Deep in the Hundred-Acre woods, a young boy named Christopher Robin came across some most unusual adolescent creatures. Crossbreeds, who some would describe as abominations. The creatures introduced themselves as Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, Piglet and most importantly, Winnie-the-Pooh.
— Opening narration
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is a British independent slasher film written, directed and produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, based on A. A. Milne's beloved Winnie the Pooh stories following their entrance into the Public Domain. It premiered in Mexico on 26 January 2023, had a wide theatrical release in the United States on 15 February 2023, and was released in its native UK on 10 March 2023.note
The story concerns Pooh and Piglet, who have become violent killers after Christopher Robin's "abandonment" of them to go to college, as they terrorize a now-adult Christopher, his fiancée, and a group of young female university students in the Hundred Acre Wood.
A sequel was released on March 26, 2024, while the director is already working on similar films — Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, and Pinocchio: Unstrung. And if that's not enough, he considers them all to take place in a Shared Universe called the Twisted Childhood Universe, planning for them to meet up in Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble in 2025. However, while this is the first film of the TCU, the sequel has retconned it as a fictional film set within the TCU.
Previews: Trailer
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- This version of Pooh is most definitely not made of fluff. He is supremely strong, tough enough to survive being hit by a car at full speed, and is capable of controlling swarms of bees.
- The original Piglet was a very timid and easily scared creature. In this film, however, he has grown into a fearless, relentless brute.
- Adaptational Dumbass:
- In the original novels and Disney adaptations, the inhabitants of the Hundred-Acre Wood were certainly dysfunctional and a little dim, but they knew at least how to take care of themselves when Christopher wasn't around. They had houses, farmed and gathered, and kept warm during winter. Contrast with these versions who depended on Robin to feed them all, then resort to eating another in their friend group out of desperation, and then become animalistic murderers.
- Pooh in particular stands out in this regard, as while he was a silly old bear that misinterpreted words and thought simply, he did take the time to think when faced with problems, leading to some surprisingly philosophical conversation and reasoning. It comes into play many times during adaptations where Christopher Robin (or an analogy character, such as Sora) leaves for a long time and decides to revisit the Hundred-Acre Wood. Pooh is usually just happy to have them around again and will say that they'll be there whenever they decide to visit. Meanwhile this version of Pooh is a killer who can't grasp that a child who left didn't mean to abandon them. Even when Christopher is begging Pooh to spare Maria, and explains he would have never wanted to leave if he knew this is what his friends would become, Pooh refuses to do anything more than vindictively say that he left and kill her anyway.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the original story and Disney adaptations, Pooh and company were all adorable plushies (with the exception of Rabbit and Owl, who were "living" animals). In the film, however, they are all described as "cross-breeds" and "abominations".
- Adaptational Ugliness: Pooh and Piglet are not adorable stuffed animals, instead being giant, hulking, murderous animal men. Unlike other methods often used to explain this (such as implying the friends changed after being neglected), the narration explains that this version of Pooh and Co. were always freakish Half-Human Hybrid creatures. In practice, they look more like men wearing grotesque animal masks.
- Adaptational Villainy: Pooh and Piglet are murderous slasher villains, driven mad by their past hunger.
- Age Lift: Due to the passage of time, Christopher Robin appears older and Piglet has grown into an adult boar in this continuity.
- And This Is for...: As Alice bludgeons Piglet seemingly to death, she says each blow is for several of his victims (i.e. Charlene, Lara, and Zoe).
- Artifact Name: Piglet is not a "piglet" anymore and has the traits of a grown boar, including tusks.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: Rabbit is a herbivore species but had to resort to eating Eeyore with Owl, Piglet, and Pooh after Christopher Robin accidentally deprived them of resources and they suffered through a bad winter.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Pooh just about gets to murder and torment everyone he wants to hurt, breaks Christopher Robin's will, kills the main heroine, and anything that can remotely slow him down is little more than an inconvenient roadblock he eventually overcomes. The only real setback he suffers is his friend Piglet being killed by Alice but even than, he immediately gets his revenge on Alice and posters for the sequel◊ indicate Piglet is going to be coming back anyways.
