Pinocchio is the star of a new horror remake called Pinocchio: Unstrung, taking inspiration from the 1940 Disney animated film. However, the Disney version is based on Carlo Collodi’s 1883 book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, which is now in the public domain.
According to Bloody Disgusting, Pinocchio: Unstrung, a horror film, is the latest project from the team behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, Bambi: The Reckoning, and the upcoming Blood and Honey 2. Produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey, the cast and crew will be announced later, with production set to start in the summer and a planned late 2024 release date. Check out the movie’s title treatment and a spooky Pinocchio drawing featured in the end credits of Blood and Honey 2, along with drawings of yet-to-be-revealed characters expanding the universe.
Making A Pinnochio Horror Movie Isn’t so much of a Stretch
Pinocchio: Unstrung joins the trend of public domain horror adaptations, following the success of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. The team behind both films is also involved in Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. Other creative teams are joining the trend with movies like The Mean One (a Grinch slasher), competing Cinderella adaptations (Cinderella’s Curse and Cinderella’s Revenge), and the newly announced Mickey’s Mouse Trap, adapting the Steamboat Willie version of the character, now in the public domain.
Pinocchio: Unstrung faces the challenge of creating horror from an already eerie source, as the original story includes elements like Pinocchio and his friend Candlewick transforming into donkeys. The tale also features the Terrible Dogfish, which inspired Disney’s Monstro. While budget constraints might limit direct adaptation of these elements, they highlight the inherent horror in the story.
Pinocchio has a horror movie history with Verne Troyer portraying a bloodthirsty version in 1996’s Pinocchio’s Revenge. This legacy might pose a challenge for Pinocchio: Unstrung to achieve the same notoriety as Blood and Honey in 2024.
