Pinocchio's Revenge (1996)

Innocent childhood stories always have a creepy underbelly to them and the iconic figure of Pinocchio gets the treatment in 'Pinocchio's Revenge'… don't ask want revenge has to do with anything. Hell, I went in expecting far worse from this b-grade cheapo, but strangely came away thinking it was mildly okay. Due mainly to director Kevin S. Tenney's sharp, polished and controlled handling with such typically simple material. You can call it a 'Child's Play (1988)' rip-off, but I thought it was a bit better than that. Sure there's some influences there (… who am I kidding there's plenty), but what sets it apart is the whole ambiguous nature of just who is doing the killings. Maybe this factor is to cover up the stringy plot-holes, but this psychological tease was moderately effective. It's not really played for fun thrills, because it's quite light on them despite some mean-spirited acts (and these come terribly late). When it did come to those moments they were telegraphed jolts and jump scares. Minor suspense with the build-up taking ages to get going and cementing itself. Cliché after cliché is used to maximum effect and everything is played with a straight face. Therefore the daftness of it sticks out even more and leaves the film feeling plain. The atmospherically theatrical music score likes to inform you how evil a scene is going to get with its cues. The puppet just didn't create the chills, because of its bulky and awkward appearance. Although did it make a lot of noise when it moved about and of course doesn't like other dolls… you know competition. The special effects is you standard display. Leading the way in the performances are welcomely earnest turns by Roslaind Allen and child actress Brittany Smith. They both pull there roles off very well. Popping out of nowhere is a leering shower scene with Candance McKenzie. A slightly amusing throwaway.

This isn't exactly a Child's Play rip-off (though it does borrow some ideas from those movie) but is just interesting enough to keep your attention throughout. The story revolves around divorced district attorney Jennifer Garrick (Rosalind Allen) and her troubled young daughter Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith). During a birthday party Zoe mistakenly believes a wooden Pinocchio doll is one of her presents and instantly becomes attached to it. The doll is actually a piece of evidence in a criminal investigation and was buried alongside a body but Jennifer doesn't see any harm in letting her daughter keep the doll. However, strange and horrific things soon begin to happen. Zoe claims that the doll is responsible. The film never really reveals whether it is Zoe or the possessed doll responsible until the very end but the film manages to keep you entertained until you find out.The writing is decent, as is Tenney's direction. The special effects are average, but the acting is good enough to convince you. Allen is excellent in the lead, and Smith does a great job for a child actress. For the life of me I can't figure out why Candace McKenzie (who plays the live-in nanny to the family) didn't have much of a career after this film. Not only is she very attractive, but she also delivers a wonderfully appealing performance. Fans of Kevin Tenney's Witchboard will no doubt recognize Todd Allen in a supporting role. The current rating of 3.7 on here is far lower than this film deserves.

I was really disappointed after viewing Pinocchio's Revenge the other night. I had a good inclination that it was going to be a bad one, but I didn't think that it'd be as bad as it turned out. A wooden puppet of a murdered boy falls into the hands of an attorney's eight-year-old daughter. From there, it is a murderous path for anyone who gets in the way between the puppet and the little girl. We've seen movies like this before, i.e. the Child's Play series, which is by the way, far better. However, it was good to see actors like James W. Quinn and Todd Allen. Both of which have worked under Kevin Tenney before. In any event, I encourage viewers to check out "Night Of The Demons" and the original "Witchboard." These are titles that tend to bring out the best in Kevin S. Tenney.

Pinocchio's revenge is not a good movie. Nor is it terrible.The acting was wooden at least on Pinocchio's part.The puppet had all of 2 expressions.As did most of the actors,except strangely enough...the secondary characters...most of them were enjoyable over the top.The special effects in this are pretty "B" and as I said earlier the puppet really blew.The 2 best scenes in the movie are the knife through the hand...looked pretty good,i think they spent about a 1/3 of the budget on that...and the shower scene...WOW...I think they must have spent the other 2/3rds of the budget on talking the actress who did that scene to do it.Outstanding.Seriously this is a slightly below average "b" horror puppet movie...rent Chucky if you have a urge to see puppets kill.The story had a few interesting idea's, enough to keep me watching it to the end.