it’s not available legally on any streaming services, though a couple of nice folks have put decent copies up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. If you’re into odd psychological horror dramas along the lines of Magic, then Pin is an easy recommend.

Until next time, keep it creepy, my friends.