There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (27 Feb 1807 – 24 Mar 1882)
(Spoilers) A mildly interesting but ultimately failed low-budget horror movie written and directed by independent filmmaker Kevin Tenney, who once upon a time turned out a relatively steady stream of great to crappy genre flotsam — his first two feature films, the original Night of the Demons (1988 / trailer) and Witchboard (1986 / trailer), being the most fondly remembered — before pretty much fading from the scene. (He does, however, presently have a few projects — Don't Let Them In and Sins of 7— in development hell.)
According to the interview with him conducted Jo Blo in 2021, Tenney's original title for the direct-to-video project was The Pinocchio Syndrome, which perhaps makes a bit more sense than the title ultimately foisted by Trimark, Pinocchio's Revenge, especially since Pinocchio never takes revenge for anything and one could argue that at least one person in the movie may actually suffer from the psychological disorder also known, in real life, as Loose Screws or the Trump Disorder. But whether The Pinocchio Syndrome or Pinocchio's Revenge, the movie falls flatly in the middle of the genre known as the killer-doll genre... Or does it?
Trailer to
Pinocchio's Revenge:
The scenario of this semi-killer doll flick involves a total MILF public defender and single mom named Jennifer Garrick (Rosalind Allen of Ticks [1993 / trailer], Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice [1992 / trailer] and Son of Darkness [1991 / trailer]) who ends up in possession of the Pinocchio puppet of a convicted serial killer, Vincent Gotto (Lewis Van Bergen [9 Nov 1938 – Apr 2018] of The Relic [1997 / trailer], the mess that is Moon in Scorpio [1987 / trailer], and Savage Dawn [1985 / trailer with Richard Lynch]). The puppet finds its way into the hands of her annoying ringlet-haired daughter Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith*), and suddenly accidents start happening...
*Tenney may have nothing but nice words for his child actress, but there is a reason why her career as a an actor petered out so quickly: she's a horrible. Currently, the now generically hot blonde appears to be attempting to reignite a singing career.
Karma's A Bitch:
As you can tell, the story ain't new. Unluckily, it is also not that well presented, either. The camerawork is good enough, but the plot is padded with characters that go nowhere (the whole bit with the priest [Michael Connors of Roommate Wanted (2020 / trailer)] is wasted time and padding that would have been better served with setting up and having another victim), the narrative has some pretty big holes in it, the acting in immensely uneven, as a whole the movie is neither all that scary nor tense and, ultimately, the twist is too big for its britches and arguably fails to hold water. Tenney obviously wanted his cake and to eat it, too: aiming for psychological ambiguity within the realm of cheesy killer-doll exploitation horror, neither aspect is fully committed to and, thus, everything seems watered down and weak.
In regards to cheesy killer-doll exploitation horror, we of course have the killer puppet and diverse scenes that seemingly prove that it truly is mobile and killer — during the "big" final showdown, Jennifer even sees flashes of him as he attempts to kill her. The movie goes far enough to commit itself to it exploitation roots by including a mildly gratuitous sex scene between Jennifer and her too-good-to-be-true beau David (Todd Allen of Django Unchained [2012 / trailer], Tycus [1999 / trailer], both Witchboard [1986 / trailer] and Witchboard II [1993 / trailer], and Silverado [1985 / trailer]) as well as a truly gratuitous but immensely enjoyable nude shower scene in which Jennifer's truly attractive live-in au pair Sophia (Candace "Dahling" McKenzie) displays the full monty.
But then, as per the psychological aspect of the narrative, we also have scenes that indicate that the doll is little more than a doll, and that it is the young daughter that might actually be giving in to her darker impulses. Is killer-Pinocchio perhaps nothing more than the projected "truth" of an imbalanced, angry child — a psychopath hiding behind princess curls?
Jennifer doesn't think so, and even flirts enough with the idea of "evil existing" that one could think an exorcism scene was planned but got cut. The movie, in any event, refuses to commit itself 100% to any of the concepts. And that is perhaps one of the biggest annoyances about the movie.
One could argue that the narrative as that from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator: that we are seeing everything as they see it and not as it actually happened — as in, most recently for us, the watchable Australian psychological horror thriller Run Rabbit Run (2024 / trailer). But certain events, like Pinocchio's apparent ability to teleport into the back seat of Mommy Jennifer's car the fateful day she brings it home occur outside of the unreliable narrator's viewpoint, thus inferring that the puppet either does indeed have a life of its own or is a conduit of evil ala Annabelle (2014 / trailer). Later sudden appearances at the side of Zoe's bed or in Sophia's room can be read either way, of course, but the question does arise at the end: Where has Pinocchio gone?
Tenney was obviously trying to do something a little different than normal for D2V horror with Pinocchio's Revenge, but unluckily nothing gels well enough make the movie anything more than mildly interesting in a TV horror movie way. You don't have to search this one out... but you don't need to avoid it, ether.