Prepare yourself for additional scary dreams, as the sequel ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2’ is coming soon.
Due to the immense success of the first movie, ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey,’ a sequel is now in development. Surprisingly, the news of the sequel was announced even before the first movie’s release. Although given the attention it received, this early decision isn’t entirely unexpected for a horror film. Fans of this dark twist on the beloved bear from The Hundred Acre Wood were taken aback by the announcement. Already, the official Blood and Honey Twitter account shared a straightforward image displaying the movie title with a bloody number 2 taking center stage, along with the tagline, “Friends will gather…To take revenge.”
‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ is a slasher film that draws inspiration from the original ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ books by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard. In this dark take on the classic children’s characters, the story unfolds after they have become wild and murderous due to being left behind by their human friend, Christopher Robin, who went off to college. Following the typical slasher movie style, these now ferocious characters terrorize a group of friends who decided to rent a cabin in the eerie Hundred Acre Woods, systematically picking them off one by one.
In 2022, ‘Blood and Honey’ was among the numerous low-budget horror movies that became highly popular worldwide. After years of flashy, big-budget films with fewer scares from major studios, which risked diluting the horror genre, the Covid-pandemic seemed to steer the genre back to its origins – dark, gory stories with practical effects, all made on relatively modest budgets. The film caught people’s attention with its trailer, showcasing terrifying versions of beloved children’s characters like Pooh and Piglet embarking on a murderous rampage.
The original stories of Winnie the Pooh being in the public domain means that the characters are now open for anyone to use in their own creative interpretations. Filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield took full advantage of this opportunity and presented his unique vision for the fate of the beloved bear.
‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ marks the feature film directorial debut of Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who both wrote and directed the movie. The talented filmmaker is expected to be back for the sequel. Joining him are Nikolai Leon and Craig David Dowsett, who portrayed Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh, respectively, in the first film. The cast also includes Chris Cordell, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, Amber Doig-Thorne, and Danielle Ronald.
Blood and Honey’s Creator Has Ideas for More Public Domain Horror Stories
It appears that Frake-Waterfield is eager to capitalize on the viral success of his horror take on Winnie the Pooh, as evidenced by the swift announcement of a sequel. However, he has also hinted that this won’t be the only public-domain work to receive a genre-bending treatment. The filmmaker has revealed plans to explore and reimagine other public domain stories in a similar creative style.
“Essentially we’ve been kind of doing that for the last like year now. Like with you know like Humpty Dumpty and things like that and there was there was other ideas we had in mind. For example like Thor, the the Norse God isn’t the property of Marvel so we could do kind of our own interpretation of that if we wanted. It didn’t have the same like ring as Winnie did so we went on Winnie and done that. We’ve got loads of other ones planned as well so like we’re doing a Peter Pan one.”
While the dark reinterpretation of childhood characters might not suit everyone, there’s a significant audience that enjoys such genre-bending films. ‘Blood and Honey’ and movies like ‘Terrifier 2’ have embraced this trend, tapping into a new wave of ultra-violent and intense horror that pushes boundaries beyond the infamous “video nasty” films from the past.
