Pin (1988)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:20] Speaker B: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the final girl on 6th Avenue podcast. My name is Carolyn Smith Hilmer and I am 6th Avenue's very own Final Girl. And today I am here to talk to you about the movie Pin. Pin is interesting. I've seen it come up before, you know, like on letterboxd or maybe like an IMDb or, you know, anything that like, is about obscure, you know, horror films. And obscure. This is, I can guarantee you that. I can guarantee you, you've never heard about anything quite like this. Pin has a sort of cult following. Okay. It came out in 1988 and it was actually, from my understanding, a made for TV movie in Canada. So the budget not high, the effects practical. I love practical effects, so don't think I'm dissing practical effects in any way. But yeah, I. You know, as the more I kept seeing this and the more I kept reading about it, I was like, you know what? That sounds like something I have to watch and something that I desperately need to talk about. So let's talk about Pin. It was written and directed by Sandra Stern, stars David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'. Quinn, and IMDb has the following description. Isolated by his strange parents, Leon finds solace in an imaginary friend which happens to be an anatomy doll from his father's doctor's office. Unfortunately, the doll begins to take over Leon's life and his sister's life as well. If you're gonna watch this, might I recommend watching this in the daytime? Yeah, yeah, no, I would. I would recommend watching this in the daytime. This. I watched it during the daytime and it still freaked me the out. So I think without further ado, we get right into it because again, this is just one of those. It's like, what the. So Pin. Pin opens with a group of young boys and they're crouching down looking at this house, and they're talking about the fact that there's a dummy standing in the window of the house on the second story. And the boys are all like, you know, talking to each other, doing the dumb shit that little boys do. And they're finally able to convince one of them that they should go up closer to the house to like, end interact with this dummy. And so this one boy, the young daredevil of the group, ends up scaling the side of the home, like, of this building to get to the second story to look into the window. And once he gets up there, the dummy blinks. So is it a dummy or is it not? They all get scared. They run away. Cool. 15 years earlier. We are in the Linden home, where Ursula and Leon, who are brother and sister, are eating at a dining room table with napkins, like, tucked in their shirt. And they're standing on these, like, designated stools. This house is, like, meticulously cleaned and organized, and it feels very, like, cold and maybe, like, clinical to an extent. Like, it feels like nobody lives there. Like, we're talking, like, mom is constantly cleaning and, like, the furniture covers are always on the furniture. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Okay? [00:04:19] Speaker B: And, like, kids are seen and not heard. That's. That's the situation we're dealing with. So before bed, they eat dinner. Before bed, they go to their dad's office and in the house. And dad is, like, makes it a point every night to ask the kids to, like, he asked them a question, basically. And so this night, Ursula is asked to count to 10. Cool. [00:04:47] Speaker A: She does it. [00:04:49] Speaker B: And then he asks Leon to count backwards from a hundred in sevens. So Leon gets it wrong, but Ursula gets hers. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Right? [00:05:00] Speaker B: But regardless, they're both sent off to bed in the same way. And dad basically tells Leon that he should practice it because the next time he gets asked, then he'll know. Dr. Linden has a anatomy dummy in his office whose name is Pin. I have no idea who gave him this name or why, but Pin is a dummy, right? So Dr. Linden kind of, like, gives Pin a voice and speaks for him like a ventriloquist would do. And so one day, Ursula and Leon are in the office with their dad, his medical office. And Dr. Linden leaves the room with a patient to come back and find Leon and Ursula talking to Pin. And they're saying that, like, if Pin were to ask their dad, they're sure that dad would buy him some clothes. Pin tells the kids that if he had clothes on, then no one would be able to see inside of him, and then he wouldn't be used for teaching anymore. So. But when the kids are talking to Pin, they don't know that their dad has actually re. Entered the room and is behind them and is so speaking for Pin. So this makes the kids think that Pin can actually talk. I don't know what's worse. The fact that the dad is so good at ventriloquism or the fact that the kids think that the doll can talk. I don't know. You tell me. But anyway, dad has had enough of Leon and Ursula at work and sentences them to the living. Back at home, Mrs. Linden looks like Marcia fucking Brady, and she orders Leon downstairs one day to scold him for leaving some dirt on the floor. And she tells him that he can't bring his friend anymore to the house because the friend looks dirty. This is a home that they're growing up in, okay? So they're not allowed to have friends over because a friend could look dirty. So Leon is like, well, why don't you start sterilizing our friends at the door? And then they won't be dirty when they come in anymore. Obviously, she doesn't like that response. And she slaps him, which causes him to run out of the house. And he runs away and walks until he meets some kids from school who ask him to play soccer. But then they joke that he actually can't participate because then he'll get dirty and his mom will be mad. And then they call him a spaz, and then they leave. Kids are so mean. Like, Leon can't control his mom being psychotic. So Leon leaves, and he goes to his dad's practice, and he walks right in and starts talking to Pin. And he tells Pin that he knows he isn't supposed to talk to him while the doctor isn't there, but he asks if, like, just this one time, he can, because he has no other friends to talk to. And then a nurse comes in to clean the exam room, right? Like, at the end of the day. And Leon's not supposed to be there, so he hides. And so then he's watching this nurse walk up to Pin and, like, romantically touch this doll's face, and then lays down on the exam table and puts Pin on top of her. And I suppose that this means that Pin is completely anatomically correct with a penis and everything, because the nurse starts to use Pin as a, like, masturbation sex doll. And Leon is just, like, in this room, hiding and watching this whole thing unfold back at home, ultimately, I suppose, not traumatized by this, they're celebrating Ursula's birthday. And so their dad says that she has a series of gifts, and one of them is from Pin. I don't know why the fuck this doll has such a large presence in this house, but I don't like it. And so Leon is like, ooh, that one's from Pin. You should open it. And he watches in just sheer amazement when she opens a dancing ballerina that plays music, kind of like a music box. And later, the two siblings, they lay together and, you know, like young kids do, and they're watching the ballerina while it dances