Zena’s Period Blood: Pin Up the Period Blood

It can be difficult finding horror films of quality, so allow me to welcome you to your salvation from frustration. “Zena’s Period Blood” is here to guide you to the horror films that will make you say, “This is a good horror. Point blank. PERIOD.”

“Zena’s Period Blood” focuses on under-appreciated and hidden horror films.

Allow me to do a proper introduction for once.

Pin was directed by Sandor Stern and is based on the book by Andrew Neiderman. The film introduces us to Leon, an 8-year-old boy who believes that Pin, a medical dummy, is alive. Leon’s father, Dr. Linden, is a ventriloquist who projects his voice onto Pin and uses the dummy to teach his kids and patients about bodily functions. See, that was a modest introduction. I even made it seem like I was introducing a nice, little Goosebumps episode. But, no. THERE’S SEX. Sex played a huge part in this movie. They referred to it as “the need”. Freaking intelligent. They made it sound like it was as powerful as “the force” from Star Wars. Oddly enough, Leon’s younger sister Ursula, at the sprightful age of five, deduced that she was going to like “the need” as a teenager.

“The need” led to Ursula becoming pregnant at fifteen. Terrified, she confides in Leon for instruction whose bright idea is to talk to Pin. Yes, the medical dummy. Ursula reluctantly agrees to this absurd idea and discovers that 18-year-old Leon can also perform ventriloquism, although he believes Pin is truly speaking to him. The voice tells them to come clean to their father, who after being told performs the abortion of Ursula’s baby. This caught me completely by surprise. Abortion was not deeply debated in this movie, yet I still commended the bravery of Stern and Neiderman to include this. Nonetheless, here we see that even as a teenager, Leon relies on Pin to give him advice. Although Leon has developed his own ability of ventriloquism, he gives Pin the same personality that Dr. Linden gave the medical doll.

Before leaving to give a speech one night, Dr. Linden returns to his office to find Leon having a conversation with Pin, via ventriloquism. Observing his son’s psychosis, he takes Pin, insisting that he must use the doll in his speech. Unfortunately, on the way to the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Linden are killed in a car crash.

Okay, so far I’ve talked about five characters but said little regarding my feelings about the film. I must start with my adoration for the subtle hints given about each character’s personality. You never received a straight in-your-face revelation, like he’s the weirdo or she’s the slut. Still, the little hints instantly put you at ease with understanding these characters. There is nothing more annoying than spending thirty minutes with a character and having no idea what his or her motives are for their behaviors.

In addition to the characters, clever actions in the story often cloud you from foreseeing outcomes. For example, there could be a jacket picked up nonchalantly or a wristwatch given as a gift and you would think very little of it. The foreshadowing happened so casually that when you finally saw the significance of that prop or article of clothing, you were mesmerized at the calculated execution. It seemed like the entire crew was super competitive all while displaying immaculate teamwork. The unique screenplay coupled impeccably with stunning camerawork. A notable scene involved Ursula discussing Leon’s schizophrenia with her boyfriend Stan. We hear Stan behind the camera, but we see Ursula bickering in the foreground and simultaneously see a mirror in the background holding Leon’s reflection as he painfully listens behind a wall. You can tell that cinematographer Guy Dufaux meticulously walked each set to determine how best to tell the story. I love when a cinematographer and director take this much time to learn the screenplay and the sets. I also love the fact that Guy Dufaux had his wife help out on the movie set (she operated the clapper). This gleefully reminded me of my relationship with my husband. He and I work together now; but before, I used to go to his job and help him out from time to time. My primary task was to remind whores that their place in this world was anywhere but near him. While in these shops, I discovered that even elderly women over 102 years old can still have “the need”.

Now, I know you thought this was going to be a regular review. I even tried to give you a modest introduction (emember the “Goosebumps” thing). And yet, all of the previous information was presented to build a case for something. Sorry that you didn’t know you had been summoned to court, but we are here to discuss the case of Good Booty vs. Bad Booty. Let me explain: first, allow me to reintroduce you to Stan.

In the movie, Stan seemed to be a well-brought-up guy: nice looking, studious, the type of guy momma and poppa would be proud to see you bring home.

Let’s say we, like Ursula, are casually introduced to Stan.

Let’s say he spots us in the library like he spotted her.

We are a hot girl named, well, Ursula, sitting there, working in-between helping customers.

Stan figures he’d be polite and say hello.

Okay. The scene is set.

Is there something we should tell Stan? I mean, he’s admiring the booty already, right? Let me just get to the point. By this time in the movie, the viewer is already thinking or possibly yelling, “Stan, don’t do it, dude! Run like a bat out of hell, Stan. That is bad booty.

Bad booty is simply defined as booty that is bad for you. By this time in the movie, we knew that (1) Ursula slept with majority of the football team, (2) her brother kicked a dude in the balls so hard that we poured out a bit of liquor for the dude’s balls because there’s no resurrecting dead balls, (3) her parents died in a car crash because her father was staring in the backseat at his medical dummy, and (4) her older brother’s best friend was the medical dummy who helped him kill their Aunt Dorothy. Now of course, Stan knew nothing about the booty before he approached it. But here is my point. ALWAYS STUDY THE BOOTY! Study it in detail before you fall in love with it. Question that booty. Background check that booty. Get it together, Stan. That booty had been through enough by this point in the movie that it was probably going to end up killing Stan, which it almost did. The lesson here is to always inspect the booty.

My husband acquired “Good Booty”. The only bad part about the booty is that my attention can be taken away with the snap of a finger. For example, I first watched this movie at work. It was supposed to be background noise and light peripheral fondling as I focused on important social media statistics. All of a sudden, the peripheral fondling seized my full attention. You know that moment when your mind has its own schizophrenic conversation? Pause this awesomeness and focus on work or pause the work and focus on this awesomeness? Well, that happened to me. Pin won.

All in all, I hope we all learned something today. Determine if the booty is good or bad. Men, protect your balls from potential NFL kickers. If your five-year-old says she has “the need,” you might want to listen. And last but not least, Pin is a remarkable movie. Point blank. PERIOD.


In addition to contributing to Dread Central, Zena Dixon has been writing about all things creepy and horrific for over six years at RealQueenofHorror.com. She has always loved horror films and will soon be known directing her own feature-length horror. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @LovelyZena.

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