Pinocchio Unstrung

Pinocchio Unstrung is a 2026 British independent slasher film written and directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. It is the fifth installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU) and serves as a horror retelling of Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. The film stars Richard Brake, Robert Englund, Cameron Bell, and Jessica Balmer, with Jude-Evan Lloyd as the voice of the title character. It follows Geppetto's grandson James, who develops a friendship with Pinocchio until his naïve nature results in the puppet going on a crusade to eliminate all things bad.

First announced in January 2024 as a Pinocchio-based horror film, the film was subsequently revealed to be set in the TCU shared continuity. The cast was announced between January and June 2024, with Peter DeSouza-Feighoney and Scott Chambers reprising their roles from Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare and Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 as Michael Darling and Christopher Robin, respectively.

Pinocchio Unstrung premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on 11 April 2026, before it was theatrically released worldwide on 24 July 2026, by ITN Distribution. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Fourteen-year-old James is sent to live with his grandfather Geppetto after his parents perish in a car accident. He makes friends with two other children, Zach and Michael, but Zach dies from terminal cancer and Michael is forced to move due to his mother Mary's new job as a hypnotherapist at the nearby town of Ashdown. Geppetto promises to build a friend who will never abandon his grandson again.

One year later, James and his classmates Mia and Dudley are constantly bullied by high school students Trey and Logan. That night, James is awakened by strange noises and enters the basement where Geppetto works. He introduces James to Pinocchio, a sentient wooden puppet whose nose grows every time he lies. Geppetto explains he built Pinocchio to be James' new friend.

As James and Pinocchio bond to a brother-like friendship, the latter learns about human anatomy and wishes to become a real boy. While James is at school, Pinocchio enters the basement and finds a disfigured wooden creature who introduces herself as Pinocchio's "Wood Mother". She reminds Pinocchio that he is just a puppet and will need human organs to become real. The next day, James takes Pinocchio to school; he explores the gym, but accidentally causes a chain reaction that kills James' teacher with a treadmill. Later, James introduces Pinocchio to Mia and Dudley.

While returning home in a taxi, a drunk driver crashes into them and James is hospitalized under the care of Dr. Christopher Robin. Remembering the Wood Mother's words and realizing that perhaps he should eliminate the people who harm James, Pinocchio sneaks into the driver's hospital room, rips his skin off and disembowels him to put his organs into his wooden chest. James returns home and, along with Mia and Dudley, enters the basement and finds notes written by Geppetto about his "failed works". Meanwhile, Pinocchio tells his Wood Mother about the killings and she congratulates him while introducing the Talking Cricket to Pinocchio. The Cricket encourages him to kill anybody who have put James in danger and they murder James' school dentist to take out her teeths.

James, Mia, and Dudley watch tapes that reveal Geppetto created more wooden puppets before Pinocchio, whom he destroyed because he considered them imperfect to be James' friends. Upon learning about Pinocchio's killing spree, James, Mia, and Dudley attempt to warn Trey and Logan as they are his next targets. Pinocchio arrives at Logan's house and breaks his girlfriend Georgia's jaw with an axe. The Cricket then fatally electrocutes her while Pinocchio rips Logan's tongue and eyes. In Trey's house, Pinocchio kills his girlfriend Amanda, tears off her scalp to use it, and murders Trey by impaling his skull with his growing nose.

Geppetto takes Pinocchio back home, repressing him for the murders. Pinocchio learns his Wood Mother and the Cricket tricked him into doing bad things so he kills them both with a sledgehammer. James, Mia, and Dudley arrive at the basement just as Geppetto is about to destroy Pinocchio. When Pinocchio asks how he came to life, Geppetto reveals to have used Zach's corpse to build him, transfering his soul into the puppet. As James rescues Pinocchio, Geppetto shoots Dudley dead and knocks James unconscious before pursuing Mia to kill her while revealing to be an apprentice of the late Dr. Arthur Gallup, continuing with his experiments to resurrect dead children. James stabs Geppetto before Pinocchio holds him at gunpoint.

Pinocchio shoots at Geppetto but misses and hits a panel that releases an aggressive wooden creature, who kills Geppetto as the entire house begins to burn. James, Mia, and Pinocchio manage to escape and promise to forget what happened. When Pinocchio reveals that he did not enjoy killing people, his nose begins to grow again. In a post-credits scene, the Cricket is revealed to have survived and recovers Geppetto's corpse to resurrect him.

Cast

• Richard Brake as Geppetto
• Robert Englund as the voice of the Talking Cricket
• Cameron Bell as James
• Jessica Balmer as Mia
• Jude-Evan Lloyd as the voice of Pinocchio
• Emma Tate as the voice of the Wood Mother
• Jack Art Gray as Dudley
• Toni Olabanji as Trey
• Luca Marandola as Logan
• Mya Brown as Georgia
• Karolina Knight as Amanda
• Elliott Spilling as Zach

Additionally, Scott Chambers reprises his role as Christopher Robin from Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 while Peter DeSouza-Feighoney reprises his role as Michael Darling from Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare.

Production

In January 2024, it was announced that a horror film centered around the titular character from The Adventures of Pinocchio was in development, while it was also revealed that additional characters from other childhood stories would be revealed as a part of the Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU). Officially titled Pinocchio Unstrung, the first promotional concept art was released, with the plot stated to be revealed at a later time. The film was written and directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. In November 2024, Robert Englund was cast in a lead role, while Richard Brake was cast as Geppetto. Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney also star.

Principal photography took place by November 2024. Filming was originally set to commence in September 2024 and October 2024. The character of Pinocchio was a fully practical animatronic because Frake-Waterfield really wanted him to feel real.

Music

Pinocchio Unstrung (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album for the film. Andrew Scott Bell composed the film's score. The soundtrack was released by Dark House Music on 21 July 2026.

All music is composed by Andrew Scott Bell.

Release

Pinocchio Unstrung had its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on 11 April 2026. The film was theatrically released in North America on 24 July 2026, under Viva Pictures. Altitude Film Distribution also released the film on the same date in the United Kingdom. It was previously set to be released in 2025. The film had a worldwide theatrical release by ITN Distribution.

Reception

Box office

Pinocchio Unstrung grossed $563,586 in the United States and Canada, and $54,542 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $618,128.

Critical response

On thereview aggregatorwebsiteRotten Tomatoes, 76% of 25 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Notes

See also

• Pinocchio's Revenge

External links

• atIMDb