and, you know, plays music. And they're looking at, like, a nudie magazine that Ursula stole from her friend's brother's closet. And so she tells Leon that her friend Marcia has started to grow breasts. And Leon is like, no, she's not. She's just fat. Again, fucking rude. So then Leon comments on how he would actually like to have Pin around more. Like, he would like to have Pin at home. And Ursula is like, dude, Pin is a stupid dummy, okay? He's a doll. So then Leon slaps her. I mean, what is the fucking obsession? But, you know, of course, mom, because her house is. I don't know, comes in and is like, what the fuck are you guys doing? And she ultimately catches Ursula with this magazine. So because she's seen with this magazine, I guess she tells their dad, like, I think it's time. Because the kids are obviously curious that they learn about sex and puberty. So he takes them to his office at his practice, and they are sitting side by side, like, on the exam table. And their dad is standing behind them while they're facing Pin. So he's obviously using ventriloquism to talk for Pin. So Pin tells them about how like, like, babies are made and, like, people even, like, have. It's not just evolutionary, but people, like, have this desire to have sex. So, like, beyond procreation, like, people actually desire this. And Pin has a towel on his lap covering his penis. And so Pin asks Leon to take the towel off to expose this penis, but he won't. So Ursula gets up and does it and laughs when she sees it. Later, they. They talk about how they wonder if their parents ever have the urge to have sex. And they conclude that they must because Leon and Ursula exist. So at least two times they've had this desire. And they joke that mom, you know, must wash Dad's penis until it's spick and span before they have sex because she's crazy. And then Leon is like, he. You know, he's saying basically he doesn't have those desires yet. But Ursula says that she can't wait until she's old enough to. Because she thinks she's gonna really enjoy it. Which, like, also. That's such a strange thing to say. Like, I don't think ever in my life growing up, I was like, oh, my God, I can't wait until I have the urge to have sex. Like, I'm not saying that that's, like, abnormal, but also, I find that strange. But anyways, fast forward now. We're at a high school dance, and I have to say, Leon is a really, really handsome man. At this age, dime 10 out of 10. He's, like, kind of socially awkward, right? So he's, like, walking the halls of the school, and he's, like, not really, like, in the gym for the dance. And he ends up finding this graffiti that somebody put on a locker, and it says, if you want an easy screw, Ursula will do. So people are basically making fun of his sister and saying that she's, you know, a whore, which, like, weird. I don't know. I find that if a girl wants to have sex, she can have sex. I mean, I don't. Whatever. Obviously, this bothers him. It would bother me if somebody wrote this about my sibling. And he tries to, like, erase it, but that doesn't work. So he tries to find Ursula in the gym, in the dance, but, like, he doesn't find her, and instead he finds her friend Marsha. And Marsha says that the last time she saw Ursula, she was dancing with a boy. And so she's kind of like, oh, Leon, you're cute. Do you want to dance? And he just ignores her. So he goes out of the school, and he finds Ursula in a car with a boy having sex. Bold of her to have sex in a car outside of a school dance. I have to give it to her. So he ends up dragging. He opens the door and drags this boy out of the car and beats him until some other high schoolers pull him off of this guy. And in the car on the way home, he's, like, grilling Ursula about her body count. And she's just, like, crying because she's embarrassed. And he's like, look, I don't want a sister that is a tramp. And if you do this again, you can forget about me being your brother at all. Why is his, you know, worth or capacity to be a sibling reliant on her having sex? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So soon after, they're at home and all of them are outside, right? Mom and dad are, like, sitting at this, like, outdoor table in chairs, and they're, like, reading. And Ursula kind of, like, approaches them to see if she'll get their attention, but they just, like, ignore her presence altogether. So she leaves. And she goes to find Leon, who's, like, down by this, like, river by their house, and he's reading, and she tells him that she thinks she's pregnant because it's been almost two months since her last period. And so he tells her, like, you promised that you weren't gonna have sex anymore. And she's like, dude, I haven't. But if you count the weeks, like, the shit adds up. And so he's like, yo, you gotta tell dad, because Dad's a doctor. Like, dad can help you. And she's like, no, thank you. Like, not the dude I want to tell. So then Leon is like. He's troubled, and he's like, you know, we should talk to. We should talk to Pin. Ursula is like, pin won't talk to us unless dad is there, so that doesn't really seem like an option. And Leon is like, yeah, but I don't know. Like, there might be an exception this time, because this is, like, a really big deal. So they leave, and they go to their dad's practice that night, and they ask Pin what. What he thinks they should do. And so Ursula is like, yo, I want to leave. And then Pin starts to spin. Now, you are probably asking yourself, is Pin actually speaking? Or has Leon now learned this act of ventriloquism? We don't know. That is where shit gets really weird. It's like, at times when people are around, it appears to be ventriloquism. But then at the times when it's just Leon and Pin, there's no, like, strong indication that it's ventriloquism. So pin says that Dr. Linden is a purely scientific man, and he will look at this as a simple mistake that just needs to be rectified. [00:17:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:17:40] Speaker B: And so Leon is like, yo, Pin, thank you so much for your time. And Pin says that he hopes that Leon will come back because they have a great deal to discuss outside of the office. Ursula asks Leon when he learned how to do that. Like, when did he learn how to do ventriloquism? And he just, like, ignores that question altogether and is just excited that Pin spoke. And when they leave, Pin is now positioned, like, at the window, looking at them. So soon after, they're back at the doctor's office, and Ursula is getting an abortion from none other than her very own dad, who makes them both promise Ursula and Leon, because Leon went with him. Like, went with them. And dad makes them promise to tell their mom that Ursula is experiencing nothing more than menstrual cramps. Cool. But, like, these must be. You know, these were really bad cramps. Like, I don't. I don't know any woman that would be buying this story, but whatever. So Leon is like, yo, I don't really want to be here for this procedure. Like, I'm not gonna watch. And so dad is like, okay, that's fine. Hey, Ursula, are you afraid? [00:19:04] Speaker A: No. [00:19:05] Speaker B: Shit. So she's like, yeah, I am. And he's like, okay, well, that's good, because that means that you won't want to do this again sometime. There know Leon is like, oh, thank you, Ursula. You're back in my good graces. Like, he wants