After gaining massive online attention, the Winnie-the-Pooh horror film Blood and Honey will finally be shown in theatres in February 2023. A.A. Milne’s popular Winnie the Pooh characters entered the public domain in the spring of 2017, and the announcement of the film came the following May. Images from the upcoming movie, which included a nightmare version of Pooh and a tusked Piglet looming over a possible victim, provoked an uproar online after they were released by Jagged Edge Productions. The first trailer for Winnie the Pooh and the Band of Misfits: Blood and Honey was released in August, fueling the already intense anticipation for the film by showing the two popular characters beginning their murderous rampage.
Blood And Honey, directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, was previously confirmed to take place years after the events in the famous stories. According to Frake-version, Waterfield’s Pooh’s human friend Christopher Robin eventually stopped making trips to the Hundred Acre Wood as he got older. Pooh and Piglet revert back to their animalistic ways to survive once they run out of food and must eat Eeyore after they lose contact with him. In the upcoming film Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey, an adult Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon), will return to his childhood home with his new wife at a time when his old friends are engaged in a murderous rampage against local college women.
Frake-Waterfield and Jagged Edge Films appear to have benefited from the online buzz surrounding their violent Pooh rendition. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the one-day theatrical release of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey has been scheduled for February 13, 2023. Those showings in the United States will be hosted by distributor Fathom Events. At the same time, those in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico will be presented by Altitude, Cineplex, and Cinemex, respectively. According to the article, Frake-Waterfield is also working on a sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and a warped adaptation of Peter Pan that will be a horror flick.
Will the Horror Blood & Honey Live Up to Its Pre-Release Hype?
Frake-Waterfield is taking a risk by planning a sequel before the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Most of the excitement surrounding the upcoming horror film stems from the shocking revelation that a beloved teddy bear has been converted into a murderous psychopath. But while the concept of a killer Pooh is certainly horrifyingly humorous, there’s no telling if Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey will be successful enough with horror audiences to warrant a sequel, especially since it’s only getting a one-night release. This strategy typically works better for re-releases than for brand-new films.
Nonetheless, horror films can occasionally yield some unanticipated hits. In contrast to the three-week reign of Smile at the box office, the low-budget sequel to an unknown slasher, Terrifier 2, surprised everyone by becoming a smashing success after only a week in theatres. So Jagged Edge and Frake-Waterfield have good reason to be hopeful. They need only release Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey in February 2019 to live up to the public’s anticipation for a bloody, provocative depiction of the A.A. cartoon created by Milne. With the potential for a sequel and a Peter Pan horror film, the day may come when audiences’ favorite childhood character causes mayhem on the big screen in cinematic crossovers.
