Scott LeBrun "Pinocchio's Revenge" is a decent enough movie to add to the sub genre of horror films dealing with minuscule terrors, whether they be dolls or toys or monsters or whatever. Writer / director Kevin S. Tenney's story is about a defense attorney, Jennifer Garrick (gorgeous Rosalind Allen), who defends a wood carver, Vincent Gotto (Lewis Van Bergen) accused of being a serial killer. She comes to believes that Gotto is innocent and covering up for somebody else. And recovered from a crime scene is a Pinocchio marionette, the presence of which has a negative effect on Jennifer's imaginative daughter Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith). Overall, Tenney's movie is just too reminiscent of "Child's Play" (right down to a similar scene involving a door and a knife) to work too well, but what earns it some respect is its insistence on playing up its ambiguity at every turn. Even when we inevitably see the malicious marionette actually *doing* things, it's never made 100% certain that this isn't all *just* in the heads of its characters. It's too hard not to laugh when we hear / see Pinocchio (voiced by Dick Beals, doubled by Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer) talking and attacking, but for the most part Tenney refuses to go the purely cheesy route and avoids this sort of thing for as long as he can. Effective atmosphere and spooky music by the director's brother Dennis are assets; also, the performances from all concerned are pretty damn sincere, with Allen reasonably good in the lead; handsome Todd Allen, one of the leads of Tenney's "Witchboard", is the love interest, and familiar character players such as Aaron Lustig (as the psychiatrist), Ron Canada (as Jennifer's boss), Van Bergen, Larry Cedar (as the district attorney), Janet MacLachlan (as the judge), and Robert Winley (in one of his standard biker roles) all turn up as well. Those horror fans hoping for a formula and gore driven, body count type of affair will be left than satisfied, as Tenney prefers to keep things psychological, but at least Candace McKenzie as the nanny Sophia gives us some enjoyable full frontal nudity, and young Smith is pretty good as child actors go. This is all enjoyable enough while it lasts. Six out of 10.

lost-in-limbo 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.

stormruston 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.

uk20de I have never seen a B movie like this one... on the part that the nanny Sofia is being killed... a hand of a woman appears on the tape handling the stick... how bad is that??? LOL, I seriously laughed and wanted to stop seeing the movie, but I kept watching it to see if this movie could get worse...LOL...it is bad for itself... poor Pinocchio.. the only nice bit is the first time you see some special effects of Pinocchio's face moving... apart from that the whole movie is awful... it's not really worth your time if you don't really have much to spare! But if you have nothing to do... go on... treat yourself with some "Z" movie cos B-movie is still too good for this one...LOL