Friday’s openings: Puppet horror and a crazy cook

Above : Ralph Fiennes cooks up some surprises for his dinner guests in “The Menu.” (Photo/Walt Disney Studios)

Movies about food preparation were all the rage a few years ago.

“Burnt” starred Bradley Cooper as a chef trying to redeem himself by running a restaurant in London. The German film “Mostly Martha” tells the story of a woman chef who gets caught between her career and having to care for her young niece (a U.S. remake was titled “No Reservations” ).

And then there was the Jon Favreau movie “Chef” about a (duh) chef who quits his job and goes into business running a food truck.

Thing is, none of those movies doubled as a horror flick – unlike one of the movies, simply titled “The Menu,” which is scheduled to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre . The other new release is another kind of horror story altogether, it being Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of “Pinocchio.”

“The Menu” : Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult attend a special dinner, held in a remote spot, that is prepared by a renowned chef (Ralph Fiennes) whose menu includes some very nasty surprises.

Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote, “All the actors are fun, but the two lead actors (sorry, I can’t resist) are so good they’re delicious.”

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” : Possibly truer to Carlo Collodi’s original story, del Toro’s adaptation of the tale of a puppet’s troubled path toward becoming a real boy is a bit darker than we’re used to.

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “More of a Frankenstein-ed fairy tale than some irreverent answer to the Mouse House’s 1940 hand-drawn classic. That’s a good thing. Sometimes an odd, awkward thing, and at times a naggingly modern thing, but mostly a good thing.”

Get the popcorn ready. I’ll update as the week progresses