Pinocchio's Revenge
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
In 1973 despite the evidence presented by the district attorney (Larry Cedar), Jennifer Garrick (Rosalind Allen), the lawyer defending Vincent Gotto (Lewis Van Bergen), an accused child murderer on death row, believes her client is not guilty, and is hiding the identity of the real killer. A fellow attorney in her office (Ron Canada) explains the presence of a large Pinocchio doll sitting in her chair as belatedly delivered evidence which she had earlier requisitioned (the doll had been buried by her client in his son's grave). Intending to examine it in the hope of finding a clue which might prevent his execution, she brings it home and her emotionally fragile daughter Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith) mistakes it for a birthday gift. She develops a relationship with the puppet and becomes unbalanced to an even greater degree.
Soon, she even believes the doll to be real and talk with it, although this is not out of the ordinary as she held a similar relationship with her other dolls. Trouble takes off when a school mate of Zoe who bullied her is pushed in front of a bus, which Zoe blames on Pinocchio trying to protect her. Soon after, Jennifer's boyfriend David Kaminsky (Todd Allen) is knocked down the basement stairs while baby sitting Zoe, but is saved by Zoe calling 911. Later, Zoe is at one of her therapy sessions when her psychiatrist Dr. Edwards (Aaron Lustig) has to leave the room, and Zoe begins talking with Pinocchio about who is to blame for David's accident, with both placing blame on one another.
A surveillance video in the room is watched by the mother and the psychiatrist and it is revealed that Zoe is talking to herself. That night, Pinocchio convinces Zoe to set him free so that he can admit to David that he is to blame for his accident. Zoe makes him promise he will not do anything bad and cuts his strings, at which point Pinocchio hops up, declaring his freedom and takes off down the dark streets with Zoe in pursuit. Through a first-person perspective, we see an unknown person move through the hospital through crowds of people into David's room and unplug one of his machines, killing him.
Jennifer questions Zoe who claims she got lost as she and Pinocchio try to find the hospital and never went there which causes an angry and confused Jennifer to lock Pinocchio in the trunk of her car. That night, Zoe is left in the care of the babysitter Sophia (Candace McKenzie), when Sophia reminds her that Zoe gave Pinocchio a conscience (a cricket caught earlier in the film). Zoe runs to her room to check on it and finds it smashed and begins screaming. Sophia runs to make sure she is okay where she is struck by a fireplace poker from an unknown assailant until she is dead. Jennifer arrives home that night during a thunderstorm to find the babysitter dead and Zoe standing in a dark hallway quiet. When Jennifer tries to confront Zoe, she runs away in a panic. As Jennifer explores the house, she is struck by the poker and sees her daughter standing above her with it in her hand.
Her daughter explains that she just managed to get the poker away from Pinocchio but they must escape quickly, but before Jennifer can inquire further, Zoe is gone. Jennifer stands up to see Pinocchio standing in the room, at which point he suddenly turns towards her and attacks her with a knife, following with a chase and battle through the house. Jennifer throws Pinocchio through a glass coffee table and sees that her daughter is suddenly lying there in his place. The movie closes with a catatonic Zoe being committed and Jennifer stating it was not her and that she will not give up until she gets better and can leave, to which Dr. Edwards states, "I hope not, for your sake, I hope not."

Review: This movie is cleverly written and well acted, and is a whole lot better than I ever thought it would be when I first sat down to watch it.
An accused child murderer has been arrested five years ago, his lawyer ( Rosalind Allen) believes he's innocence as he may think that the Pinocchio puppet he made for his son told him to kill other children.
She couldn't stop his execution in time, however she accidentally brings home with her the Pinocchio doll from the office, her daughter Zoe ( Brittany Alyse Smith) is having a birthday party as she mistakes it as a gift.
The new few days she seems to act strange as she begins to develop a relationship with the puppet as bizarre accidents occur, her mother begins to become concerned about her including to find out what is behind these accidents.Entertaining low budget psychological horror thriller that is a puzzle movie on who is the killer!
the acting is good and the puppet is quite a creepy one.Also recommended: "Magic" ( 1978), "Trilogy of Terror", " Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", "Halloween", "Dolls", " Child's Play series", " Se7en", "Devil Doll ( 1964)", "Dead of Night", " Pin", " Great Gabbo", " Puppet Master", " Tourist Trap", "Scream", " Terror Train", " Psycho ( 1960)", " American Psycho", "Dolly Dearest", "Poltergeist", "Evil Dead II", "Perfect Blue", "Silence of the Lambs", and "The Shining"..
However, the film suffers from one of those annoyingly ambiguous endings, where the filmmakers can't think of a way to cover up their plot holes, so they "leave you to decide".
A convicted child murderer who was given the chair, left his only possession, a wooden Pinocchio doll, to his lawyer.
Perhaps the best movie ever made by director Kevin Tenney (well, his Witchboard is not on the top of my all-time horror list), this one is a strange, fascinating mixture between Pin and Child's Play, both better than this one, but not so better.
