‘Pinocchio Unstrung’ Has Stunning Puppetry, DOA Carnage [Review]

Last summer, I decided to buy tickets to Bambi: The Reckoning. I’d been curious about the Twisted Childhood Universe since Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, widely considered a turning point in the extended IP series, and the marketing material I’d seen for Bambi looked promising enough. I left my screening confident the film was the best of the bunch, even if that was a remarkably low bar to clear, and having just finished Pinocchio Unstrung, I stand by that. This universe is moving laterally, improving in some areas while regressing in others. Which is to say, if you’re a fan, you might love Pinocchio Unstrung and not risk your nose growing three sizes. If you’re not, you might reckon you’re witnessing the death of horror right in front of you.

Rhys Frake-Waterfield certainly has the chops. Sure, I didn’t feel either Winnie-The-Pooh film was sweet as honey, but I did unironically enjoy The Killing Tree. At his best, Frake-Waterfield can tap into a very specific, posh meets Hammer Horror sensibility that augments his highest of high concepts (turning beloved childhood icons into homicidal maniacs). Comparatively, Pinocchio Unstrung boasts the best practical puppetry and gore of the entire cinematic canon, but it’s also marred by the franchise’s worst screenplay, one that’s dull at best, offensive at worst.

Opting for the same storybook animation intro as most of the series, reimagines the puppet’s origin as the crazed invention of Geppetto (, deliriously unhinged) ostensibly intended for his grandson, James () after the death of his friend. Pinocchio (voiced by ), wonderfully rendered with practical puppetry of the variety, is a naïve little goob, unaware of how the world works beyond a binary understanding of friend or foe.