When A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books entered the public domain at the start of 2022, it took no time at all for the character—best known for his depiction in Disney's animated movies—to be reimagined as...a monstrous mass murderer.
Filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield's Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was a surprise hit in 2023, grossing $7.7 million on a $50,000 budget. Since then, this horror franchise has expanded with a slate of projects that make up the "Twisted Childhood Universe."
Along with a Pooh-centric sequel (a third chapter is in the works), we've had Bambi: The Reckoning and Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare. Eventually, we'll get an Avengers-style crossover, Poohniverse Monsters Assemble.
In the meantime, Pinocchio: Unstrung, a chilling reimagining of the familiar fable, is up next. In the movie, influenced by a sinister Cricket (Robert Englund) and created by Geppetto (Richard Brake), Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James, one piece at a time.
Today, we have an exclusive clip from Pinocchio: Unstrung, but be warned, it's not for the faint of heart! In the sneak peek, the wooden boy attacks (as Cricket watches on), and the result isn't pretty. These movies have never held back in terms of gore, and if this bloody clip is any indication, this latest chapter will be no exception.
The title character is an impressive creation, and based on how the clip ends, something tells us the worst is yet to come for Pinocchio's hapless victims. Of course, for horror fans, that's all part of the fun, and this certainly isn't like any other version of Carlo Collodi's creation we've seen.
Pinocchio: Unstrung is directed by Frake-Waterfield and produced by Scott Jeffrey, the duo behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Alongside Englund and Brake, the cast includes Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray, and Peter De Souza-Feighoney. Emmy winner Todd Masters oversees the practical animatronics.
Teasing the movie, Frake-Waterfield previously said, "We built Pinocchio as a fully practical animatronic because I wanted him to feel real. This is a twisted coming-of-age story told from the puppet’s perspective: a creation struggling for autonomy while being manipulated by the sinister forces around him, from Robert Englund’s sinister ‘Jiminy Cricket’ to Richard Brake’s obsessive Geppetto."
"Our Twisted Childhood Universe continues to grow in darker and more ambitious ways as we’re gearing up for Poohniverse Monsters Assemble!" the filmmaker added.
Check out this exclusive clip from Pinocchio: Unstrung in the player below. The movie is coming to theaters on July 24.