Pinocchio Unstrung
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
It is becoming a trope to take classic literary characters or characters children recognize and love and place them in the middle of a horror film that is an absolute bloodbath. With terrifying imagery and over-the-top gore and special effects, characters like Winnie the Pooh, the Grinch, and Steamboat Willie may have their own form of horror treatment, and now it's time for the iconic wooden boy Pinocchio to have some fun. Pinocchio Unstrung, a new horror film that comes from Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director behind the many of the aforementioned horror films, puts the beloved character of Pinocchio in this early grim and evil world and lets him wreak havoc on anyone who brings pain or discomfort to his friend. This film is tons of fun from beginning to end, and this is what any horror fan desires from a movie like this. It's delightfully gory, brutal, and has fantastic practical effects, and the filmmakers do a great job of making the audience care for this puppet that is going around and brutally massacring people.
The movie follows James (Cameron Bell), who is grieving the loss of one of his closest friends. When James goes to stay with his grandfather Geppetto (Richard Brake) for a while, he discovers a secret that Geppetto was hoping he would never discover. James finds a wooden puppet who is fully animated and can move and talk, just like humans. Named Pinocchio (Jude-Evan Lloyd), him and James become fast friends, with Pinocchio discovering more of the world and about humans the more they spend time together. However, when Pinocchio starts witnessing people becoming mean to James, or doesn't understand basic aspects of life like the dentist, Pinocchio decides to make it his mission to take out those that cause his friend harm, which proves to be incredibly dangerous and bloody.
I first want to comment on the horror and slasher elements of this film because I think they are done incredibly well. I am so happy the filmmakers decided to go with practical effects for this film because I think it makes the movie feel so much more personable and the craftsmanship is beautifully on display. They combine this with the cinematography and the wonderful puppetry throughout this movie to make some gnarly and graphic kills. I won't ever see the dentist the same way again after watching this film.
In terms of the puppetry that I just mentioned, I absolutely adore how they crafted Pinocchio. His design is terrifying, but also has this sense of childlike wonder within it that I think works incredibly well. They then use puppetry to bring him to life on the big screen, and I would say it is better than some GCI that is in big-budget productions. I hope filmmakers learn from this film that practical is better most of the time when dealing with a film like this, and I truly hope practical effects start to make a major comeback.
Lloyd is wonderful as the voice of Pinocchio, and he took the route of portraying Pinocchio as an innocent child who is not entirely sure what is going on in the real world. He is not this evil child that he easily could have been for a movie like this, but the filmmakers and Lloyd add these complex layers to the titular character that I think work great in the terms of the story for this film. It's very similar to the way Chucky is portrayed in the newest adaption of Child's Play, but we'll get to that later. I also want to say that Robert Englund's vocal performance as the Cricket is stellar here. He does a great job of being so creepy, yet badass at the same time. I absolutely loved his performance here, and Englund is just simply a legend in the horror world. I wish we just got a lot more of him in this film, and I think they definitely underutilized him here.
The only main problem I have with this movie is that the story is simply too simple and familiar. Like I mentioned, Pinocchio's motivation to do what he does throughout this picture is because of him trying to defend his friend. It follows very closely to the story of the Child's Play reboot, and it doesn't really give us this new story for us to remember Pinocchio by. This movie is no doubt a lot of fun to watch and it's great to see these fantastic horror elements, but I think the story could have used more work to make it more unique,
I had a lot of fun with Pinocchio Unstrung, and I think horror audiences are going to eat this one up. The kills here are elegantly on display, and there is no holding back in each one of these brutal scenes throughout the movie. The puppetry, filmmaking techniques, and practical effects are awe-inspiring, and I think this movie will definitely discover a cult following once it releases.
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