| Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Rhys Frake-Waterfield |
| Screenplay by | Matt Leslie |
| Story by |
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| Based on | |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Vince Knight |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Andrew Scott Bell |
Production company | Jagged Edge Productions |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 93 minutes[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $500,000[2] |
| Box office | $7.6 million[3][4] |
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (stylised asWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II) is a 2024 Britishindependentslasher film. It is the second instalment ofthe Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU) and asequel toWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023). Like its predecessor, it was directed byRhys Frake-Waterfield, and is a horror parody ofA. A. Milne andE. H. Shepard'sWinnie-the-Pooh books. The film starsScott Chambers asChristopher Robin, and Ryan Oliva asthe titular character, with Tallulah Evans,Teresa Banham, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney,Alec Newman, andSimon Callow in supporting roles. It follows Pooh as he embarks on a murderous rampage through Christopher Robin's childhood town to seek revenge on him for revealing his existence to the world.
Following the commercial success ofBlood and Honey, director Frake-Waterfield expressed interest in a sequel, which wasgreenlit in November 2022. The film utilizesmetafictional andfilm within a film elements as Chambers, Oliva, and Eddy McKenzie replace original cast members Nikolai Leon, Craig David Dowsett, and Chris Cordell in the roles of Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Piglet, respectively.[b]
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 premiered in London on 18 March 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on 26 March. It received mixed reviews from critics, who considered it an improvement over its predecessor, and grossed $8 million against a budget of $500,000. A further sequel,Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 3, is scheduled to be released in 2026.
After narrowly survivingWinnie-the-Pooh's andPiglet's killing spree,[c]Christopher Robin flees from theHundred Acre Wood and returns to his childhood town of Ashdown to seek help; the corpses of Maria and her friends are recovered from the woods, but Christopher is believed to be responsible.
The incident is dubbed the "Hundred Acre Massacre", and a film adaptation based on the murders is released, damaging Christopher's reputation in Ashdown.[b] Only a few people believe Christopher's story, including his childhood friends Lexy, Finn, and Aaron, his parents Alan and Daphne, and his younger sister Bunny. Now an outcast, Christopher has nightmares about Pooh and goes to hishypnotherapistMary Darling to deal with a trauma in which his twin brother Billy was kidnapped many years ago during their birthday party, and was never seen again.
Meanwhile, in the Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh and Piglet are forced to hide with fellow creaturesTigger andOwl when their home is burned down. After they slaughter three university students in arecreational vehicle, Owl tries to convince Pooh to attack Ashdown instead of waiting for more people to come to the woods. Some hunters, among them Aaron, ambush the creatures and shoot Piglet in the head as revenge for the deaths of Maria’s group. Pooh murders them in retaliation and reconsiders Owl's proposal, but Aaron survives and returns to Ashdown.
Due to the town's negative backlash, Christopher loses his job as a doctor and returns with Mary to undergo further hypnotherapy. When Aaron arrives at the local hospital for treatment, Christopher suspects the attack was done by Pooh, which is confirmed when he asks Aaron what happened. He also encounters hospital janitor Cavendish, whom he recognises as the man who kidnapped Billy, and confronts him in his house. Cavendish reveals that he worked for Dr. Arthur Gallup, a scientist who employed him to kidnap children—among them Billy—around Ashdown for experiments with animal genes in exchange for settling his debts. The children becameanimal-human hybrids with enhancedhealing factors, whom Gallup killed and buried in the Hundred Acre Wood. Cavendish subsequently murdered Gallup and learnt the children resurrected and dug themselves out of their graves. Cavendish burns the last evidence linking him to Gallup and commits suicide out of guilt.
As night falls, Pooh, Tigger, and Owl embark on a rampage throughout Ashdown and murder several residents on the way, including Finn. Pooh personally murders Alan and Daphne and attacks Lexy while she is babysitting, but she survives the ordeal. The creatures then arrive at arave party in an abandoned warehouse and slaughter all the partygoers. Christopher rushes to the warehouse, where he shoots Tigger, and learns Bunny was kidnapped. He returns to the Hundred Acre Wood and fights Pooh, who easily subdues him as they stumble across Billy's own grave. Christopher calls Pooh—revealed to be Billy—by his real name. Lexy intervenes and stalls Pooh long enough for Christopher to kill him with an axe. Video footage of Pooh is passed to the police, who found Bunny in her room unharmed, and Christopher is subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. Christopher and Bunny are reunited and escorted home by the police.
In a mid-credits scene, Owl and Tigger, having survived, recover the corpses of Pooh and Piglet, the latter whose head starts to regenerate, with Owl promising to find a way to bring them back and that they will get their revenge on Christopher, once and for all.
