Horror Royality Robert Englund Pulls The Strings In “Pinocchio Unstrung”
The latest installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe, Pinocchio Unstrung (2026), has officially sliced its way into theaters via Viva Pictures. Directed by B-horror auteur Rhys Frake-Waterfield, this nasty, practical-effects-heavy slasher successfully elevates the “Poohniverse” by matching its signature, rubbery gore with a surprisingly grounded, tragic story. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 classic fable gets its strings hacked off and replaced with razor wire. Instead of a wholesome quest for boyhood, an animatronic Pinocchio hunts for real human flesh, organs, and skin to construct a physical body. Unlike previous entries in this public-domain horror trend, the film features an impressive, fully practical animatronic puppet crafted by MastersFX, avoiding cheap CGI to deliver a genuinely unsettling, tactile monster.
The narrative follows orphaned teenager James, played by Cameron Bell, who moves into a gloomy Gothic mansion with his grandfather, Geppetto, portrayed by genre veteran Richard Brake. To cure the boy’s crushing loneliness, Geppetto constructs a sentient, walking wooden friend. The horror ignites when James sneaks Pinocchio into his elite London prep school. Guided by a demonic, sinister Cricket—voiced with gravelly, pseudo-Freddy Krueger malice by horror icon Robert Englund—Pinocchio completely misinterprets how to protect his friend. Prompted by a biology textbook, the naive doll launches a grotesque, blood-soaked crusade to eliminate all things bad, harvesting the organs of school bullies, gym-goers, and doctors to carve himself into a real boy.
Frake-Waterfield brilliantly balances pitch-black Sam Raimi-style humor with deeply mean-spirited slasher sequences. While the script occasionally fumbles with forced, highly profane dialogue, the masterful practical gore courtesy of The Prosthetics Studio elevates this well above a standard cash-grab. It easily stands out as the most cohesive, atmospheric nightmare in the franchise, proving that this puppet can comfortably stack up against other iconic horror adaptations of literary and toy box favorites like the original Puppet Master or Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.
Released theatrically in North America on July 24, 2026, with a digital release set for September 7, 2026, the film carries a strict R rating for extreme bloody violence, language, and brief nudity. Clocking in at a tight run time of 1 hour and 22 minutes, the joint production between Jagged Edge Productions and ITN Distribution delivers a lean, relentless pacing. With strong supporting performances from Jessica Balmer alongside Brake and Englund, Pinocchio Unstrung proves that there is still plenty of terrifying life left in the dark fairy tale sub-genre.
