Pinocchio: Unstrung – Official Trailer (2026) Richard Blake, Robert Englund, Adrian Burton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the previous films in the infamous Twisted Childhood Universe failing to muster any kind of compelling storytelling or admirable craft to their nightmarish navigating of popular children’s characters gone evil, they have noticeably improved with each following installment, so the hope and expectations of Pinocchio Unstrung being its first legitimately rousing success finally appraised some much-needed ambition to this scoured franchise, allowing Rhys Frake-Waterfield and his production to ride the waves of momentum on delivering a legitimately entertaining horror movie with no shortage of appealing aspects. For starters, Frake-Waterfield’s direction is a breath of fresh air over the accessible integrity of this franchise, where instead of remaining sternly strict to the enacted sensibilities of the previous films, he incorporates a much more enticingly campy tone between its brutally gruesome kills and feverishly frantic performances, where much of the humorous gags effortlessly elicit themselves throughout envelope-pushing imagery that isn’t exactly concerned with realistic logistics, and considering Rhys does all of this while evoking a faithful but exploratively expansive helming of the lore of Pinocchio, he’s able to bring out the depraved depths of the character’s already creepily unconventional outlining, a point made irresistible with the vocal work of a child spewing so much vitriolic vulgarity in the extent of his vengeful practices. The film also churns out a quite remarkable practical-dependent production, both in the tangible motions of an animatronic doll, but also some stomach-churning carnage candy in gruesome gore, sure to make those horror hounds in the audience howl with uncontested artistry. While it would be easier and frankly cheaper to conjure an artificial design that relies heavier on the improvisation of its human actors, the reality is that there’s a far more admirable appeal to every slight movement or contortion of the character spawning from a group of visionaries off-screen, and with some already immaculate sound designs conveying the wooden stretching and defined heft of Pinocchio’s man-created frame, as well as the team’s effortlessly creepy doll design, the movie has no issues subscribing to the concept of seeing is believing, especially with every calculated motion breeding so much detectable velocity to his insatiable anxiousness for violence. Speaking of the violence, it feels silly to say that this movie pushes the proverbial envelope in an age where the Terrifier movies are pushing the extent of an R-rating, but the movie’s thirst for undivided depiction allows it to unload some of the year’s most rivetingly intense and grotesquely unforgiving sequences, where nothing is ever quick and easy for a devilish doll seeking human parts to make him a real boy. This certainly allows the character to stand out more capably and effectively among his fairy tale peers, with regards to the spontaneity of his attacks, but beyond that a satisfying resolution to over-the-top Stephen King-like antagonists, whose initial interactions with the doll leave little speculative suspense about what’s to come, and while Rhys’ aforementioned direction certainly doesn’t overlook the atmospheric elements that drive this inescapably ominous feeling within the illustrated environment, it’s clear that the movie’s primary objective is to make its audience squirm with skin-stretching imagery and bone-crunching blows, the likes of which there are no shortage of in Pinocchio’s ever-increasing list of human exploits. But all of these beneficial improvements would be for naught if the script also written by Rhys wasn’t up to par, but thankfully its creative outline not only contains a darker underlining to its legendary lore, but also some thought-provoking substance in the form of its thematic dissection on definable humanity, which drives so much of Pinocchio’s desire to transition. While the extensive depth of these periodic discussions feel a bit thinly unrealized during a second half that proceeds without it, as well occasionally quite literally spelled out on a chalk board for a lack of subtlety upon its interpreting audience, it does at least temporarily appraise some much-needed psychology on the boundaries of morality to the movie’s favor, paralleling the framing of the material intently with something similar to Doctor Frankenstein and his tortured creature, where the sins of the father’s god complex unleash something urgently devastating for anyone who comes into contact with it. As a result, the consistencies of the script are admittedly far from perfect, however even their attempt of chewable substance goes a long way in planting roots to the conversations about the character, as well as the growth of this intellectual property, and considering the previous films in the franchise opted to change so much about the backstory of its characters, in ways that made them feel nearly unrecognizable, Rhys instead lashes back against the hypocrisies of the story’s gentle-natured helming, proving that life after death evokes something far more uncompromising to the caging of humanity. Beyond all else, the film also features some commendable lead performances from Richard Brake, Robert Englund, and especially Jude Evan Lloyd, appraising some much-needed legitimacy to a franchise buried by blundering turns. Brake is the only one among the three who is acting beyond a vocal range, where his unique turn as Geppetto carries with it a genuine tenderness made insincere by Brake’s traditionally celebrated sleezy underlining, optioning a third act climax that opens the flood gates to Brake’s unbridled intensity flourishing the dangerous depravity of the character. As for Englund’s Jiminy Cricket, he goes mostly absent until the