Tin & Tina
The ‘creepy kid’ subgenre gets a religious fanaticism twist in the form of two seemingly innocent twins.
The mother of assumption: Teresa Rabal (Image courtesy of Filmax)
Spain, 1981. Following the miscarriage of their expected twins, married couple Lola and Adolfo find they are unable to conceive further children. In desperation, they head for a convent that takes in orphans and — for a price — offers them to lonely, would-be parents. Lola is in two minds about adoption, until she’s charmed by Tin and Tina, the cute seven-year-old blonde twins on offer. Having been nurtured by nuns, the children have been brought up with highly developed religious convictions. They seem to know the contents of the Bible by heart and they believe that everything written in the Holy Scriptures is true. Having been abandoned, Tin and Tina also believe that nobody really loves them. With their super-blond albino looks, the distinctly odd duo seem as if they’ve just arrived from the Village of the Damned. The two moppets insist on saying grace before every meal, do not watch television, honour their new mother with the crown of Christ and believe that the exterminating angel will descend on those who practice evil. Knowing that their new mum cannot have children of her own, they urge her to pray for a miracle. Somehow it seems to work...
This classy piece of psychological hokum is well photographed and directed to give off an all-purveying atmosphere of evil. Lola (Milena Smit) gets the brunt of the disturbing activity surrounding her new family, with Adolfo (Jaime Lorente) too shortsighted to see what is happening to his wife. Is she really experiencing the terrible things that she thinks are happening to her, or is she deranged in believing her new children are a force of evil? As the two siblings, Carlos Gonzalez Morollon and Anastasia Russo are creepily, frighteningly good from the word go.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Cast: Milena Smit, Jaime Lorente, Carlos Gonzalez Morollon, Anastasia Russo, Teresa Rabal, Sergio Ramos, Luis Perezagua, Antonio Figueredo Manrique, Chelo Vivares, Ruth Gabriel.
Dir Rubin Stein, Pro Olmo Figueredo Gonzalez-Quevedo, Screenplay Rubin Stein, based on his short film, Ph Alejandro Espadero, Pro Des Vanessa de la Haza, Ed Nacho Ruiz Capillas, Music Jocelyn Pook, Costumes Lourdes Fuentes, Special Effects Patxi Crespo, Oler Hernandez and Gentza Renteria.
Tin y Tina La Pelicula AEIE-Filmax/Netflix.
119 mins. Spain/USA/Romania. 2023. UK & US Rel 26 May 2023. Cert 15.