Additionally, Nikolai Leon, Craig David Dowsett and Chris Cordell appear as Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, respectively, in archival footage fromWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Cameo appearances ofBambi,Peter Pan,Pinocchio, aHeffalump andRabbit are made in drawings during the end credits.
In a June 2022 interview with Josh Korngut ofDread Central, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield expressed interest in creating a sequel toWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, and stated that he wants to "ramp it up even more and go even crazier and go even more extreme".[8] In November 2022, he announced that a sequel, currently titledWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, was in development, with him returning as director. In September 2023, teaser images were released showing the addition of characterOwl, who only appeared in the first movie's prologue.[9] The film features a new cast and new character designs, and takes place in the town of Ashdown rather than theHundred Acre Wood.[10] Additionally, the characterTigger, who was absent from the first film, appears since going in the public domain in January 2024.[5][11] In 2023, it was revealed that Frake-Waterfield intended to have Pooh wield a chainsaw as a weapon in the film,[12] and that the film would feature over thirty deaths.[13]
The film's screenplay was written by Matt Leslie.[11] Rhys Frake-Waterfield spent time gathering fan feedback, such as putting out a poll onInstagram asking what the audience wanted to see in the film. Among the audience's requests was the inclusion ofPoohsticks, in whichWinnie-the-Pooh andOwl can be seen playing a twisted version of at one point in the film.[14] While a large portion of his audience requested the traditional woodland setting in the Hundred Acre Wood, some requested a small town setting. This led Frake-Waterfield to decide to do a mix of both settings.[15] After two months of collecting information, Frake-Waterfield and Leslie created a very detailed 20-page script treatment full of ideas and scenes they wanted in the film, such as the idea of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends being human children who were kidnapped and experimented on by a mad scientist, among them the twin brother ofChristopher Robin.[16] Despite the similarities, the idea was not taken fromFive Nights at Freddy's (which released in October 2023, a month after principal photography onWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 concluded). When Frake-Waterfield watched the film in cinemas, he grew concerned upon learning of the backstories involving a missing younger brother and children becoming animatronic characters, and messaged Leslie on his phone, worried that they would take the same direction they had chosen. To his relief, however, the backstories of the characters in that film went down a more supernatural route.[16] The film took inspiration fromTerrifier 2.[17] The decision was also made to retcon the first film into afilm within a film, meaning that while the events of the first film happened in-universe, the film is intended to be an adaptation based on the events, explaining the redesigns for Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh andPiglet.[16] By June 2023, the script was completed.
By September 2023,Scott Chambers, Ryan Oliva, Talluah Evans, Peter DeSouza Feighoney andSimon Callow were reported to have been cast in the film.[9] Eventually, Marcus Massey and Eddy MacKenzie were added to the cast.[12]
Chambers, Oliva, and MacKenzie took over the roles of Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet from Nikolai Leon, Craig David Dowsett and Chris Cordell, respectively. When recasting Christopher Robin, Frake-Waterfield requested Chambers for the role. Chambers was hesitant to portray the character due to the amount of negative backlash they had received from the first film (with Frake-Waterfield being the main target for backlash)[18][19], as well as him working as a producer for the film, but accepted Rhys's request nonetheless.[14] In portraying Christopher Robin, Chambers aimed to bring some vulnerability into the character, while also adding in a layer of hope: "Because he starts in a place where he’s uncertain about where his life is going to progress to, who he can and can’t trust, and all these kinds of things. I was to keep that flame going. There’s hope. He’s trying to be positive, but everyone else around him is pulling him down."[15]
In July 2023, Lewis Santer was cast asTigger.[14] For a month, before filming began, Santer watched two to three horror films a night and made notes to see what frightened him as an actor, then put it into the character. Among these films wereA Nightmare on Elm Street,It andTerrifier, as his version of Tigger was inspired by a combination ofFreddy Krueger,Pennywise andArt the Clown.[20] An element Santer found amongst these three characters that frightened him was that they would often move slow at first, then spring into frantic movement when someone least expected it. Additionally, Santer would often work out at the gym and spend time in his kitchen recording himself practice crawling on his arms and legs very early in the morning.[21] Frake-Waterfield orignally planned to have Tigger speak with an English accent, though this was changed to an American accent as they felt the former wasn't frightening enough.[22] An additional element played into the character is that because Tigger has been locked up by the others for so long due to being the most dangerous of the group, by the time he finally escapes, his mental state hasdeteriorated, rendering him “adrenaline fuel”.[14] For the scene where Tigger first encounters a group of surviving ravers in which he is seen twitching, the crew requested Santer to act as if he had drank "twentyRed Bulls".[23]