Sure, the plot is contrived and perhaps too predictable, but the actors are good, Rosalind Allen is very pleasant to the eye (and so is Candance McKenzie - God bless her for the shower scene!), the child actress is very good in interpreting the disturbed daughter and the Pinocchio puppet is scary enough to give you a few thrills down the spine.
PINOCCHIO'S REVENGE is basically just a CHILD'S PLAY rip-off, but it's a hell of a good one.
It takes all the great elements of a horror movie and blends them together but doesn't quite work as the Chucky series, mainly due to the unoriginal premise.
Still, there is enough style and effective scenes, creating a better-than-expected slasher flick that is neither good or bad.
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..
"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.
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.
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.
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.
And when I saw parts of it, it looked like a revival of Child's Play with a Pinnochio puppet.
I recommend this movie to anyone who likes Child's Play and Dolly Dearest!
The plot basically has a large wooden puppet coming to life and killing people...or is he?
The title is stupid and this was made on no budget, but it was quite interesting.All the acting is good, the story moves quickly and you're kept guessing until the very end about what's going on.
Struggling with a murder case, a lawyer decides to pass along a hand- crafted dummy to her daughter who begins acting strangely around the doll, and when they realize the doll's a damaging influence try to stop it before more are hurt.There wasn't a whole lot to this one that stood out.
That it's tied in with the fun to be had from the fact that it mixes it with the popular legend about the doll gives this more good points, making the last half a lot more suspenseful by giving it a more horror-based twist.
Although there's not a whole lot of them, the kills do lead to some rather nice scenes as these here are the film's best points while this one had a few flaws to it that do hold it down.
Then it segues into the family drama at home which isn't all that great since it's never interesting to see people going insane which really hurts the scenes of the daughter slowly being taken over since it takes a lot of time going through the different stages before the obvious happens.
Rosalind Allen gives a powerful performance as the mother of a child who insists on keeping a serial killer's doll and is mistakenly allowed to do so.
A mother (Rosalind Allen) brings home an evil Pinocchio wooden puppet that supposedly caused a man to kill his son.
Her little girl (Brittany Alyse Smith) finds the doll and takes it as her own.This film was written and directed by Kevin Tenney, the creator of "Witchboard" and "Night of the Demons".
Heck, I even liked that the neighbor pointed out that the original Italian story had the doll be a bigger jerk than the Disney version, so Tenney clearly knows his stuff...
"Pinocchio's Revenge" is a great movie and hopefully Kevin S.
But I've grown and come to think of this as Child's Play rip, a fairy tale bashing nonsense, and a lame Tales From The Crypt episode, or trying to be one at least, with a lame ending that was stupid, and it had many plot holes, and I still can't understand how it came to life.
If you want killer puppets, settle for the killer doll, specifically Child's Play, instead, no strings attached.
Most of the movie was not the least bit scary, plus the only time we really see Pinocchio "alive" is the final few scenes of the film.
The little girl in the film, her acting is so bad it's almost laughable.
If you want a good killer toy series, stick with the Child's Play franchise.
This is also the kind of movie you buy or rent to see a little puppet go around killing people, well if it is then definitely don't be as stupid as I was to get this movie.
Plus it's one of those films were it tries to be clever by saying is the puppet alive or is it the little girl but that gets annoying also.
Also they are clearly copying off of "Child's Play" the first Chucky movie more than the other's because for example the scene where mom is trying to get away from Pinoccho (in the last 10 minutes) and shuts the door and he begins to stab through the door (which you can tell is fake, you can see the place clearly were the knife is about to come through)and hits her hand (just like in "Child's Play").
We've seen movies like this before, i.e. the Child's Play series, which is by the way, far better.
The fairy tale you remember as a child comes alive with a new twist in Pinocchio's Revenge.This movie was ok but nothing special.
Rent if you are bored or if you like movies with toys that come to life and kill people.
After all the movie isn't that bad, I liked it for the performance of the characters especially for Rosalind Allen and Candace McKenzie who was amazing but there was no need for the shower scene and that nudity, the little girl was a real brat and she played the role very well.
The main problem with that movie or you can't call it problem, it's the plot, until the last minute of the film you can't decide who is the killer, the puppet or the little girl?
This question keeps on spinning in your mind, some times you find the little girl is the killer especially after her doctor shows her mother the video footage where she was talking to the puppet that seemed entirely lifeless, then you start believing that Pinocchio is the killer after the priest tells the mother that evil can take many shapes and it may take the shape of a puppet.
Well, if you were a little bored and looking for some entertainment then rent this movie and don't try to think of it too much because you will get nothing, just watch I gave it 4 out of 10..
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 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.
dull (10/10) - the story is laughable (of course it's possible to bring home a piece of evidence in a murder case especially a puppet :-) ahahahah what a good idea for a script !) so lame script (15/10) impossible to number story-holes, so bad or non-existent puppet animation, not one second believable or scary, poor directing (20/10!) and so inappropriate shots along the movie.
It had a few good moments throughout the film like the cool scene where Zoe avoids the motorcycles in the streets, but not many.
Jennifer Garrick(..the lovely veteran of television and B-movie horror, Rosalind Allen)is worried about her daughter, Zoe(Brittany Alyse Smith), who has a hard time adjusting to any school she's been in which only adds weight to the heavy anvil of stress in a job often representing the lowest of criminals.
Jennifer feels she has found a new love in landscaper David(Todd Allen)but their lives get a little complicated when she inherits the case of a convicted child murderer, Vincent Gotto(Lewis Van Bergen)who is on trial for the killing of his son.
It's really supposed to be evidence filed away, but manages accidentally to make it into the arms of Zoe setting off a chain of dangerous events that will put many lives in jeopardy.The film seems like another in a long foray of killer doll movies where a puppet can move amongst the adults freely committing cruel and violent deeds because no one in their right mind would suspect an inanimate object of such things.
But, instead, the films opens the possibility that Zoe herself could be harvesting a dark side urging her to commit foul play out of some sort of mixed up agenda to keep her mother from "leaving her like daddy did." The film even opens a possibility that Pinocchio is possessing Zoe, and perhaps did the same to Gotto's son.
At any rate we actually "hear" the puppet's voice and director Kevin Tenney(Witchboard;Night of the Demons)has us seeing his "lips move", although Zoe's therapist records a session where she appears to be talking to herself after we had just witnessed a conversation between child and puppet(..the pivotal scene has Zoe confronting Pinocchio about his actions in a key character's death with the puppet questioning her on perhaps actually being the perpetrator behind the crime).
I felt Tenney does what he can through technical means to enhance the thrills when victims are in danger, but while his 80's films had a degree of spunk and enthusiasm, Pinocchio's Revenge lacks those traits which often make his work such fun to sit through.
Tenney, arguably the best B-Rate director in the business, has helmed the Witchboard series as well as Witchtrap, but takes time out from directing hags with warts and tackles everyone's favorite little wooden boy; Pinocchio.
His scripts are always clever and witty, check out Witchtrap, and he knows how to give his characters substance, which very few screenwriters truly know how to do.This film follows a workaholic attorney, Rosalind Allen who believes the man that she is representing is taking a fall for someone in the death of his own son.
In the man's possession was a wooden puppet of Pinocchio which Rosalind accidentally allows her impressionable daughter to cabbage onto the doll.
We get to see a man fall down a flight of stairs and watch as Rosalind gets chased around her house during a storm by a knife wielding puppet).NUDITY: $$$$$ (Candace McKenzie, an extremely beautiful woman, has a shower scene because Pinocchio was curious about girls.
Rosalind's character was multi-faceted and Tenney also squeezes out a fine performance from the little girl).ACTING: $$$ (This film is for Rosalind Allen fans as she receives plenty of screen time and she delivers.
(This review contains a huge spoiler, but I don't know how to explain how cool it is without giving it away) I saw "pinoccio's Revenge" a while ago.Now, you might think it's just a rip-off of Child's play.
***** SPOILER ***** Especially where in the scene where the psychiatrist leaves the girl and Pinnochio alone in the office; WE see the doll actually talking to her, but in the video recording we do not.
: )IF you are a fan of films like the 'PUPPET MASTER', etc., and you enjoy Retro-styled Slashers, AND your thing for Horror isn't just all about sadism and torture, then you should find this film enjoyable.
Child´s Play made a new genre of horror,THE KILLER DOLLS,Some of this films has not got too much money for make it but I think that the only film that make shadow to Chucky is this.Ok it´s a tipical product direct to video or direct to tv but Pinocchio is not real and the killer is the little girl.The imagination of children are too big and this film play with it.The roles are good and Candance  Mckenzie is great..
Well not that Child's Play and Pinocchio's Revenge are very comparable even though they seem to have some similarities.
In Pinocchio's Revenge it's less clear if there is some kind of evil attached to the doll or is it Zoe herself doing all those bad things and for which she does blame Pinocchio for.
One thing is for sure the Pinocchio doll is creepy and there certainly is something not right about it as the opening scene shows.
Also Zoe didn't seem like a mean child before she got the Pinocchio doll.
Pinnochio is possessed and begins to start killing people.This movie moves very slowly only to have such a weak ending.
Unlike those films, the puppet, in this case PINOCCHIO (by name only, no relation) is not a ventriloquist's dummy, merely a marionette, which is too bad, since ventriloquist dummies are animated and when done well suspend belief.
Since most of this movie is just the doll hanging around it never really seems frightening, and at the end when it does come to life (okay that's a spoiler but come on' we all knew it would eventually come to life...heck, it's name is Pinocchio!!!), it's really borrowing from all those devil doll films, the best being TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) itself remade the same year as PINOCCHIO'S REVENGE.
What that leaves us here is a hodge-podge of old concepts (evil puppet movies, devil doll movies, Hitchcock's Psycho...and for the record, the Pinocchio theme has been ignored all together) that pale in comparison to all earlier versions with bad acting, bad directing, virtually no sense of horror, and nothing new to enjoy.
The film could have used an original puppet (ala CHILD'S PLAY's Chucky doll) but the producers were looking to sell the video, not make a lasting impression.