Pinocchio: Unstrung: what age is it for? 17, alone or with a parent
From 17, alone or with a parent.
Official US rating: R. In France, zinema would say 16.
Alone, or with you
The official US rating is R, and we never go below it. Alone from 17, and not before, even with an adult.
The sweet spot: around 17-19, when they know horror movies well enough to take the excess with a grin, and can watch a childhood tale twisted out of shape without buying into it. If your teenager has recently lost someone close, wait a little: it all starts with the death of a best friend. Why a sweet spot?
The trailer
What it's about
Influenced by a sinister Cricket and created by Geppetto, Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James, one piece at a time.
Why 17
- The official rating, firstRated R in the US (restricted, under 17 requires an accompanying parent). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.rule
- Bodies cut open, in close-upThe blood is not an accident of the story; it is what the movie is here to show. A man paralyzed in a hospital bed, but fully conscious, has his face torn off and then his belly opened, the camera right up close for more than a minute and a half. Then come teeth pulled out, a young woman scalped, a boy stabbed through the face.shown
- Victims the hero's ageThe hero is a middle schooler, and most of the victims are kids his age or barely older: the ones who bully him, two teens by a swimming pool, a friend shot dead with a rifle right in front of him, and, at the end, kids hunted down with an ax by an adult. The puppet sings nursery rhymes as it strikes, and the movie plays it for laughs.shown
- A voyeuristic shower, a body displayedA girl from the gang that bullies the hero is spied on in the shower by two voyeurs, shown naked from behind and in profile, just before she is attacked. Later, a woman's naked, mutilated body hangs like a puppet in the middle of the staircase.shown
- A puppet that wears its victimsThe killer is a wooden puppet with a split face, egged on by a small talking cricket. It makes itself teeth, hair and even a face out of what it takes from the dead. Almost everything happens at night, in an old house full of clocks and dark corners.shown
- Crude words, and some pressureThe swearing never lets up, with "fuck" and "shit" throughout, and the insults mostly target girls. By a swimming pool, a boy pressures his girlfriend to give in; she refuses, insults him and walks away.said
What the movie brings
- A tale everyone knows, turned into a horror movie: the puppet who wanted to become a real boy, and the little voice that was supposed to be his conscience.
- Behind the killings, a story of grief: a boy who lost his parents, then his best friend.
Watching it together
Before the movie, you can tell them it is an over-the-top horror show, not a fairy tale, and stay for the behind-the-scenes footage at the end, which shows the latex, the fake blood and the puppets at work.
at 17 and up
The cricket was supposed to be his conscience: at what point should Pinocchio have stopped listening to it?
See the facts
For the same age, on zinema
- The Highest Stakes 17
- Shameless 17
- The Shards 17, 16 with a parent
- Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story 17, 16 with a parent
The latest guides
- The Gentlemen 17, 16 with a parent
- MobLand 17, 16 with a parent
- UNABOMBER 17, 16 with a parent
- Paolo 17, 16 with a parent
A zinema reading from October 12, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made