My Childhood Is Ruined Thanks To This Messed Up Rendition Of Winnie The Pooh As A Slasher Film

By Syakir Roslan • 16 Feb 2023 in Movies & TV

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Winnie The Pooh was one of my favourite cartoon characters growing up. I still have fond memories of binging VCDs of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for hours on end back when I was younger.

If you’ve been living under a rock, Winnie The Pooh (or Pooh for short) is a friendly albeit silly ol’ bear who’s plagued with a concerning addiction to honey despite being an imaginary figure.

He also has a loyal clique of critters that he goes on adventures with which usually culminates in a long-winded lesson about friendship or something of that nature.

Now Look At This

In the words of Don Vito Corleone, “Look how they massacred my boy”. You’re probably filled with emotions of fear, confusion and shock right about now… which are all valid reactions.

Pictured above is a collage depicting the upcoming slasher film titled Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey featuring our friends from the Hundred Acre Wood dressed in get-ups reminiscent of cannibal hillbillies.

We made an article with a trailer of the movie not too long ago but I’m just finding this out now. How on earth did this twisted rendition of my favourite honey-gulping, problem-solving, pantless bear with a heart of gold come to fruition?

Blame It On The Copyright

There’s this thing called Public Domain Day which takes place annually on the 1st of January where the copyright for various creative works expire and enter the public domain (as the name suggests).

While the duration of copyright limits vary from country to country, in the US it stretches up to 95 years. Among the different properties with newly-expired copyrights was AA Milne’s Winnie The Pooh.

With that in mind, creatives now have the ability to freely use certain characters from the Winnie The Pooh universe in any way they see fit.

So This Dude Turned Pooh Into A Bloodthirsty Killer

Sheesh! If this was the Pooh I saw growing up, I’d burn all my VCDs and throw in some prayers for good measure. But as an adult, consider my curiosity piqued.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey is the brainchild and directorial debut of UK-based filmmaker, Rhys Frake-Waterfield who previously worked for an electricity supplier while making micro-budget horror films as a hobby.

This rendition of Pooh depicts him as an axe-wielding half-bear, half-human monstrosity with a bloodlust that would make even Jason Voorhees envious.

The Premise

“What fairytales and monsters are there that we can twist in a different direction? Or change something that was never a monster into a monster?” asked producer Scott Jeffrey in regards to coming up with a good story.

Well apparently that monster in question is Winnie The Pooh (and evidently his friends too). One of the biggest task Waterfield faced was making a lovable character like Pooh scary.

“Then, I very quickly got the idea that the film’s main theme would be abandonment,” said Waterfield in an interview with the BBC.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey will feature an adult Christopher Robin who returns from college to visit his old friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Upon his arrival, he discovers that his dear friends Pooh and Piglet have both turned feral and are hungry for flesh and blood seeing nothing but their next meal in sight.

Themes of revenge will also play into the movie as the aforementioned characters apparently want justice for Christopher Robin abandoning them all those years ago.

Box Office Success & Death Threats

According to the aforementioned BBC article, a poster of the movie went viral after making rounds online back in May 25th of last year which left netizens divided in opinion.

On one hand you’ve got folks who managed to see the humour in this project paired with general horror/slasher movie lovers who genuinely wanted to see the film.

The other camp consisted of outraged and/or disturbed people who could not believe that a childhood icon was being portrayed in such a manner. Ironically, it was both outrage and the poster’s viralness that led much to the movie’s success.

What was originally supposed to be a streaming platform release with only one planned theatrical showing in the US is now being shown across theatres worldwide.

The film did particularly well in Mexico climbing to Number 4 at the box office in its first week of release and amassed a reported $700,000 which is pretty impressive considering that it was made for an alleged budget of under $100,000.

Perhaps what’s scarier than the actual Pooh in the movie is the fact that Waterfield has had the police called on him and even received death threats on a daily basis!