Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

There was some excitement a couple of years back when AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh became public domain. Also, some confusion of what actually belonged to Disney who have curated the bear for many years. Turns out that Disney only hold the rights to certain aspects of the character, the rest is up for grabs.

The film opens up fairly well with a Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) voice over accompanied by sketches of his discovery of the creatures in 100 Acre Wood, their friendship and as he grew up left and (in their eyes) abandoned them to nature forcing them to take drastic measures to survive. Their hunger (and probably lack of budget) account for Eeyore.

Many years later Christopher Robin returns with his wife Mary (Paula Coiz) to catch up with his childhood friends only to find the place a ruin and them not at all how her left them. He’s captured and Mary killed.

Cut to Maria (Maria Taylor) and her friends renting out an isolated house nearby to get away from Maria’s trauma of a stalker. And so, in various stages of undress and duress the women are dispatched by very obese Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and Piglet (Chris Cordell) dressed as lumberjacks.

Writer and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield got himself the rights but no real idea what to do with them as this film is bereft of any innovative ideas other than to stalk and kill in the most obnoxious ways. Pure exploitation dredged from 70’s grindhouse this has really nasty misogynistic streak that is very unpleasant to watch. There’s no sense that Frake-Waterfield is looking to satirise Pooh or the slasher sub-genre here possibly thinking that perverting fondly remembered childhood characters was enough.

The Pooh and Piglet masks are hard rubber/plastic and resemble the sort of thing bank-robbers would use. They don’t talk and have no character to speak of other than killing machines. My guess is that the intention was to go so far with the violence that it would generate laughter out of grossness of it rather try and work out something genuinely funny.

There’s a grubbiness about the film that yearns for that Texas Chain Saw house aesthetic (and in fairness the film doesn’t look that bad) but that is shunted out by the depiction of the women as nothing more than slasher fodder. The ending suggests another film and box-office take so far probably confirms that.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey had its UK Premiere at FrightFest Glasgow 2023.