The wire is hot: 'Pinocchio: Unstrung' is in US theaters now — and the reviews are unlike anything this franchise has seen.

The fifth Twisted Childhood Universe film opened Friday, July 24 in 505 theaters through Viva Pictures, day-and-date with Altitude's UK rollout. It's the widest swing yet for director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Jagged Edge Productions, the team that launched the so-called Poohniverse with 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.'

'Pinocchio: Unstrung' Opens at 75% — The Poohniverse Has Its First Fresh Film

The number that matters: 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film debuted at a perfect 100% across its first ten reviews — the first Fresh rating in Twisted Childhood Universe history — and has settled at 75% across 20 reviews as of this weekend. No prior entry came close.

Critics are pointing at one thing first: the puppet. Pinocchio is a fully practical animatronic built under Emmy-winning effects artist Todd Masters — the same shop that built the Chucky puppet for 2019's 'Child's Play.' Variety's Guy Lodge called the film "something of a triumph for the film's puppetry and animatronic departments," adding that "it is abundantly gross and grisly in all the ways a cheap-and-cheerful slasher should be."

'Pinocchio: Unstrung' Opens at 75% — The Poohniverse Has Its First Fresh Film

The cast is the franchise's starriest to date: horror icon Robert Englund voices the Cricket, Richard Brake ('Barbarian,' '3 From Hell') plays Geppetto, and Jude Evan Lloyd voices the killer puppet. The premise plays the fairy tale straight into slasher territory — Geppetto carves a companion for his orphaned grandson James, and the puppet's sense of right and wrong curdles into a body count on its way to becoming a real boy.

Horror Beat score: 9.0/10 — the wire desk's highest mark for any Twisted Childhood release, and it isn't close.

Early box office is indie-scale — $295,731 through the opening frame, per Box Office Mojo — but the R-rated 82-minute slasher was built lean, and the reviews give it a long tail heading into the franchise's planned 'Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble' crossover, now in pre-production.

'Pinocchio: Unstrung' premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in April before this week's theatrical bow. It is in theaters now; no streaming date has been announced.