Pinocchio: Unstrung has made the move from cinemas to home viewing, available now to rent or buy digitally after opening theatrically on 24 July.
The film is the fifth entry in the Twisted Childhood Universe, the horror franchise that has already turned Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan into slashers, and this time it's Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio getting the treatment. Written and directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield with Scott Chambers, it follows Geppetto's grandson James, whose friendship with a puppet brought unnervingly to life curdles once Pinocchio takes his creator's lessons about honesty and self improvement far too literally. Richard Brake plays Geppetto, with Robert Englund voicing the film's sinister Cricket.
It sits at 50 on Metacritic, a number that lines up with a franchise more interested in gleeful, low budget mayhem than genuine scares. If you've followed the Twisted Childhood Universe's run of killer nostalgia villains, this is another entry in that same gonzo tradition rather than a return to elevated horror.
It's for viewers who get a kick out of seeing beloved public domain childhood characters turned into slashers, more than anyone hoping for a faithful or genuinely frightening retelling of Collodi's original story. Go in expecting B movie enthusiasm rather than dread, and it delivers exactly that.