to, like, bring her flowers and, like, be nice to her and all this stuff. And then Leon is scolded by his dad for not having completed his college applications. And he tells Leon that he wants Leon to go away to, like, a private school or, like, a really good school so he can leave their tiny town. And Leon hasn't been completing his applications because he's been spending all of his free time at the practice with Pin. And so dad tells Leon that he expects that the applications will be done when he gets home from his speaking engagement that evening and ready to be mailed. Mr. And Mrs. Linden are on the way to the speaking engagement when Dr. Linden realizes that he forgot to bring the patient's histories with him and. And he can't give the speech without it. So he goes to his office to get the files. And when he gets there, he finds that Leon is in the exam room talking to Pin. He's, like, walking up the stairs to get to the exam room, and he, you know, is rounding the corner and he hears Leon and he hears, like, the voice of Pin, right? Like, he hears, like, two people talking. He's scared, obviously, as to how this could be happening. So then he goes into the exam room and he tells Leon to sneak away. Like, sneak out. I don't want your mom to find you here because she's outside in the car and she's gonna see you. So Leon leaves and he, like, hides, and Dr. Linden gets the files that he needed and then also decides to. To bring Pin. And he says that he's using Pin as a reference for his speech. And mom is like, I hate having Pin in the car. Like, I don't want this. But Dr. Linden is like, look, it's a one way trip for Pin because Pin is staying at the medical school. Like, at this speaking engagement, he's not coming back. They're running late to the engagement because he had to stop by the office. And so he's driving erratically to get there. And Mrs. Linden is like, hey, this is scaring me. I would rather be late than have you drive like this the whole way there, because you're scaring me. And the driving just gets more erratic. And, like, roads are closed because they're, like, under construction and all this stuff. And, like, the driving is crazy. And in the backseat, where they. Where he put Pin, he covered, like, the top of Pin, like, his head and shoulders with a cloth. But as the driving gets more frantic, the cloth actually drops. And so Pin's face is exposed, and Pin has eyes, and so Pin is actually able to stare into the rear view mirror. Then Dr. Linden sees Pin's eyes in the rearview mirror. And because of all of the distraction surrounding Pin's creepy gaze and this horrific driving, the two of them get into a car accident on one of the roads that is, like, closed under construction, and they both die. So mom and dad both die, and Leon arrives, you know, on the scene later, doesn't do anything with mom, and dad, goes directly to the back seat and gets Pin and takes him from the scene. They have a funeral. After the funeral, their good old Aunt Dorothy has decided that she's gonna plan on moving in with the kids since Ursula is still a minor. And she thinks that it's important for Ursula to have a woman figure around. Afterwards, when everyone's gone, Ursula and Leon joke, you know, while they're putting everything away, that their mom must be in heaven, telling God to take off his shoes. And she's probably vacuuming. And so they're like, now that mom and dad aren't here, we should totally take the plastic covers off the furniture. So they do. Then they basically destroy the dining room. I mean, it's cluttered as dishes and cups and everything everywhere. And they're eating pizza, and Ursula tells, you know, Leon that she doesn't know how to cook because their mom never taught her out of fear that she would make too big of a mess in the kitchen. Ursula goes to bed later that night, though. She's woken up in the middle of the night because she can hear Leon talking to Pin. So she goes out of her room and goes to the room that Leon is in to find Pin sitting in a chair dressed in one of their dad's suits. So Ursula tells Leon that their dad never wanted Pin in the house in the first place, but the good thing is that their dad is dead and he never has to know. So that's Leon's reasoning. So Leon tells Ursula that Pin would have ended up God knows where. He could have ended up in a dumpster or a closet somewhere if it weren't for him, and that their Aunt Dorothy would never have to see Pin because Leon is gonna keep Pin in the attic. Leon tells Ursula he has a feeling that Aunt Dorothy won't be staying with them for too long anyway. So once Aunt Dorothy Arrives, she asks what happened to the plastic covers on the furniture. She hopes that they haven't been thrown away because the furniture was so very expensive. She says later that she found some of them, but not all of them. And Ursula tells her that the rest of the covers are actually in the attic. But because Pin is in the attic, Leon has been keeping the door locked. And so she's like, you know, yeah, I tried to get in the attic, but the door was locked, so, duh. Over dinner, Ursula tells her and Leon that she actually got a job at the library. And Aunt Dorothy is like, oh, my God, that's great, you know, And Leon is upset, so Aunt Dorothy defends her and says that, you know, having a job is sometimes worth more than the money because Leon's like, well, you don't need the money. And. And Dorothy is like, yeah, but sometimes it's not about the money, you know, she says that it's good for your mental health, too. And so Leon asks Ursula if she has a problem with her mental health and then storms off. Rude. But later, he brings Ursula a chocolate shake after Pin advises him that he was rude to her. And later that night, when everyone is sleeping, Leon takes Pin into Aunt Dorothy's room to scare her in the middle of the night. And she's so frightened by this that it actually gives her a heart attack. And she literally dies from the heart attack. [00:27:06] Speaker A: She has been murdered. [00:27:08] Speaker B: So the coroner, you know, comes the next day to get the body, and Ursula is the only one dealing with, you know, the local authorities slash enforcement. And it's been brought to our attention that Leon mentioned that he's sick, so that's why he wasn't able to come downstairs and deal with everything. And then Ursula looks up and she sees Pin in the window of the house. Leon literally moved Pin from the attic into a bedroom so that he can have his own room. He doesn't fucking need his own room. [00:27:46] Speaker A: He's a doll. [00:27:51] Speaker B: It's so upsetting. Like, it's so upset. So then one day, Ursula comes home from her job at the library, and Leon has cooked dinner. You know, she's like, I want to wash my hands. I want to put my stuff down. Like, I'm so excited to eat dinner. And Leon is like, no, no, no, no, no. You can't do anything until you see this. And so he brings her into, like, the sitting room and shows her Pin, who is now encased in some sort of synthetic skin and has a wig, so now he looks more like a person. He doesn't need to look like a person. And Leon even brings Pin to sit at the dining room table with them while they eat dinner. He literally cannot eat. And he tells Ursula over dinner that he wants to be a writer, and he's trying to talk to her, but she actually cannot focus on literally anything else