Cinema Du Freak - The Tenant, PIN, & Tourist Trap
Cinema Du Freak - The Tenant, PIN, & Tourist Trap
Horror movie reviews of Roman Polanski's The Tenant starring Isabelle Adjani, Sandor Stern's PIN: A Plastic Nightmare starring Terry O'Quinn, & David Schmoeller's Tourist Trap starring Chuck Connors. Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson
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We here at HDC usually only review movies which are relevant to an impending revival showing, DVD release, or a theatrical blitz. But I recently saw three such strange, arcane little-known films back-to-back, I just had to celebrate them. The first one is The Tenant, which I do own on DVD and watched once, but I got to see it on the big screen at The Hollywood Egyptian last week and was reminded of just how delightfully quirky — and underrated — it is.
The Tenant (1976)
One of Roman Polanski's lesser-recognized horror films, The Tenant stars himself as Trelkovsky, a quiet, somewhat meek and mild-mannered bureaucrat who's just moved to Paris and needs an apartment. He quickly finds one that's modestly priced and already furnished… that's because its previous occupant, Simone (Dominique Poulange) a mysterious young woman, leapt out the window and is hospitalized with nearly every bone in her body shattered and her mind left wrecked. It would appear that she won't be returning, so her surly, elderly landlord (Melvyn Douglas) and the crotchety concierge (Shelly Winters) go ahead and rent the space to Trelkovsky.
Intrigued by the story of the previous tenant, the seeming lack of sense or reason for her death-defying vault, Trelkovsky goes to the hospital to see her. She is unable to speak, only scream, and that is only when she sees a friend of hers, Stella (Isabelle Adjani), who is also visiting. What's wrong with Stella? She certainly seems normal enough… and so does Trelkovsky… until the walls of Simone's flat begin to close in and reveal some rather unpleasant secrets.
The less said about the things that happen in The Tenant, the better. However, I will say it explores Polanski's favorite themes — fixation and paranoia — with close to the same urgency as Rosemary's Baby. Trelkovsky is not as sympathetic a character as Rosemary, but he's got layers of weirdness which reveal themselves to great (and sometimes blackly comical) effect. I would have to describe The Tenant as Rosemary's Baby meets The Sentinel… a pretty unbeatable combo.
The film is well-acted — aside from a slightly over-the-top bow from Winters, but she makes it OK — and of course Adjani is always magnificent; Douglas is divine; Jo Van Fleet and Lila Kedrova are tremendous, as are the many side-characters who creep into Trelkovsky's territory and shake him up.
PIN: A Plastic Nightmare (1988)
I love 'like' comparisons, so I am going to sum PIN up as "Flowers in the Attic meets Mannequin, minus the incest and comedy" — though, there is a touch of sibling sin and a bit of dated goofiness.
The siblings are Leon and Ursula Linden (David Hewlett and Cynthia Preston), children of a wealthy and prominent pediatrician, played by the always-awesome Terry O'Quinn (most only know him as Locke from the TV series lost, but amongst true horror fans, he will always be The Stepfather). Dr. Linden often takes his children to work, and while there, they get lessons in match (not to mention biology, if you get my meaning), by Pin, a life-sized, anatomically correct medical dummy.
Dr. Daddy, an amateur ventriloquist, throws his voice, making the kids believe that Pin is real. Ursula disabuses herself of this notion pretty early on, but loopy Leon is a true believer — especially after the kids' dad and mom are killed in a car wreck with Pin riding in the backseat.
Far from being scared of the diabolical dummy though, Leon becomes obsessed with Pin and as the years go by, he takes to dressing the effigy in Dad's old clothes and starts hearing Pin's "thoughts" — all the while, he's preoccupied on Ursula's blossoming womanhood. Jealously protective and obscenely obsessive, Leon and Pin take matters into their hands when Ursula begins to express her non-incestuous desires with a new boyfriend, Stan (John Pyper-Ferguson).
Tourist Trap (1980)
Tourist Trap is the nearest thing to a straight-up classic slasher movie of today's trio, but it's got plenty of psychological and suspense-driven plots elements, too. The set-up is very familiar: A group of randy 20-somethings find themselves off the main road, and forced to take refuge in the home of a weird, lonely old guy who starts to pick them off, one by one. Here, I will have to describe Tourist Trap as House of Wax meets Westworld, with mild flourishes of The Funhouse and House of 1000 Corpses.
What's different here is, the maniacal man is played by Chuck Conners and he's got a whole host of equally maniacal mannequins to help him do his bad biding. The victims (one of whom is the startlingly beautiful Tanya Roberts) are well-written too, considering. They do some reasonably intelligent things to try and escape from the evil clutches, but when it's revealed that their unbalanced host might have an even more insane accomplice, all hope is lost — but the fun and suspense isn't! The pacing waxes and wanes a bit, but at the end it's all hell-bent for leather (or fiberglass, as the case may be).
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson