It’s Pinocchio like you’ve never seen him before. Well, not really.
Pinocchio Unstrung is another entry in the infamous “Twisted Childhood Universe” that is sure to divide fans.
P.inocchio Unstrung is the latest installment in what has been dubbed the “twisted childhood universe.” This comes to us from the same director who directed Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey parts one *and* two so you already know precisely what to expect here.
The idea of turning Pinocchio in a horror film is not a new concept. Silent Night, Deadly Night, Part 5Pin, Pinocchio’s Revenge… we’ve certainly been down this path before. What Relaxed done differently, however, is to take full advantage of established tradition (otherwise exploit it wholeheartedly) for maximum disgust. Like the famous fairy tale, Relaxed He is a wooden puppet who desperately wants to become a real boy. The variable here, of course, is that he’s more than willing to “become” a real boy by murdering people and stealing their body parts to wear as his own.
I told you it was exploitative, right?
There is a few attempt to reflect the actual folk tale from the beginning, but after 20 minutes of Relaxed the story goes completely off the rails. The first major gore scene sees the titular puppet venturing into a gym and accidentally triggering a Final destination-like a chain of events that results in multiple complex fractures and two people having their skulls smashed with weights. This is a pretty good indicator of how the rest of the film plays out: the gore effects are primary, everything else is secondary, if not entirely optional.
You see, this Pinocchio is not entirely evil, easily influenced by people (or, more accurately, stop-motion monsters) who don’t have his best interests at heart. For example, he meets this strange beast called “the mother of the woods” who orders him to start internal tie rod people’s organs so it can breathe and pump blood like a “real” person. You really don’t need me to tell you how rest of this film takes place, and you?
One thing is certain, it is a real godsend in terms of practical effects. I’m sure there’s some obvious CGI in there (hey, it’s the golden age of filmmakers using generative AI in their films and then lying about it, right?), but most of the puppetry and gore effects appear to be live, on set, and in real time. It’s not the most convincing special effects work you’ve ever seen, but it looks enough respectable most of the time. And at the very least, the blood and guts here are just terribly grandiloquent. Just wait for the scene where Pinocchio goes psycho at a house party and starts scalping the cheerleaders and using his nose as an impaling device on everyone – it’s a horrible, irony-free thing.
Of course, the film’s climax – although it’s not the only reason to care about it in the first place – is due to Robert Englund. The horror legend provides the voice of Jiminy Cricket (although he was never called that in the film – I think Disney always holds the trademark on the “Jiminy” part which, in keeping with TCU tradition, is an absolute sociopath who can drop more than a few lines that sound like carryovers from a never-recorded Freddy Krueger VO session. It’s really fun to hear Rob speak on the mic and keeps you invested in a film that otherwise would have lost your attention much sooner. It’s not a terribly memorable film, but it’s certainly a memorable performance from Englund.
As for the downsides of the film, well, we could be here a while.
The rest of the cast is tasteless and with everyone speaking in a thick Dickensian British comedian accent, it’s a bit difficult to follow. who is who Sometimes. The music is quite bland and the ending is a total bore. There’s definitely a palpable spooky factor with the puppets, but whenever they’re on the side Relaxed turns into a total snoozer. It’s a film that struggles to keep its footing even when all the killing and mayhem takes place; when the film shifts to softer, calmer moments, it almost puts himself sleep.
I would be sorry if the film also contained a fairly weird craze for black people suffering fatal injuries. Keep in mind, this East a British production and two of the most grotesque and sadistic murders in the entire film involve minority characters being slaughtered, maimed and maimed at a snail’s pace despite being totally innocent people which have little influence on the overall plot of the film. Maybe it’s a crazy coincidence, maybe the casting happened like that, or maybe… well, let’s not jump to conclusions. Not that we don’t really do it, Really want in this particular case.
Of course, there’s a teaser for a sequel. This is not surprising at all. What East A little weird, though, is the way the post-credits stinger insinuates a totally a different character could be the main villain of Pinocchio without rope 2. It makes some sense in context, but it wouldn’t have. my first choice if I were the screenwriter. I guess that’s the price you pay when your artistic model is literally anchored around which popular works are about to fall into the public domain.
Pinocchio without rope is not a terrible film. In fact, some parts are quite good and the effects are impressive throughout. But ultimately, it doesn’t feel like much thought or effort was put into the story itself. It’s predictable, formulaic, low-end stuff and very little of it feels genuine or genuine at all. It is no one is passion project, no one has suffered for a long time, has thought long and hard artistic vision given life. It’s just another exploitation horror film based on borrowed IP with a built-in gore-hound audience who will love it regardless. how bland, its narration can be.
He has a little glimmers of hope. But I’m afraid Pinocchio without rope is just another cheap investment that invests way too much in splatter effects and leaves out plot, character, and atmosphere. hollow and empty like the skull of its main character.
GIVE A WATCH IF YOU LIKE: CGI gore, taint of childhood classics, Robert Englund Really push it as far as possible without being sued for copyright infringement
DIRECTOR: Rhys Frake-Waterfield
WRITER: Rhys Frake-Waterfield
WITH : Robert Englund, Richard Brake, Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer
STUDIO: Ragged Edge Productions
DISTRIBUTER: Altitude film
RUNNING DURATION: 82 minutes
LANGUAGE: English
RELEASE DATE: July 24, 2026
