Horror Obsessive
The scariest part of the Pinocchio story was never the strings. It was the promise underneath: suffer enough, prove enough, and stop being wood, start being real. Pinocchio: Unstrung takes that promise and turns it into a slasher’s mission statement, sending its puppet on a killing spree with one ugly goal, carving himself into a real boy, one piece at a time.
That line is not marketing copy. It is the film’s own synopsis, and it reframes a fairy tale about self-improvement as a body horror premise. Geppetto’s workshop becomes the site of a monstrous coming-of-age story, and an elite London prep school becomes the hunting ground. Writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield built his name on exactly this move with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, and Pinocchio: Unstrung applies the same logic to a story that was already about a wooden child’s desperate need to be seen as human.
A Fairy Tale Built for the Slasher Era
Richard Brake plays Geppetto, and Robert Englund, still best known to horror audiences for A Nightmare on Elm Street, plays Cricket, the film’s version of Jiminy reimagined as something closer to a puppet master than a conscience. Cameron Bell plays James, the brother Pinocchio measures himself against and, per the official synopsis, hunts. The rating tells its own story: the MPA gave Pinocchio: Unstrung an R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, and brief graphic nudity, the kind of rating that suggests a studio uninterested in softening the premise for a wider release.
The detail that sticks: pairing brief graphic nudity with bloody horror violence and gore is an unusual combination, and it only makes sense if the film treats becoming real as a literal, fleshy transformation rather than a metaphor dressed up in splinters.
“A chilling reimagining of the familiar fable, Pinocchio: Unstrung unfolds inside an elite London prep school. Influenced by a sinister Cricket (Robert Englund) and created by Geppetto (Richard Brake), Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James.”
Practical Puppetry in a CGI Slasher Landscape
Emmy winner Todd Masters, known for practical creature and makeup work, oversaw the puppet’s animatronics, and that choice matters more than it might on a smaller premise. A story about a body turning from wood into flesh lives or dies on how convincingly that transformation reads on camera, and animatronics give a production something a CGI puppet rarely manages: weight.
Pinocchio: Unstrung is the fifth entry in Jagged Edge Productions’ Twisted Childhood Universe, following Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, its sequel, Bambi: The Reckoning, and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. A third Blood and Honey is reportedly shooting soon, and Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, pitched as an Avengers-style team-up of the studio’s twisted mascots, is already in development.
An R rating that specifically calls out nudity alongside gore is not nothing for a franchise built on public-domain children’s characters, and it suggests Jagged Edge is still willing to go further than the premise strictly needs. That is the real gamble now that Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble looms on the horizon: whether five slashers and counting can keep surprising audiences, or whether the format calcifies the moment its mascots start sharing a screen. For now, Pinocchio: Unstrung earns the benefit of the doubt by keeping its puppet real, one carved piece at a time.
Quick Takes
- Pinocchio: Unstrung opens in theaters July 24 via Viva Pictures.
- Richard Brake plays Geppetto and Robert Englund plays Cricket, alongside Cameron Bell as James.
- The film carries an R rating for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, and brief graphic nudity.
- Emmy winner Todd Masters oversaw the puppet’s practical animatronics.
- Pinocchio: Unstrung is the fifth film in Jagged Edge Productions’ Twisted Childhood Universe, with a Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble crossover in development.
