17/04/2026 - Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield proves the sceptics wrong with this playful, macabre reimagining of Pinocchio set in the Twisted Childhood Universe

Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Pinocchio: Unstrung is the fifth film set in the Twisted Childhood Universe (aka the Poohniverse), which so far includes Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) and Bambi: The Reckoning (2025). It celebrated its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF). In keeping with a long-standing BIFFF tradition, the crowd in the theatre was pumped up, and provided boisterous foley effects and live commentary throughout the screening.

It took the collective around Frake-Waterfield and producer Scott Jeffrey (aka Scott Chambers) some time, but Pinocchio: Unstrung may actually be the first of the Poohniverse-set flicks in which the corporate strategist-turned-filmmaker’s habit of taking beloved characters from the public domain and turning them into homicidal psychopaths hits the right notes. This is most likely thanks to the film's budget being ten times higher, at €500,000, than the €50,000 on hand for the first instalment of Winnie the Pooh.

Here is the gist of the story: orphaned teenager James (played by Cameron Bell) has just lost his best friend to cancer. To help him deal with the grief, his grandfather, Geppetto (Richard Brake), gifts James a wooden doll with a soul, called Pinocchio (voiced by Jude Evan Lloyd). Being the teenager he is, James ignores his grandfather’s warnings and introduces Pinocchio to the outside world. However, Pinocchio longs to be human and to prove himself worthy of James’s friendship by protecting him. The naïve wooden boy embarks on a gruesome crusade to eliminate anyone who might harm James, and to obtain the body parts he needs to become human.

During Pinocchio’s killing frenzy, it also becomes clear that Geppetto has a sort of Faustian god complex and has not been meddling with human souls merely out of the goodness of his heart. The Faustian motifs do not end there: Pinocchio, with his naïvety, is reminiscent of Gretchen/Margarete. His soul is ultimately corrupted by his desire to be human and by Cricket, another, particularly devilish, one of Geppetto’s wooden creations, masterfully brought to life by horror veteran Robert Englund’s voice. From a narrative perspective, the Faustian scenario is certainly nothing new, but here, it is reimagined in a refreshing way.

Englund and Evan Lloyd deliver thoroughly engaging performances, rendering their characters simultaneously charming and chilling. Above all, however, the film benefits from the palpable enjoyment of the team behind the camera, which is evident in each of Pinocchio’s murders, executed with an almost artistic flair, from piercing people with his long nose to pulling out the teeth of an innocent dentist. The special effects, mostly animatronics supervised by Todd Masters and carried out by puppeteers, benefit from Masters’ previous experience on films such as Child’s Play (2019). The dedication to handmade effects also proves that the creators of the Poohniverse have a soft spot for their characters and are not out to shatter children’s dreams.

First and foremost, the film is decent genre entertainment. Those seeking more meaning to their movies would be better advised to look elsewhere, but for genre fans, this flick is utterly satisfying.

Pinocchio: Unstrung is a UK-US co-production staged by Jagged Edge Productions Ltd. It is currently seeking a distributor.