movie’s third act, but even in his limitations exhibits an articulated fun factor for the material that feels as close of a chance to experience him campily as Freddy Krueger once more, with Englund’s dependable deliveries and weaponized charisma flying circles around any human character whose fate he directly influences. As great as Brake and Englund are, Lloyd is the real star showcase here, voicing the eponymous puppet with not only the right balance of innocence and menace to correlate seamlessly to the character’s speculated morality, but also the endless amounts of comedic levity that spawns from the vitriolic vulgar dialogue that he’s asked to deliver, allowing Jude to hold his own against horror legends with decades of experience ahead of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Pinocchio Unstrung does represent a much noticeable improvement from its universal predecessors, there’s still ample evidence to the movie’s execution that you’re watching something so cheaply produced and conceptually processed, particularly in the depths of its momentum-halting dialogue, which still keeps the human protagonists at such a grave distancing for audience investment. Sometimes it pertains to such on-the-nose and unsubtle navigating of the material’s more psychologically profound thematic heft, with surmised questions and observations that feel quite literally lifted out of nowhere, while other times the lines draw attention to character traits and conflicting aspects that will inevitably find their way back to the forefront of the movie’s focus, much later on, and while these kinds of movies aren’t necessarily known for highly creative dialogue and enticing conversations, there’s little in the way of measured personality to make the written intentions of these characters any more definable from one over the other, instead making so much of their structuring and cadence feel interchangeable with one another, as a result of Rhys failing to tap into the psychology of those we’re asked to spend a majority of our screentime with. The script itself definitely could’ve used another rewrite in the director’s chair, as not only does the first act feel abrasively rushed in its developmental backstory of James and his brushes with tragedy, but also contains a bit too many tedious arcs that ultimately and unfortunately go nowhere. Considering this is a brisk and breezy 77-minute engagement, it’s obvious that the lack of pursuit will find its way to one of the movie’s many plot devices, but with it resonating in our initial introduction to these characters, it fails to draw us towards attaining any semblance of meaningful compassion to the lack of commitment and patience that it utilizes to its overhead narration, keeping us from living within the thickness of James’ trauma, and instead rushing right to Geppetto’s building of an artificial friend. As far as aspects that can be trimmed, there’s an arc pertaining to Wood Mother, who is supposed to represent The Blue Fairy from the novel, which fails to receive any semblance of meaningful development that doesn’t feel forcefully inserted to the storytelling’s momentum, and falls secondary in framed focus to the rise of Englund’s Jiminy Cricket. Likewise, a strangely framed bombshell reveal during the movie’s climax doesn’t feel remotely earned or effective, as a result of the opening act’s transparent detailing, eviscerating any semblance of dramatic underlining that it so desperately needed during this pivotal section, but beyond that leaving its narrative ripe by unavoidable predictability, the likes of which required something, anything to separate it even further from its literary origins. Finally, any previous intentional connectivity to conjure all of these Twisted Childhood characters under one cinematic umbrella feels jarringly incohesive in this particular installment, specifically during a mid-credits reveal that make this eventual idea feel strained by where it leaves these characters. Without spoiling anything, I will say that some characters go in drastically different directions than I was expecting, where a cinematic follow-up wouldn’t correspond as easily to Pooh or Bambi, from the previous films, whose evil morality is more undebatable when compared to Pinocchio here. I guess on one hand it certainly conjures intrigue for how they’re going to tie so many of these properties together to one eventual movie, but as someone mostly pleased by the movie, I have very little interest in a Pinocchio sequel, as a result of these newfound dynamics that have it feeling closer to Megan 2.0 than Child’s Play 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Pinocchio Unstrung is a surprisingly entertaining and meticulously crafted addition to the Twisted Childhood Universe, whose buckets of bloody brutality, remarkable special effects, and commanding performances easily cement it as the measurable benchmark moving forward for the flawed-but-frenzied concept. While far from perfect in consuming stilted dialogue and excessive secondary arcs that feel tedious for such a breezily brisky engagement, Rhys Frake-Waterfield effectively elicits the previously missing fun factor by openly embracing a campily chaotic tone to his strong as oak direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 6.8 or C+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Rhys Frake-Waterfield Starring – Jude Evan Lloyd, Richard Brake, Robert Englund The Plot – We follow James (Cameron Bell) as his grandfather, Geppetto (Brake), introduces him to a seemingly magical doll to become best friends. However, unaware of Pinocchio’s (Lloyd) naive nature, as James introduces him to the world it results in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9857"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9859,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9857\/revisions\/9859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}