PIN (1988)
Starring David Hewlett and Terry O’Quinn
A pretty interesting psychological horror film from the 1980s, "Pin" refers to an anatomically correct medical dummy that a doctor (O’Quinn of "Stepfather" fame) uses to teach his kids about science. The doctor happens to be one hell of a ventriloquist, throwing his voice so that his son Leon literally thinks Pin is a living being.
Even as the boy grows up to be a teen with a bizarre sexual fixation on his sister, he continues to believe that Pin is a living, breathing entity. When his parents are killed in a car crash, the young adult takes Pin home, puts a suit on him, sticks him in the attic and proceeds to have long conversations with it. Naturally the dummy starts killing people Leon doesn’t like.
The best thing about the movie might be the performances. Such talky horror films require great actors to make their characters as real as can be. Hewlett is especially good as the paranoid schizophrenic Leon. It’s also always refreshing to see O’Quinn in a horror film.
The scenes when Pin attacks are genuinely creepy, but the idea of a doll being used by a psychotic’s mind to carry out homicidal acts on his behalf has been done a zillion times before, most notably in "Magic." Still, "Pin" is a pretty eerie and suspenseful little movie. If you like horror films that build up slowly, this might be your cup of tea.