- Bears Are Bad News: Instead of a lovable stuffed bear, Pooh is now a murderous, savage beast who kills anyone in his path. The very first thing we see him do in the trailer is to snap the neck of Tina, Maria's friend.
- Bloodier and Gorier: People get chopped up, covered in blood, and blood is used to write threatening messages.
- B-Movie: A straightforward slasher film with the added twist of the killers being beloved children's characters.
- Body Horror: Piglet and Pooh have developed humanoid characteristics and have become half-men, half-beast, as opposed to the cuddly creatures people are more familiar with.
- Children Are Innocent: A darker variant. Christopher Robin was a young boy when he met the creatures in the Hundred-Acre Wood and was naïve to the potential danger that they could be. He also had no idea that leaving them to go to college would have caused them to turn evil.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Pooh is able to effortlessly wipe the floor with the four men who tried to stop him.
- Darker and Edgier: Winnie the Pooh and Piglet have turned evil since they felt "abandoned" by Christopher Robin and they are featured as serial killers in this movie, a complete contrast to the lighthearted and innocent adventures that the characters are usually known for.
- Death by Adaptation: A cardboard gravestone marked for Eeyore can be seen at one point. The opening sequence reveals that once Christopher Robin stopped feeding them, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Owl had to become feral and vicious, and ate Eeyore alive.
- Decoy Protagonist: While the movie's opening focuses on Christopher Robin's return to the woods plus the fact that it was his actions that (unintentionally) led to Pooh and Piglet turning evil, most of the movie's screen time is focused on Maria and her friends dealing with Pooh and Piglet. Christopher Robin makes small appearances being held captive and tortured by Pooh and then being freed by Maria and her friends before he suddenly appears in the end to try to save Maria.
- Despair Event Horizon: The trauma Pooh and his friends felt for cannibalizing Eeyore drove them to go feral, forsake their humanity and collectively take a vow of silence.
- Downer Ending: The movie ends with Christopher Robin failing to stop Pooh from killing Maria, leaving him to run off into the woods with his fate unknown.
- Eaten Alive: Since the Hundred-Acre Wood relied on Christopher Robin to provide food for them. When he left for college, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Owl ate Eeyore alive after reverting to their animal instincts to survive the Hundred-Acre Wood.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Pooh and Piglet may be sadistic, bloodthirsty serial killers, but they still genuinely care about each other as friends. When Pooh hears Piglet's screams of pain as he is being bludgeoned to death by Alice, he halts his pursuit of Maria and Jess to come to Piglet's aid. When Pooh discovers that Piglet is already dead, he is distraught and furiously kills Alice to avenge him. It's also shown that Pooh and Piglet cared for Eeyore, as they mourn him in the opening flashback and gave him a proper burial, and even keep his dismembered tail as a Tragic Keepsake.
- Facial Horror: Another past victim, Charlene, has had her face brutally mauled by Piglet before Maria and her friends arrive and attempt to rescue her.
- Fallen Hero: Pooh and Piglet were the kind childhood friends of Christopher Robin, but they were ultimately forced to revert back to their animal instincts after Christopher Robin left for college and unknowingly deprived them of food.
- Final Girl: In a twist of gender expectations the Final Girl isn't Maria, but Christopher Robin.
- Forced into Evil: Of the "desperate to survive at any cost" variety. After Christopher Robin left the Hundred-Acre Wood, food sources soon ran out, and during a particularly cold winter, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Owl were forced to eat Eeyore to survive, subsequently reverting back to their animal instincts.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Piglet and Pooh have become violent killers after Christopher Robin left the Hundred-Acre Wood as they were forced to act on their animal instincts to survive the wild, resulting in them both eating Eeyore and blaming Christopher Robin for what happened.
- The Hero Dies: Christopher Robin is the Decoy Protagonist but Maria is actually the main heroine, given her sympathetic backstory involving a stalker and receiving the most focus as a main character. Sadly, she doesn't make it as Pooh kills her right in front of Christopher Robin.
