No one should expect much from a horror film based on a children’s story which recently hit public domain. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a stupid slasher film and that is perfectly okay.
The days of adventures and merriment have come to an end, as Christopher Robin, now a young man, has left Winnie the Pooh and Piglet to fend for themselves. As time passes, feeling angry and abandoned, the two become feral. After getting a taste for blood, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet set off to find a new source of food. It’s not long before their bloody rampage begins.
The film serves as a horror retelling of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard‘s books and was written, directed and produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. The movie stars Craig David Dowsett as Winnie the Pooh and Chris Cordell as Piglet, with Amber Doig-Thorne, Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills and Danielle Ronald in supporting roles.
The low-budget slasher Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey hit theaters on January 26, 2023 and has amassed $4.2 million in the box office on a measly $100,000 budget. The trend of low-budget horror films with large box office success seems to be the story over the past few years after Terrifier 2 saw $15.1 million on a $250,000 budget and now this British film has similar success.
— Possible Spoilers Below —
Now, the movie itself as a stand alone story without the connection to the children’s story is awful. Deep down it is definitely a low-budget slasher with a horrible plot and suspect acting. However, the sets, costumes and pure fun saved the film in our minds.
Going into the film we had no idea how they were going to connect the children’s story with horror story and with the opening we were hooked. Telling us the background via black and white rough sketch animation to allow us to understand why Winnie the Pooh and Piglet grew into this bloodlust.
While we feel they could’ve used Winnie the Pooh and Piglet better in this film, instead of just slaughtering upright animals. It was insane to see these honey eating animated characters come to life, just to take a life. Yes, most horror and slasher films make little sense and that is why this movie works.
These low-budget horror flicks don’t need to do anything more than entertain us. That is the whole point of the movie. Takes us outside our lives for 84 minutes and allows us to see the crazy minds of the filmmakers. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey isn’t going to win Oscars, but it wasn’t made to win awards, it was made to entertain.
This movie fan is ready for more these two pigs, but is also down for any other children’s story that has entered the public domain to be made into a horror film. In late 2022, a sequel to this film was announced to be in the beginning stages and the people behind movie stated films are in the works entitled Bambi: The Reckoning and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, based on Bambi, a Life in the Woods and Peter Pan, respectively.