other than the fact that this fucking doll is at the table. And so she tells Leon that she doesn't want to see Pin wearing their dad's clothes anymore or sitting at the table anymore, and she leaves. And then Leon is pissed now, so he follows after her and is screaming at her and lets her know that she can accept the fact that Pin is a member of their family or that she can live on the street. If you haven't guessed it yet. Leon is mentally not well. So this sends her into, like, you know, this deep sadness, and she's crying, and she tells Leon that she can't eat when Pin is at the table. And so Leon says that, you know, okay, look, I will talk to Pin, and I will ask him to be nicer to you, as if that somehow means anything to anybody. While working at the library, though, one day, Ursula is approached. [00:30:06] Speaker A: She's gorgeous, by the way. [00:30:08] Speaker B: And she's approached by this young, handsome athlete named Stan. And they kind of flirt, you know, and that's all cute and whatever. And Ursula tells Leon later that Stan is going to be taking her out to dinner that night, and she's not, you know, going to be coming home until later. And she does this because Leon goes to the library to, like, look for her something, and she's with Stan. So Leon is, like, stalking his own sister. And this is how she tells him that she's not gonna be home for dinner. And the two end up going to dinner and a movie. And it's very, very cute and endearing. Ursula comes home, she finds Leon, and he kind of sneaks up on her and scares her in the dark. And she tells him about how wonderful she thinks that Stan is. And, like, she thinks that they would really get along and they have so much in common and he would really like to meet Leon and blah, blah, blah. But Leon just absolutely outright hates Stan, even though he literally has no reason to. So soon after, Leon calls Ursula's friend that we met earlier in the film film Marsha, and she's the one who that we had seen previously at the dance. She asked him to dance, and he ignored her. And this is the same girl that, when talking about breast development and early puberty, Leon said that she was fat. So Pin is talking to Leon, and he's like, leon, I don't understand why you feel the need to do this. And he tells Pin that he has the need. Basically, he wants to have sex. And so Pin says that he thinks that he's only doing this because Ursula also has the desire to have sex, which maybe is true, although he is also an adult male, so perhaps he just wants to. But we get a, you know, a scene later. And one day after sex, right, Ursula and Stan are laying in bed sharing a moment of intimacy together, and she actually gives him a watch. Back at home, Leon has Marcia taking off her clothes, and he's distracted, and she's, like, getting frustrated because she can tell that he has, like, no idea what he's doing in this regard. And she's like, fuck it. I'll take off my own clothes. And so he's just staring off, and she's like, okay, are you gonna tell me what's wrong? And he just goes, yeah, I think I heard somebody. I think it was Pin. And so Marcia asks, who is Pin? And Leon says it's a friend that is staying with them. And so she tells Leon to tell Pin to not walk in on them. And Leon says that he can't do that because Pin has walked in before. And so Marsha tells Leon to put a chair under the doorknob so that the door can be opened. And Leon says that he can't have sex, ultimately, with Pin in the same house at all. So Marcia is obviously frustrated. She feels like a fool. She starts to put her clothes back on, and Leon leaves to go check on Pin. Leon goes downstairs, turns off all the lights. So then when Marsha comes down the stairs and she's calling out for Leon to ask where her jacket is, it's, you know, eerie. And it's super dark in this house. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Like, she can't see anything. [00:34:00] Speaker B: And Leon is not answering any of her, like, attempts to call out to him. So finally, she finds her jacket in the living room. And as soon as she finds it, Leon starts to chase her around in the dark with Pin, and he's laughing, and she's, like, frantically trying to find an exit of the house. Like, the doors, she's jimmying the handles, the window, she's trying to unlock them so she can jump out of it. And as soon as she's pretty much given up on trying to find an escape route, Ursula comes home and consoles her. When the camera pans back, though, to what we thought was just Pin, you know, chasing her, all we actually See is Leon. And Leon says nothing. His eyes are totally blank. And he just walks away. And what's interesting is in this scene, Leon is walking in front of Pin and Pin is in a wheelchair rolling behind Leon, like, completely on his own. The next morning, Leon asks Ursula about her date with Stan. And she's short with him because she's upset about what he did to Marsha. And so he tells her that he actually had a chance to connect with Pin. And he's had a change of heart about Stan and would actually like to meet him and have him over for dinner. And so Ursula is kind of like, okay, that's great. Can we go out to dinner instead? Leon says no. So she says that she doesn't think that Stan is ready to meet Pin, but Leon says that sooner or later Stan will obviously have to meet him. So that night, Stan arrives, He comes to the house with chocolates, which is really nice. He never shows up empty handed. Leon then, like, upon immediate arrival, asks Ursula to leave him alone with Stan and to go to the kitchen to turn down the heat on the rice that he'd been cooking. And so Stan says, hey, you guys have a nice house. And Leon basically just does nothing except for take Stan to the living room and puts him in front of Pin. So Stan is actually pretty nice to Pin. Like, all things considered, like, he's pretty polite. And he says like, nice to meet you and like, exchange in some cordial dialogue. But very odd for that to be the first thing that you do when you walk into somebody's house. So Ursula goes and checks on the rice, and then she comes back and she finds Stan and she, you know, basically rescues him and is like, hey, do you want to see the rest of the house? And he's like, yeah, sure. And so they go upstairs and in a moment, alone together, she asks Stan just to hold her for a second and to not say anything. So she's clearly, like, anxious and a little panicked. The three of them have dinner at the dining room, at the table, but not with Pin. So I don't know what happened to Pin having to eat dinner at the table, but I guess that's not a thing anymore. And so Ursula and Stan enjoy their meal and they're like, talking and, you know, engaging in dialogue and telling stories. And Leon is just like sitting there and he's evidently not hungry anymore and he just looks upset. So after dinner, they have drinks in the living room. And Stan had really wanted Leon to read him some of his poetry because, you know, Leon had mentioned that that would be the career that he would want to pursue is that he would want to be a writer. So they all sit down, and he's reading this poetry to Stan and Ursula and Pin. And this piece of poetry that he has written is about contemplating the rape of a sister. And this obviously, like, scares the shit out of Ursula and Stan. So they're, like, deeply unsettled. And Leon takes