Pinocchio Unstrung

Pinokio: Rozpętanie

Pinocchio Unstrung

A shamelessly bloody and brutally funny take on Pinocchio

Geppetto brings Pinocchio to life so his grandson can have a friend, but the wooden boy soon sets out to collect human body parts, turning his nose, which grows with every lie, into a deadly weapon. “Pinocchio: Unstrung” turns the classic fairy tale on its head, transforming it into a bloody slasher packed with pitch-black humor, grotesque violence and macabre fun.

Geppetto brings a wooden puppet named Pinocchio to life, hoping he will become the friend his grandson James so desperately needs. But the wooden boy has ambitions of his own: he wants to become human. Under the influence of the demonic Cricket, Pinocchio decides there is only one way to achieve his goal: by collecting as many human body parts as possible. He embarks on a bloody and macabre mission, turning his ever-growing nose, stretched by every lie, into a deadly weapon. Anyone who hurts James soon meets a grisly end, and certainly not a painless one.

“Pinocchio: Unstrung” takes one of children’s literature’s most beloved characters and gives him a gloriously twisted new life. Armed with pitch-black humor, grotesque inventiveness and a gleefully absurd approach to violence, Pinocchio tears through his victims with chilling childlike delight. That very innocence makes his bloody exploits all the more unsettling. The film strikes a wicked balance between grotesque comedy and outright horror, while its impressive animatronic Pinocchio gives the character a wonderfully uncanny physical presence. The result is a brutally funny splatter film that drags a familiar fairy tale into wonderfully dark territory.

The film is directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the filmmaker behind “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and one of the architects of the Twisted Childhood Universe, where beloved childhood characters are given decidedly more sinister second lives. With each new entry, Frake-Waterfield pushes this twisted formula further, turning nostalgia into increasingly gleeful nightmares. Richard Brake stars as Geppetto, while Robert Englund lends his unmistakable voice to the demonic Cricket. Best known for playing Freddy Krueger in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” series, Englund brings an especially delicious touch of horror history to the film. “Pinocchio: Unstrung” is the fifth installment in the universe and one of its most shameless attempts yet to turn childhood nostalgia into bloody, gleeful mayhem.