With Pinocchio Unstrung, the latest installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe, now playing in theaters, we recently caught up with horror legend Robert Englund to discuss his pivotal role as Cricket in Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s dark new slasher.
Considering his legacy as one of the genre's ultimate icons, we asked Englund how he differentiated his performance as Cricket from his legendary turn as Freddy Krueger, as well as the challenges of playing a twisted version of Pinocchio’s conscience. He also opens up about his process, the possibility of a crossover film, and his desire to do "something real dark and nasty" for his long-awaited return to horror.
Plus, he reflects on playing Victor Creel in the fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things and shares a few wonderful stories about his experience on the show and working with Maya Hawke and Millie Bobby Brown.
The cast features Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stranger Things), Richard Brake (Mandy, 31), Jessica Balmer (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, Alien: Convergence), and Cameron Bell (Pinocchio Unstrung, Monsters).
Rhys Frake-Waterfield wrote and directed the feature. He launched the shared universe in 2023 with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and followed it with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 in 2024. The universe then expanded with Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare and Bambi: The Reckoning.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 3 is currently in post-production, and Frake-Waterfield is in early development on Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, a massive crossover film that will bridge all of the Twisted Childhood Universe entries.
Pinocchio Unstrung is now playing in theaters!
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ROHAN: When you first talk to Rhys, who has carved out this really gnarly Twisted Childhood Universe, what was his initial pitch to you to join this film and turning the classic story on its head?
ROBERT: Well, I was very aware of the success of Winnie the Pooh, and, in my generation, we used to have some great satirical spoofs of the fairy tales, you know, fractured fairy tales, by the same guys that did Rocky and Bullwinkle and all of that and so, I sort of am aware of that. And then, you know, over the years discussing Nightmare on Elm Street, I've also had experience, you know, remembering that sort of fascination my generation had back in the late '60s with Bruno Bettelheim and all the guys that were really revealing the sort of Freudian, Jungian, dark underbelly of all the fairy tales, you know, Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin, how really dark and cautionary they were.
So, I think it's really a valid thing, but just for my own sake, you know, my very first huge professional success was when I was a child actor and I did Pinocchio, and then, on top of that, I really am glad to be in something really dark and gory and violent again because I've been doing some sort of classic horror, and, you know, I did Stranger Things recently, which is kind of iconic, and I did Midnight Man, which is one of those subset horror movies, you know, the games you shouldn't play, kind of like the one I did, Urban Legend. So, all of those factors, it was time for me to have something real dark and nasty out there, you know, because I've been playing around with Midnight Man with Lin Shaye, which was the one about the games you shouldn't play, and then, I did a kind of retro one, Natty Knocks. I was just due to do something really dark and nasty for my fans.
ROHAN: Cricket is generally the moral compass of the story, but here, you play a much darker, twisted version. Where did you find his voice and how did you aim to separate it from your iconic Freddy Krueger role?
ROBERT: Well, I had to be careful of any laughter because it's really easy for me to fall into the Freddy Krueger laugh. Back when I first did it, it was my kind of go-to laugh, you know, I think I called it my satanic laugh, and it had been an exercise in a voice class at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, you know, this kind of intake plosive diaphragm-supported laugh that we used to do as an exercise. We all had so much fun with it in class, you know, making it evil or making it hysterical and crazy or whatever. So, I have to be careful because it's sort of a muscle memory laugh that I had.
So, I wanted to steer clear of the Freddy laugh, but I was using imagery, and I only had still images of Cricket, and my own voice has changed over the years, it's a little rougher. I wanted him, you know, in my mind's eye, I kept imagining those old cartoons with the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, and somehow just using that image, I kind of found the voice I wanted to use. Manipulative, taunting, but also kind of nasty, almost a guttural Don Rickles, you know, the old insult comedian. Those were all things I had in my head when I was doing cricket.
ROHAN: Cricket comes into the story as an agent of chaos. What was your take on his motivations and where he wants to steer Pinocchio?
ROBERT: Well, again, how I wanted to steer Pinocchio was based on that image that I held of, you know, the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other whispering in his ear. And so, by holding that image, it manifested itself vocally, and that sort of justified how I saw him manipulating Pinocchio.
ROHAN: You mentioned you had seen an image of Cricket before you started recording. Was it basically what we see in the movie or were there any changes that you can remember? Were there any particular sequences that you were able to preview before you stepped into the booth?
ROBERT: What I had seen was obviously a printout, you know, there's a lot of secrecy when we're doing movies and projects like this. There was a lot of secrecy involved. It was the same thing when I worked on Stranger Things and did the special effects makeup with the guys from Game of Thrones, and so the printout that I saw was a little darker. When I saw the trailer, I realized just how much that animation comes alive and is filled, and it wasn't as dark as I imagined him, which was great. I could see more of the detail of Cricket, and I appreciated what they were doing with that. It's strange, you know.