Pin upstairs, and Pin tells Leon to, like, be careful, you know, because Pin is basically, like, the other half of Leon. Like, Leon is telling Pin he's really excited because, you know, Stan is the first person who, you know, was open to hearing his poetry, and he really, really enjoyed it. And Pin is like, I don't know. You got to be careful of that guy. So when he comes back downstairs, he hears Stan and Ursula talking about how he needs to be put in a mental institution because he really believes that Pin is a person, on top of the fact that he's been writing poetry about raping his sister. And Ursula defends him, and she's like, you know, I've read every psychiatry book in the library that I work at, and I know that Leon is a paranoid schizophrenic, but he is my brother, and I refuse to see him put in a hospital like that. And poetry is just poetry. It's just. It's just been written. I think she's, like, severely under, you know, estimating the extent of this, but this is how she feels. So she does ask, like, she tries to be like, oh, hey, Leon. Didn't see you there, obviously, and offers Stan another drink. And Stan is like, no, I don't really want anything else to drink. So he comes back down, Leon does, and says he's gonna go to bed. Back upstairs, Pin and Leon are talking, and Pin is telling Leon that Stan is actually corrupting Ursula and that they. They, the two of them, Pin and Leon, need to work together to get her back on their side. Yeah. So the next day, Leon is cutting firewood, and Ursula goes to leave for work. And she tells Leon that she's going to be having dinner with Stan that night and that she's happy that Leon and Stan like each other. Later, after she leaves, Stan gets a phone call from Leon. And Leon tells Stan that, you know, Ursula's birthday is coming up in two weeks, and he would like to plan a surprise party for her. So he's just curious if Stan could come over, you know, and help talk through the planning. So Stan agrees to come over immediately and, you know, help with this Project because he wants to please Ursula. So once he gets there, Pin is in the living room, obviously, and Leon's like, yes, sit in this chair that's directly across from this fucking doll. And so he does, and he's hungover from the night before, but Leon is like, no, come on, we never have people over for drinks. Like, come on, please have a drink with me. And so begrudgingly, he accepts a scotch from Leon. And while Leon is pouring this drink, he actually drugs it. And he's doing this while Stan is having a conversation with Pin. Back at the library, Ursula gets told by her boss that she's actually allowed to go home early from work. And her boss tells her that she recognizes that, you know, she recognizes that Ursula is a young girl in love and that her mind is elsewhere. And so it's really not that busy there today, so why doesn't she just go home early? At the house, Leon is talking to a fucked up Stan, and he tells him that he's very protective over his sister and that he heard Stan tell Ursula that he should be in a mental hospital. He also accuses Stan of being after their family money, which is so bizarre. And finally, Stan succumbs to the effects of the drug. So when this happens, he tries to leave. Like he's trying to find an escape route, but he's stumbling everywhere. He's stumbling over the furniture. And ends up in a fight against Leon. While Pin is encouraging Leon to get him. Like, Pin is like, get him, Leon. You gotta get him. And during this kerfuffle, he actually hits Stan in the head with a small, like, art piece. Ultimately, he believes that Stan is dead. So Pin tells Leon that he must have learned how to clean from his mother. So he needs to go get a bag, put Stan's body in it, and dump Stan in the river and come back and clean up the mess. During this bagging session, Leon gets a call from Ursula. And she's like, hey, do you want to go do something this afternoon? You know, like, I got the afternoon off and I can't get a hold of Stan. And Leon is like, yeah, no, I'm, you know, I'm busy, I'm writing. And so, no, I'm okay. And she's like, well, I have nothing else to do other than come home. So Liana's like, well, maybe why don't you go shopping or something? So first she goes by Stan's apartment, but obviously he doesn't answer the door because he's not there. And she ends up going shopping and, like, running around town for a little bit and enjoying her day off. While she's doing that, Leon is cleaning the house and the rugs, like, very aggressively to try to get the blood stains out. And he realizing that he doesn't have as much time as he maybe thought that he did to clean this up, he ends up opting to hide Stan's body in behind the wood stack against their house. Cool. As soon as Ursula comes home, it's after dark, and Leon tells her, hey, Stan called the house and he wanted me to tell you that he had to go out of town to visit a sick friend. And she's kind of like, eh, I don't know. That doesn't sound right to me. So she goes to the phone and tries to call him again, but of course, he doesn't answer. So she just kind of accepts, but uncomfortably accepts that Stan is just busy. And she sits down in the kitchen with Leon while he finishes up dinner. So they sit down to eat at the table, they have some wine, but Ursula, like, can't eat because she just has this feeling that something else is wrong and something's going on. And so she gets up to go to the phone again, and Leon is like, yo, why don't you trust Stan? If you love him, you should trust him. I mean, what. What kind of trust are you showing him that you have in him if you just call him all the time? And so she's like, you know what? You're right. She puts a phone down, she goes back to sit at the table, and Leon is trying to distract her by talking about their parents. Neither of them were particularly upset when their parents died, so seems strange to want to even talk about them at all. So Ursula is like, okay, the only things that I remember from our parents is that the house was always clean, dinner was always on time. Dad asked me a question every night before bed, and he gave me a kiss on the cheek. Whether it was right or wrong, that was what they remember. So Liana's like, okay, that's not working. Well, hey, I wrote a new stanza in my poem, and I'd love to read it to you if you would join me in the living room. So she goes and gets in the living room, and she's kind of, like, setting it up, you know, moving the. The fire. Moving the wood and the fire around and, like, bringing out drinks and whatever. And so once she gets in the living room, she actually hears Stan's watch, because Stan had this watch that beeped, like, every hour or something. Like it Beeped all the time. And so she heard it beep. And so at this point, she thinks that Stan is hiding and she tries to look for him. And she's looking behind the curtains and she's like, God, that's so weird. And then she notices that on the rug there's a wet spot. And underneath the chair, next to the wet spot, there's the watch. So the watch fell off because Leon is the worst murderer ever. So she immediately feels sick and she confronts Leon when he gets in the living room, and she's like, what the fuck did you do? And Leon lies and says that, you know what? Pin actually did this. This is Pin's fault. I was out shopping, Stan came over. Pin and Stan