Pinocchio: Unstrung is a 2026 horror/slasher film that follows the iconic puppet’s disturbing journey toward becoming real. It is part of the increasingly bizarre Twisted Childhood Universe, which turns characters from public domain children’s stories into horror figures.
The movie was directed and written by Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare; Dinosaur Prison; Rise of the Loch Ness; Sky Monster; The Killing Tree; Firenado) and produced by hyper-prolific filmmaker Scott Jeffrey [aka Scott Chambers] (Spider in the Attic; The Mutation; Bats; Bad Nun: Deadly Vows; Cupid; ClownDoll and many, many others).
“Our movie flips everything you know about Pinocchio on its head,” Frake-Waterfield previously commented. “We have an incredibly talented cast and crew working on this. We are heavily relying on practical effects for all of the deaths and creature work. I can’t wait for the world to meet Pinocchio.”
The Jagged Edge Productions film stars Richard Brake as Geppetto, Robert Englund as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Cameron Bell as James, and Jude-Evan Lloyd as the voice of Pinocchio.
Special effects maestro Todd Masters (Child’s Play; Underworld Awakening; Slither) provided the fully-practical Pinocchio puppet. Masters previously enthused: “I’ve forever loved the original and demented story from the 1880s. So I was excited to join this production, to bring this little puppet to life — with all practical FX “This version is still a little puppet’s pursuit to becoming a boy… but the way he becomes one is extremely gnarly… and frankly, very fun.”
Overview:
Rather than simply making Pinocchio into a generic killer puppet, Pinocchio: Unstrung reworks the basic mythology of the original story into a dark coming-of-age slasher.
Plot [contains spoilers]:
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.[a] 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 hospitalised under the care of Doctor Christopher Robin. Remembering the Wood Mother’s words and realising that perhaps he should eliminate the people who harm James, Pinocchio sneaks into the driver’s hospital room, rips the skin off his face 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, who congratulates him. A talkative cricket with a humanoid body is introduced to Pinocchio to “keep [him] on the right path and obey the grown-ups,” who encourages him to kill anybody who has put James in danger. Together, they murder James’ school dentist to take out her teeth.
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 in the pool. 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. Pinocchio later wears the skin of one of his victims, even creating a “puppet” of his own out of the various parts of his victims.
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, transferring 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 Doctor Arthur Gallup, continuing with his experiments to resurrect dead children.[b] 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…
Our review:
Pinocchio: Unstrung is exactly the sort of film its title promises: a beloved children’s character has been ripped from his wholesome surroundings and dropped into an unapologetically nasty slasher flick. Fortunately, the result is more entertaining than previous entries in the so-called Twisted Childhood Universe.
The practical puppet effects by Todd Masters give Pinocchio a surprisingly convincing physical presence, and watching this innocent-looking wooden child progress from curiosity to homicidal obsession is considerably more effective than simply turning him into another masked killer.
Richard Brake brings his customary menace to Geppetto, while Robert Englund clearly relishes the opportunity to provide a voice-over for a thoroughly twisted version of Jiminy Cricket. Gorehounds will appreciate several gruesome practical kills especially the ones in the school gym.
Unfortunately, Frake-Waterfield’s sweary screenplay never matches the potential of its central idea. The themes of grief, bullying, innocence and the corrupting influence of adults are present. However, they largely serve as excuses to simply move from one splattery kill to the next. The supporting characters are thinly drawn and as with many Brit productions the dialogue can be somewhat awkward.
Nevertheless, Pinocchio: Unstrung works surprisingly well as nasty horror with touches of dark humour (such as a nod to Jaws) and is certainly worth a watch. It’s Jagged Edge Productions most accomplished film so far.
Technical specs and release:
82 minutes and it was released in the US on 24 July 2026.
Cast and characters:
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
Belinda Fenty as The Dentist
Kelly Rian Sanson as Miss Daniels
Tom Jackson as Roger
Jay Robertson as Drunk Driver
Amanda Jane York as Drunk Driver’s Wife
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.
Guest review by our friend Leo from Geek Legion of Doom:
Trailer:
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