When the copyright on A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh characters lapsed and plunged the characters into the public domain, it didn’t take long for the announcement of a horror-themed adaptation to cause conservative groups to clutch at their pearls. The resulting media brought a lot of attention to the release of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, though the resulting product could realistically have used almost any set of characters at all.
In Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, when Christopher Robin grows up and leaves the Hundred Acre Wood for college, his friends become disillusioned with humanity, vowing never to speak again, and swearing vengeance on anyone who nears them. When Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood years later, it sets Pooh and Piglet on a rampage more reminiscent of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre than anything specific to Milne’s original lore. It would have been easy for writer and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield to have taken the path of comedy and parody, but the idea is played straight, and it works, particularly by Nikolai Leon as Christopher Robin.
Coming only a year after the original, Blood and Honey 2 rewrites most of the rules of the original film, with a new cast appearing. Christopher Robin is a pariah, having been blamed for the murders of the original film – and inspiring an in-universe horror film. A more detailed, mystery subplot is added, derailing the simplicity of the first chapter, with the violence ramping up to levels bordering on those of exploitation films. Winnie and Piglet are joined in their rampage by more of the characters from the Hundred Acre Wood, with a warehouse rave providing a backdrop for slaughter.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)
Stream free at:
Brollie (ad supported)
Kanopy (ad free)
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024)
Stream free at:
Kanopy
admin