got into an argument, and Stan was dead before I got home. You know, I had nothing to do with it. So she freaks, obviously, and she runs out of the house. Meanwhile, Leon is in the house and he's confronting Pin and saying that he wishes that Pin would lie for him just this once. And Pin is like, I don't know how to lie and neither do you. I have never lied for you. I'm not going to start now. I've never lied at all. And Leon, you can't lie either because you're so bad at it. So Leon is like, okay, but I killed Stan for Ursula. And Pin is like, okay, you're lying again. You clearly killed Stan for yourself. Ursula comes around back, you know, back in the house with a giant axe. And as she raises it over her head, the screen goes white. So we don't actually see what happened to Leon at all. The police arrive, and once they get there, they actually find that Stan is still alive. So this blow to this head clearly did not kill him. And him, the fact that he's wrapped up in a plastic, like, dry cleaning bag also did not kill him. You know, after hours of not being able to breathe, I don't know, a miracle. Sometime later, Ursula and Stan actually go back to this house to visit. But instead of her living there, they're going to visit, right? So she goes in and she's greeted by a nurse. And the nurse is like, oh, you know, he's here, he's good. And she's like, yeah, I just came by to chat with him for a second. And so she goes into this bedroom and. And we don't see, like, we see someone sitting in a wheelchair looking out the window. We. It looks like Pin. Like, from behind, it looks like Pin. So she comes in and she tells Pin that her and Stan are Going to go on vacation for about a week, so she's not going to be there. And she's like, would you like me to bring you back anything? So Pin asks her if she's heard from Leon and she says no. And Pin says that he wishes that he had because he misses Leon a great deal. And Ursula agrees and, you know, is very emotional about this. Finally, the camera moves to show us who's sitting in this wheelchair. And we think it's Pin from looking at it from behind, but it's actually Leon's face instead. Cut to the credits. [00:49:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:39] Speaker B: A strange film. If nothing else, I really enjoyed it. But this is the time where we have to talk about what the fuck does that mean, right? And so this movie for me is maybe a little bit straightforward. And so maybe this analysis won't be as long as you would like it to be. But, you know, and the spirit of brevity, the main thing that I'm sure you're all grappling with, including myself, is, is the doll a doll? And are. And is the doll being used purely for ventriloquism or does the doll speak on its own? [00:50:24] Speaker A: And honestly, this one's kind of hard to like, really explain if you haven't seen the movie. But it's like at times when there are other people in the room with Leon, like, at that point we can, we can venture to say that it's ventriloquism, but it's way more unclear during the scenes when it's just Pin and Leon in the same room if that's ventriloquism, right, like, or if it's just us hearing what Leon is hearing Pin say in his own head, right? Like, maybe it's not audible, I can't hear it out loud. But like, this is something that he can hear in his own head. So it's very disturbing in that way because you never really know exactly what it is that's happening. And also you might be wondering, why is it that Pin is so important to Leon, right? Because the whole time I was watching it, I'm like, it's an anatomy dummy. I mean, if it were something like a childhood toy, maybe Leon had like a stuffed animal that he slept with all the time, right? Then, like, I could see being attached to something like that, but I can't really understand being attached to an anatomy, like a human male, adult size anatomy dummy. And so it's no secret that Leon and Ursula were starved from emotional connection in their own home. Their parents are emotionally distant, apart from work and like his speaking engagements, their dad is exceptionally cold, right? Like, he wants them to answer a question at night before they go to bed, and then they get a kiss on the cheek and that's. That's it. Like, that's the only affection that they really get. They, it's never shown that they're told, you know, by their parents, hey, I'm proud of you or I love you. Like, that's never said. And then their mom, right, she's obsessively cleaning everything all the time, and she spends every minute of her life sanitizing their house. And it's to the point that, like, she literally won't let her kids bring other children, like friends into the house because it'll be dirty or like that the friend looks dirty or that they may be dirty or they may live in a dirty environment. Like it's very, very strange. And that would be a strange upbringing for anyone. And so, you know, there's a somewhat incestuous undertone between Leon and Ursula at the same time, right, because they're so starved for this emotional attention and affection from their parents that they lean on each other a lot. Like a lot, a lot. And to the point that, you know, they see one another almost in a romantic capacity, in a, like, a familial, incestuous capacity in terms of, like, emotions, in terms of, you know, even physically, right? Like, why would a brother be upset about his sister having sex with other people? That makes no sense. Like, she's not having sex with you, right? So like, why would you be upset if she's having sex with other people? It's because he sees her as like the only, like all he has, like, that is the person and the only person who he ever was able to get an emotional connection with in his life. And that's very unfortunate, but he holds her in this sort of incestuous light and to this degree, right? So that makes their relationship really complicated. But because of this neglect from their parents, right? And it's, it was, I would say that it's predictable neglect. Like it seemed that day to day, everything was the same. Dinner was always made, it was always on time. Their dad always asked them a question before bed, they always got a kiss on the cheek. They went to bed at the same time. Like, they. Everything was very consistent. And so in terms of a stable person though, right, Like, Leon can trust Ursula to be mostly stable, but the problem with Ursula is that she has her own brain and she has her own decision making powers and her own agency over her own life and her own body. So therefore, for Leonard, he's not able to dictate or control what she does in the way that it best serves him. So there's no. There's not a lot of stability there for him emotionally. But Pin is a great substitute, right? Like, Pin is stable, Pin is dull, Pin can't even move, right? Like, Pin has become this substitute, this, like, surrogate figure, father figure, someone who he can confide in. He becomes a friend, right? Because Leon doesn't even have friends. And this dummy just basically becomes this sort of repository for all that is missing in Leon's life. And that's why he falls to this type of delusion with Pin is to try to compensate for what he's not getting and the neglect that he's facing any other aspects of his life. Clearly, as well, the. There's, you know, sexual undercurrents in this film that are very strong. Okay, the