After Christopher Robin heads off to college, and leaves behind his friends in the 100 Acre Wood, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, and the rest of the gang find themselves struggling to survive on their own. Becoming desperate for food, Pooh and Co. eventually turn feral, they eat Eeyore, and quickly descend into depravity.
Fast forward five years, and a group of young women book an Airbnb in a secluded spot, so they can get some much-needed rest and relaxation. Unfortunately for them, this picturesque getaway just happens to back onto the 100 Acre Wood, and it isn’t long before they catch the attention of Pooh and Piglet.
Over the course of a night, the group find themselves in a fight for survival from a blood thirsty bear, and his porcine pal. But can they stay one step ahead of these monstrous creatures, or will they end up becoming lunch?
Written and directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey stars Nikolai Leon, Craig David Dowsett, Chris Cordell, and Natasha Rose Mills. The movie is a low budget horror film, based around characters created by A.A. Milne, is currently playing in select US cinemas, and will be heading to the UK on March 10th.
Now before I go any further, I should probably answer that burning question you have, regarding why loveable children’s characters Winnie the Pooh and Piglet are featured in a horror movie?! Well, the simple answer is, these characters have now reached the age whereby copyright laws have begun to expire, which puts them into the public domain, and therefore allows anyone to use them in their films.
As such, Winnie can appear here, there, and pretty much anywhere. There are a few restrictions though, largely relating to aspects of the character which are owned by Disney, but in essence, Pooh bear can now become the star of a slasher film like this one.
Why horror? Well, mostly because sticking Winnie the Pooh in a horror is the sort of thing that gains attention (and mild outrage), which in turn draws in audiences.
In fact, there has been a great deal of interest in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey ever since it was announced, and not just from regular horror fans. People are curious to know if this bizarre reworking of the character can work, and whether or not this movie is likely to be the next big thing.
Well, having seen the film for myself, I can say that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is not the next big thing, nor is it very good. This is a bland horror, which fails to bring anything imaginative to the screen, it is largely very boring, and it really isn’t worth all the fuss.
After a decent(ish) prologue, which opens the movie and lasts a couple of minutes at most, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey soon runs out of ideas and very quickly has to resort to standard horror movie plotting – i.e. a bunch of people go to a cabin in the woods, where they get attacked and/or killed. From here, the movie resorts to the four ‘Bs’ – blood, boobs, and brainless brutality – while the running time ticks away, and the audience’s patience wears thin.
In total, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey runs to around 84 minutes in length, which I’d argue is at least 74 minutes longer than it needs to. There really is not much going on in this movie, and it struggles to fill out its time.
The whole thing feels like a movie built around the idea of turning a children’s character into a horror star, and nothing more. There are no real attempts to do anything beyond this single idea, and this is the movie’s biggest problem.
While I love Pooh as a cuddly character, and believe that is where he will always work best, I have no issue with him being brought into the adult world to lead a horror film. My main gripe is, if you’re going to turn Pooh into a brute and a killer, then at least make him interesting, and for cripes sake, give him something to do!
You also need to make his new character design look believable. Writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield wants his audience to buy into the idea that Pooh and Piglet are feral creatures, rather than humans, but this simply doesn’t work out as planned.
I get that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was made on a minimal budget, but come on, the costumes are just lame. Pooh and Piglet look less like creatures, and more like two middle-aged men on their way to do a bank job, and this simply isn’t good enough.
The film also suffers from some woeful acting, some bog-standard direction, and some dreadful dialogue. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is filled with too many clichés, it lacks any real creativity, and is just plain drivel.
If you want me (or anyone else) to go with this film, then more effort is needed. Using Winnie the Pooh in the title of your film is going to attract attention, and everyone knows this, so be prepared to deliver something worthy of the name or simply don’t bother.
Reworking a character once they have fallen into the public domain is nothing new; it’s happened before and it will happen again. In the not-too-distant future we should all expect to see the likes of Bugs Bunny, Goofy, Batman, Superman, and even Mickey Mouse all go through something similar, because they are all getting on a bit now, and they won’t remain under copyright law forever.
However, when the time comes for all these characters to become horror stars, political pundits, or the main attraction on an OnlyFans account, I do hope those in charge of their careers will make better use of them. I say to anyone thinking of walking a similar path, please use Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey as an example of how not to do things, and actually take the time to make something more worthwhile.
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