- Hope Spot: Near the end of the movie, Christopher Robin tries to beg Pooh to spare Maria and take him instead. As he tries to convince Pooh that he still has good inside of him, it seems to be working as Pooh stops and starts to lower his knife. However, he breaks his vow to never speak by telling Christopher Robin that "he left" and slits Maria's throat.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Christopher Robin tries to use this in the finale to get Pooh to spare Maria. It almost seems to work with Pooh being stunned and starting to lower his knife until he breaks his vow to never speak and ends up killing Maria anyway.
- Informed Attribute: When Eeyore dies, the remaining animals decide that since humanity (Christopher Robin) led them to this, they will become more animalistic and discard their humanity. However, they still wear clothing, live in man-made settlements, use various weapons such as axes, knives and the creative use of Eeyore's tail as a whip, and they continue walking on two legs. About the only thing they don't do is talk and Pooh eventually throws that out the window by the end by responding to Christopher Robin.
- In Name Only: Aside from having Christopher Robin, Eeyore (who is mentioned only), Winnie the Pooh, Piglet (and later Tigger and Owl in the sequel) and having the Hundred Acre Wood as its setting, the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the books, written by A. A. Milne, nor the animated adaptations by Disney. This trope may have been invoked though, as it was the only way for this movie to get made without facing copyright law.
- Ironic Name: By the time of the present, Piglet certainly isn't a piglet anymore. Not only is he now a full-grown pig, he's become a boar.
- Made of Iron: Pooh appears to be particularly indestructible seeing as how he not only comes out practically unscathed from having the four rednecks attack him, including having a crowbar thrown at him, he also very much survives getting crushed in between two cars, having only even been unconscious for a short time, and is able to resume to his murderous plans straight away.
- Monster Modesty: Pooh and Piglet still wear clothes, despite renouncing every other aspect of humanity (like speaking).
- Ms. Fanservice: Lara, who spends much of her screen-time bikini-clad.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit resort to eating Eeyore out of desperation when Christopher Robin stops giving them food. The act traumatizes them so much that they vow to never speak again.
- Never My Fault: Pooh and Piglet blame Christopher Robin and humanity at large for “abandoning” and forcing them to eat Eeyore to survive a harsh winter instead of blaming themselves for relying on Christopher Robin and not taking care of themselves.
- No Ending: The film abruptly stops after Pooh kills the final girl while Christopher Robin runs off into the woods.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: The opening establishes that when winter became harsh after Christopher Robin went to college, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Owl were starving so bad that they had to resort to eating Eeyore. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, leading Pooh and Piglet to become psychopaths.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The petrol station owner speaks in a broad Kentucky drawl. No explanation is given for how he ended up owning a service station in rural England.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: In the animated opening, after Christopher Robin leaves, Pooh and friends are left without food. They become thinner and thinner until they're on the brink of starvation, and are forced to eat Eeyore to make it through the winter.
- Off with His Head!: Jess gets decapitated by Pooh, much to Maria's horror.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: The mask used for Pooh is an unaltered, preexisting "Friendo Honey Bear" mask.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Throughout the score, there's repeated chants of "Sanguis et Mel" (Latin for "Blood and Honey").
- Ominous Music Box Tune: The first trailer uses one to underscore the Subverted Innocence of Pooh and Piglet becoming bloodthirsty killers.
- Our Slashers Are Different: For starters, they're murderous versions of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. This adaptation of the characters sees them turn feral and bloodthirsty after Christopher Robin leaves for college. What makes it worse is they don't look like the cute, lovable stuffed animals we know them as, instead looking like demented killers in animal masks.
- Pig Man: Piglet in this version is a humanoid with pig features. He resembles a half-man, half-pig. The opening narration describes the characters as "cross-breeds" and "abominations" and Piglet is also described as being a baby piglet back when Christopher Robin was a kid.
- Pool Scene: Lara relaxes outside in a hot tub and takes pictures of herself. However, she's fatally interrupted by the arrival of Winnie and Piglet.
- Posthumous Character: Eeyore is confirmed to have died, although Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo and Tigger are unaccounted for. While Owl and Rabbit are included in the animated opening, they're nowhere to be seen in the rest of the movie. note
- Shoot the Dog: After Christopher Robin left the Hundred-Acre Wood, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, and Pooh were ultimately forced to eat Eeyore after being nearly starved to death by Christopher's absence. Afterward, they were so horrified and guilt-ridden by what they had to do to survive that they all vowed to never speak again so they can reject their humanity.
