Pin Cushion is a riveting debut from Deborah Heywood that sets diversity at the heart of the film by showing an altogether unsettling and disturbing, co-dependent mother and daughter tale in this coming of age film.

Pin Cushion tells the story of Lyn (Joanna Scanlan), the mother who moves with her daughter Iona (Lily Newark) to a new town in the hope of a fresh start.

The central performances especially that of Lily Newark are what keeps the viewer glued to this film. It does echoes of Carrie not least because the character, Iona, has red hair too. Whereas the seminal scene in Carrie is her drenched in blood, the updated version is of Iona stripping off, her so called friends taking photos of her and sharing them by text to shame her. I am not sure that this makes this a film horror and in truth, too many films are being described as a horror or comic horror etc.

This film is at times darkly comic, rare times, but it is disturbing. What sets it apart is the cleverly observed nature of a co-dependent parent child relationship, and how deeply disturbing these can be. Clearly for dramatic purposes, this is exaggerated but hopefully, it will start a conversation. Pin Cushion also deals with the themes of depression and bullying It is refreshing to see a film that doesn’t take the easy route but holds its nerve right until the very end.

Pin Cushion is on release nationwide.

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