scene where Leon, as a young boy, is hiding in his dad's exam room and his practice and is watching the nurse with Pin. Like, using Pin as this masturbatory sex doll. That experience certainly would be traumatizing for a child of his age. And additionally, it shapes then, his perspective of sex and women from that age forward. So watching this nurse use this doll in a sexual way basically shapes for the rest of his life, in his mind what women are and what sex is. And for him, sex is about shame and guilt because of the disturbing act that he witnessed at a young age. And this is kind of foiled by Ursula's sexual development because, right, at a certain point, Leon says he's too young to have any desires for sex, but Ursula says that she can't wait to feel those types of desires for sex. And so in high school, Leon's not dating. He's not bringing girls home. But Ursula, total opposite, right? Like, she has sex, she sleeps with who she wants, when she wants. And then when she starts dating Stan and she gets this more, like, stable boyfriend, then now all that is is a source of anxiety for Leon. So, like, he's jealous because his sister has this relationship that has an outside relationship that he doesn't have. And also, the only family, you know, he has left is his sister. And so if his sister falls in love with this guy Stan, then he can. He'll be all alone, basically, is how he feels. He'll feel abandoned. And he likely already felt abandoned from day one by his parents, who are supposed to be the people who love and care for him, but instead are cold and show him, you know, no type of parental affection in any way. And so he feels this sense of power over Ursula by, you know, trying to tell her what to do. You know, he's trying to tell her that she can't have sex anymore in high school and that she needs to have an abortion because he can't stand the fact that there's a baby from another man inside of his beloved sister's stomach. And that, you know, that baby would even become part of their family. And he doesn't want anyone else in their family. He just wants her. And all of these things, this, like, sense of power that he gets and sense of control that he gets over his own sister are, like, enforced and reinforced by Pin's, you know, monologue and Pin's character through the film. And if you haven't, you know, already gotten this, you know, gotten this point yet, the. The family and the structure of the family and the dynamics of a family are really central to this film. And so, you know, the power structure, it almost, like, comes from the parental authority, right? It came from their parents. But then when their parents die, then Leon now becomes a person in authority or at least, like, he tries to become that. And then through this, Ursula becomes even more subservient, right? And is not really one to try to take charge or, you know, anything like that. Because every time she does, she's either gaslit by Leon about how she's feeling or yelled at for having feelings to begin with that don't, you know, agree with his. And so, you know, even the simple fact that she got a job at a library, right? He was like, well, why would you do that? You don't need money. She can do that because she wants to do that. Like, you don't have a way to control her, to have her not do that. I mean, seriously, he just wants her to stay within his grasp. And through this, she's, like, basically forced into being complicit, right? Like, this complicity that she finds herself in is so that she ultimately wants to protect her brother. But what's weird is that for her, like, I could see why Leon would want to protect her, right? Like, that is the person who he controls. That is the person who he, you know, feels this close connection with and this emotional connection with. For her, she feels an emotional connection to her brother because that's her brother. And when growing up, that was all that she had. But at the same time, it's on a way different level than the emotional connection that Leon feels with her, right? Hers is like, oh, well, that's my brother and I love him and I support him, and I don't want anything bad to happen to him. Leon's is like, I love Ursula so much that she could never leave my house and never date anybody, and she needs to spend all of her free time with me and just all of her time in general. And so she should quit her job at the library, because if she doesn't, then I have no one to hang out with. Very disturbing way of looking at life. And, you know, there's a small amount of secret and hiding, secret keeping and hiding that goes on in the film. Like, the abortion, right, is a secret. And so for Leon, the fact that that abortion was a secret and he knows about it in his mind is a way for him to continue to have control over her, but also for him to feel like he's much closer to her. Whereas for her, she just saw that act as a means to an end. So they also try to keep Pin a secret from their Aunt Dorothy for a while. Obviously, that only lasted for, like, 12 hours, things like that, right? And so Ursula, though, I do want to say, like, she know. In my opinion, she knows way more than she lets on, right? Like, up until the point that she tells Stan that she's read all of these psychology and psychiatry books in the library and she knows that there's something wrong with her brother, she really didn't seem to let on to the audience or anyone else that she knew anything about anything and that she just simply thought, like, yeah, he's my brother. He's weird. And that was it. [01:04:01] Speaker B: Like, she. [01:04:02] Speaker A: She really didn't take it any further than that or describe it to anyone else as being anything more than that. But we know that she's intelligent and she's bright and she knows that there's clearly something wrong with this. Obviously, the mental illness plays apart here, right? With Leon, he clearly exhibits signs of mental illness. Delusions. He has hallucinations, kind of like the fact that he believes that Pin is a conscious being and not a dollar. And the lines of the two of them, the lines between Pin and Leon, become so blurred that you can almost. By the end of the film, you can't separate them at all. To the point that at the very end of the film, we're looking at Pin's body with the face of Leon. Like, they are one being, they are one entity. And obviously, you know, Leon has a lot of paranoia about Stan. Like, he has a lot of paranoia about anything as an outside influence, boyfriends, Having sexual partners in high school, like, people that are not him or his sister, like, that means that they're. Those people are unsafe and that they are not to be trusted and that they, you know, they. They don't allow for the type of. Should I say, like, comfortability that he's used to having. He's used to solitude, right? They were never allowed to have anybody over growing up. So there were only ever four people in the house at all times. So the idea of Stan being brought into this is like, well, what does he want? What is he gonna do? Why is he here? What are his intentions? Maybe he wants to kill me. Maybe he wants to take Ursula from me. Maybe he wants to put me in a mental hospital. Maybe he wants to take Pin away from me. Very interesting how we watch it play out throughout the film. And also it. You know, the film takes it a step further, further to show