I just discovered Predator: Killer of Killers, which is some of my favorite animation in recent years, and the first section of that, the Nordic, kind of Viking section, Predator versus Viking, it's very dark, and I had to literally close all the blinds and all the curtains in my house, but then, I could really appreciate the depths of that animation and how great it was and the storyboarding, but it's that thing again, you know, where I love, in terms of the delineation on a big flat screen, it was great, but you need to control the lighting too. And eventually, I watched the last two segments of Predator: Killer of Killers, I watched it at night, so I didn't have to worry about any leakage, you know, ruining how great that animation was. But that's a problem those artists have, we all have now, because people are watching it, walking on the street on a phone and stuff like that, and you just don't get the full artistic value when you watch it that way, you know, it's time to wait till nighttime and pump up the flat screen and send out for a pizza and turn all the lights off. That's the way to watch that stuff.
ROHAN: When you played Freddy Krueger, one of the most iconic horror villains of all-time, you wore a practical costume. What was your reaction to first seeing the Pinocchio puppet? Were you able to interact with it or what was just your experience seeing how practical Rhys was going with this film?
ROBERT: Well, I loved the way the puppet looked, and I loved their treatment of the wood, you know, because there's something kind of dark about that I really gravitated toward, and then, just the other day, beginning my publicity for the movie, I got to see the actual puppet, one of the ones they use, you know, they're various sizes and stuff, but the detail work is just amazing, and it looks so heavy, and it looks rough, but it's very light when you finally touch it. I had him on my lap for one of the interviews the other day, but, you know, they're fully articulated and it's just amazing stuff. But, I did like the kind of classic look of it.
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this or not, but there's a bit of an echo on some illustrations I'd seen before of Pinocchio, and even the Disney one. I mean, just as a side story, as an actor, I used to go to Walt Disney Studios lots of times for auditions back in the day, and we all knew from visits there as aficionados, we all knew where the animation building was, but I had discovered on an audition once when I got lost that on the second floor of the animation building there, the animators would display all of the images or their favorite images from the various film library of Walt Disney's animated films, and I remember seeing all of the background work for the Island of Lost Boys, in the Disney version of of Collodi's Pinocchio, and just seeing those backgrounds, they were they were pretty dark, you know, there was something strange and dark about that sequence that I really liked, and they kind of preserved that aspect of the fairy tale.
ROHAN: The ending of the film leaves the door open for future misadventures, to say the least. They’ve recently announced a Twisted Childhood Universe crossover film. Have you heard anything about being part of that project or is that something still a little ways away?
ROBERT: Well, you know, unfortunately, I missed a screening, and I would have got to hang out with everybody, but because I've been talking about the nature of fairy tales, in fact, I just read some Hilary Mantel stuff about fairy tales that was really interesting. But since I've been talking about it, you know, with journalists like yourself, I just keep thinking of a really dark, dark Rumpelstiltskin, which I think should be on deck for somebody that's thinking about continuing, you know, with this sort of way of mutating, or actually, in fact, in some cases, with the Brothers Grimm, honoring the real darkness in some of these stories.
ROHAN: I’m a huge fan of your work and you mentioned your appearance on Stranger Things as Victor Creel. What was your experience working on that show? Was there ever a possibility of you appearing in the final season?
ROBERT: Well, yeah, it was great makeup. Those are the guys that invented the Night King, you know, for Game of Thrones. I had wanted to go visit their studio in London, instead they came to me in my hotel to do all the tests after they had begun designing the makeup. But yeah, you know, I really am glad I met Maya Hawke. She's really special, and, you know, I had known Millie Bobby Brown before. I had met her and her mother, and I had told her how she has that great gift on camera of listening and being completely present when she listens, which is a hallmark of a real star. And I'd loved her work on Enola Holmes as well, but I didn't get to work with Millie, I just got to say hi to her.
I got to work though with Maya, and that was a real privilege for me because in season three of Stranger Things, at the end of the season, after all of her Chips Ahoy crush on Joe Keely has gone on for a couple of seasons, you know, finally they've escaped the Russians and the psychedelics, and they're in the horrible mall and the bathroom, the public bathroom of the mall, and you can imagine what it smells like in there. And they're sitting on the floor in the stalls, and Joe is now kind of smitten, you know, with Maya's character because of all of her strength on their adventure, and, of course, she comes out. She has the courage to out herself to Joe at that point, and yet it started out with her having her Chips Ahoy crush on him, and the acting in that scene between those two young actors is so superb that I'd been telling everybody about it because in my research for Stranger Things, I'd watched season three over and over and over again, and that that sequence just really stayed with me. So, that was really enjoyable for me, you know, and I got to work with Shawn Levy, arguably one of the best of the hot new directors. I'm a big fan of his movie with Ryan Reynolds, you know, I just thought that was a great film, and every time I see it, I find more little Easter eggs in it, you know. So, I'm a big fan of Shawn's, and it was an honor to get to work with Shawn. It made me feel young.
A chilling reimagining of the familiar fable, Pinocchio Unstrung unfolds inside an elite London prep school. Influenced by a sinister Cricket (Robert Englund) and created by Geppetto (Richard Brake), Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James, one piece at a time.