- Silent Antagonist: Neither Pooh nor Piglet say a single word during the movie. Justified, since they vowed to give up every aspect of humanity after they ate Eeyore, including speaking. Subverted with Pooh who breaks his vow towards the end of the movie to spite Christopher via saying "You left".
- Slashed Throat: Towards the end of the film, Pooh kills Maria via slashing her throat.
- Spiritual Antithesis: This film could be seen as a dark counterpart to Christopher Robin, both films seeing an adult Christopher returning to the Hundred-Acre Wood; where Robin sees his old friends help Christopher rediscover his childish sense of wonder, Blood and Honey sees Christopher horrified to witness what his old friends have become.
- A Taste of the Lash: After capturing Christopher Robin, Pooh tortures him by brutally whipping him with Eeyore's tail until new victims appear the Hundred-Acre Wood.
- Tears of Fear: After being captured by Piglet, Alice cries out of fear.
- Too Dumb to Live: Lara, relaxing in a hot tub, takes pictures of herself with her phone, and sees in the background of one that a hulking person is watching her from around a corner. This is after she learns that Maria has been dealing with a dangerous stalker, and she even calls out accusing this person of being the stalker (getting no response). Rather than go get help or run away, she brushes it off and continues bathing. Naturally, she is promptly killed.
- Tragic Keepsake: Eeyore's tail, which Pooh keeps and eventually uses as an improvised torture implement.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Christopher Robin had no way of knowing that leaving the Hundred-Acre Wood would result in Pooh and Piglet eating Eeyore and reverting to their animal instincts, nor did he even consider that Pooh and Piglet could be dangerous, meaning that his ignorance also indirectly leads to the deaths of so many innocent people, including his fiancé.
- Villainous Friendship: Pooh and Piglet are still the best of friends despite having become deranged murderers, and Pooh is clearly devastated when Piglet dies.
- We Used to Be Friends: When Christopher Robin is first attacked by his former friends Pooh and Piglet, who are angry that he "abandoned" them years earlier, he even name-drops the trope whilst begging for his life. He even goes as far as admitting that he never would have left if he knew that Pooh and Piglet would turn evil.
- Wham Line: "You left" as spoken by Pooh, who had made a vow with his friends to never speak again after killing Eeyore.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Rabbit and Owl are mentioned in the backstory, yet are nowhere to be found during the film. It is not mentioned if they are dead, or just in isolation even after Pooh captures Christopher and imprisons him.
- This is addressed in the sequel, as Rabbit and Owl make a proper appearance after being strangely absent in the first film.
- Winter of Starvation: Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood depend on Christopher Robin to bring them food. When he leaves the Hundred Acre Wood to go to college, their food supplies start to run low. Then winter comes, and everyone begins to starve. They are eventually forced to kill and eat Eeyore in order to survive, which traumatizes them so much they make a pact to abandon their humanity and never speak again.
- Writing Around Trademarks: See You Don't Look Like You below for more info, but Pooh Bear and Piglet had to be made virtually unrecognizable to their well-known Disney counterparts. This is because only the book version of "Winnie-The-Pooh" is in the public domain, not the cartoon/animated versions owned by the Disney company.note
- You Don't Look Like You: Pooh looks very different, to put it mildly, wearing a red flannel shirt with overalls, and Piglet also appears as an adult boar and wears a boiler suit. This was deliberately done by the director to avoid any potential copyright claims (particularly from Disney, who still has full ownership of their incarnations of Pooh and company) and to further disconnect the movie from the children's book series.
- Even Pooh's voice, as shown in his single line of dialogue, is deep and guttural as opposed to the Disney version's iconic falsetto. Jim Cummings, the current voice of Pooh, actually threatened to sue the studio personally if he heard them try and mimic it.
- Despite all this, the design of the Pooh mask does pretty obviously take cues from Disney's version, particularly the eyebrows and general shape of his face. Piglet's mask, on the other hand, looks more like a generic boar.