trauma, right? The impact of trauma on. On a child and how that can lead to the unraveling of a person in their psyche. Like, the kids are completely isolated throughout their entire life because their parents keep them as such. There's absolutely no communication whatsoever that's honest and truthful about sex, which, you know, Leon becomes completely repulsed by. [01:07:02] Speaker B: So. [01:07:03] Speaker A: And then also witnessing the sexual act between the nurse and the doll. So for him, these are all very confusing things. And, of course, their house was not a place where you were able to talk freely about anything. And so for that very same reason, you know, is the one that led to all of these repressed things within himself that he talks about with Pin. And then, you know, you kind of start to realize that there's a bit of an identity issue at play here, right? So, like, Pin is a dummy. He's a. He's a doll. But he looks remarkably like a human. But he has these, like, rather piercing eyes. And I've seen a great deal of anatomy dummies in my day. I can't recall any that have eyes. And if they did have eyes, they didn't look the way that those eyes looked. But, you know, it is odd because they. They do resemble a person, right? So it's. We've talked about it before. It's the abject. It's the uncanny. It's, you know, for us, it's abject. Because that is, looking at a medical dummy is like. Would be like looking inside of my own body and my own organs, right? Which I'm not able to do, obviously, but, like, I know that what I am looking at is in me, and that's troubling. And so Pin, you know, represents this, like, type of uncanny double or like a third self. And through this representation of him looking remarkably like a human, Leon is able to express the things to Pin that he otherwise couldn't deal with himself. And that seems kind of normal, you know, for a little bit, when you think about it, it's like, oh, like you're confiding in something. Like, maybe it's not a person, but it's something, and you're getting your thoughts out there. And that can be a healthy, you know, way for people to work through certain things. It's just not in this context because he thinks that Pin is talking back. And that's what's really strange, as you know, and I've talked about it. But the film plays on the fact it tries to play with you on who is actually speaking. Is it Leon or is it Pin? Which one is real? Who is he projecting at this time? Right? Like, is there a time where Pin and Leon are talking and Leon is using ventriloquism to speak for Pin, but is making up what Pin would say? That. And all of those things are usually opposite of what Leon would say. So it's almost like he's created a Dr. Jekyll and is housing that Dr. Jekyll personality inside of Pin. And the voice here is clearly very important throughout the film, right? Because initially when Pin talks, it's through ventriloquism. And the device of using ventriloquism initially is meant to be educational, right? Like, dad uses it to teach. [01:10:49] Speaker B: The. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Kids about, you know, certain things in life and as, like, a comfort, a comforting thing, a comforting object. But then it later becomes a way for Leon to shift his agency and decision making away from himself onto something else, especially given, you know, later in the film, whenever he attempts to murder Stan and he's like, you know, oh. He tells Ursula like, well, Pin, this is Pin's idea. It's like, no, Leon, this was your idea. Don't blame it on a doll, okay? This was your idea. He even tries to tell Pin, like, I did this for Ursula. And Pin is like, and no, no, you did not do this for Ursula. And you certainly didn't do this for me. You did this for you. All of this is you. You cannot use me as a way to throw responsibility away from you. So Leon does, right, learn ventriloquism as a sort of way to replicate his father and his father's behaviors with Pin, but also for him, it gives Pin a voice, and he's really after the voice, because he really wants that. That connection. And the final scene. [01:12:23] Speaker B: Really is. [01:12:24] Speaker A: Is ambiguous. And, you know, it really becomes more ambiguous because so much of what Leon experiences through the film is subjective. And so it's already ambiguous and subjective. You know, like, did Leon cause the death of his parents? Right? Like, had he been there that night on the way to his dad's speaking engagement and not. Like, had he not been there when his dad went into the office to grab the patient's files that he needed, would they have gotten into a car accident? Like, would the dad have taken Pin and put him in the car? I don't think any of that would have happened. That series of events might have been avoided altogether, and his parents might still be alive. And then it's like, well, did Pin contribute? Right? Like, in Leon's mind, he's wondering if Pin contributed to this by maybe. Maybe he thinks that Pin is trying to make his life easier. Easier by removing his parents from it altogether. Or he may be wondering, did Pin cause the accident that killed my parents? And then the final scene, when you realize that Leon and Pin have become one, all you can really ask yourself is, you know, did Leon just fully dissolve himself into this fantasy? Or was Pin an alter ego that he had utilized his whole life? And maybe for us as the audience, Pin the doll, the dummy, was used as a way for us to visibly see it, but for, you know, everyone else, it simply could have just been that that was an alter ego or like a second personality that. That Leon had. And I can't really answer those questions because, to be truth be told, I don't feel strongly one way or the other. If I had to guess, I would say that I think Leon just, like, fully allowed himself to dissolve into this fantasy, and that's the life that he's chosen to live. So I love the unique premise. I like the commitment to discomforting the audience. If you're interested in learning more about the story as well, this is based on a book of the same name. So I. My understanding is that the book is more. Far more graphic and far more disturbing. So if that's something that you're interested in or looking for, maybe give that a shot and, yeah, give Pin a chance. You know, it's. It's an interesting film. I guarantee you the premise is so unique that you've never watched anything quite like it. Before I let you go, I would like to remind you that the final girl on 6th Avenue is part of the morbidly beautiful network. Morbidly Beautiful is your home for horror. If you love horror in any way, shape or form then you are welcome. At Morbidly Beautiful you can find my podcast and many others like it as well as insightful film reviews and so much more. So head on over to morbidlybeautiful.com to check it all out and show us some love. You can find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Pocket Casts. If you enjoyed this show, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five star review and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. I hope I didn't frighten any of you too much but like I said this one is really unique so if you're gonna watch it, maybe do it in the daytime. Okay? All right, I'll talk to you all very soon. Thank you for listening and never forget that I am 6th Avenue's very own final Girl. It.