Chambers previously worked withTeresa Banham and Simon Callow in acting roles in projects such asMalpractice andDoctor Jekyll, respectively. When casting Banhem as Mary Darling, Christopher Robin's hypnotherapist, he informed her that although her role in the film was small, he promised a larger role inThe Twisted Childhood Universe moving on. Chambers believed that Callow would be perfect for the role of Mark Cavendish, a hospital janitor who is revealed to have a dark connection with Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. To his delight, Callow kindly agreed to portray the role.[24][25]
Principal photography began and concluded in September 2023.[26] For the scenes at Christopher Robin's house, Frake-Waterfield orignally planned to use the household ofA. A. Milne as a homage to the original source material, but negotiations fell through.[16] AWorld War II bunker was used for several scenes in the abandoned warehouse, such as the tunnel and the boiler room.[23] Out of all the scenes to film, the rave party was the most difficult to film. Frake-Waterfield and Chambers had grown excited over working on a larger budget, and they believed they could do anything. Three days before principal photography began, the costume designer/production designer pulled out, which led Chambers to order the raver costumes online. This in turn was quite difficult, as Chambers barely knew anything about female bodies, and many of the extras for the rave had differentbreast andwaist sizes. In fact, the rave party scene was so stressful to film, Frake-Waterfield threw up on set.[27][28]
The film was originally reported to have a budget five times larger than its predecessor;[29] it would later be confirmed that the budget had increased to ten times larger than the first film.[13] Shaune Harrison, who previously worked on productions such asWorld War Z, theHarry Potter franchise, andGame of Thrones, was the film's creature and gore designer, while Paula Anne Booker led the special effects.[10] Winnie-the-Pooh's prosthetics in the film cost over $20,000 compared to the $770 spent on the first film's costume.[26] According to Lewis Santer, the makeup application process took up to two hours each day. During the process, Santer would spend time listening to heavy metal music in an effort to get into the character mindset for Tigger. While Santer was comfortable while wearing prosthetics, the only downside was that it was difficult for him to hear as his ears were covered.[23] Marcus Massey has stated that it was difficult for him to breathe while wearing prothetics, espically as his nose captivaty would often fill up with sweat.[30][31]
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 premiered at thePrince Charles Cinema inLeicester Square,London, on 18 March 2024. Distibuted by ITN Distribution, it was theatrically released in the United States and Canada withFathom Events on 26 March 2024, and was released in the United Kingdom withAltitude Film Distribution on 7 June 2024.[32][33]
The film was released onAmazon Prime Video on 26 June 2024.[34]
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 grossed $533,144 in the United States and Canada, and over $7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $7.6 million.[35]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 47% of 43 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 represents an improvement over the original in most respects, although the Poohniverse remains a place made for hardcore slasher fans."[36]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 27 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[37]
Luke Thompson ofThe A.V. Club gave the film a positive review, writing "This is cinema at its most punk rock—a raucous, unpolished, cheap, sacred-cow shredding middle finger to the mainstream with just enough raw talent inside to keep it from being dismissable."[38]IGN's Matt Donato gave it a score of 6/10, comparing its approach to that ofTerrifier 2 and writing, "It boasts a nastier midnight-movie appeal, radical practical effects, and a brisk 90-minute runtime. It's a shaky first step for Frake-Waterfield's proposed 'Poohniverse' concept – but it's a step in the right direction."[39]
Owen Gleiberman ofVariety gave the film a negative review, criticizing the screenplay and direction. He concluded his review by writing, "Somewhere up in drive-in-theater heaven,Herschell Gordon Lewis andEd Wood are smiling, even if Frake-Waterfield makes them look likeScorsese andSpielberg."[40]The Daily Beast's Nick Schager said the film "boasts a bigger budget, higher production values, and an entirely new cast. Alas, when it comes to the things that matter most—like writing, directing, and acting—it's as chintzy and inept as its predecessor."[41]
On 28 March 2024, two days after the film's release, it was announced that a third film was being developed.[42] By August 2025, it was reported that Chambers would direct the film, from a screenplay byRichard Stanley.[43]Principal photography is set to commence in early 2026.[43]
In March 2024, in an interview with Jonathan Fuge ofMovieWeb, Lewis Santer spoke of a potential spin-off film centred around the characterTigger.[44]
In January 2025, franchise producerScott Chambers announced as part of the studio's second phase of movies, a spin-off of theWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movies centered around Tigger, entitledTigger's Return. The project will enter production following the release ofPoohniverse: Monsters Assemble. The producer explained the audience's reception to the character as the reason the character receiving his own installment.[45]
In November 2022, two other horror films were announced:Bambi: The Reckoning andPeter Pan's Neverland Nightmare based onBambi, a Life in the Woods andPeter and Wendy, respectively.[46][47][48] In February 2023, Frake-Waterfield announced that the various projects take place in The Twisted Childhood Universe,sharing continuity as a franchise. The filmmaker further stated that Jagged Edge Productions intends to eventually havecrossovers featuring all of the characters.[49] In January 2024, a third film,Pinocchio: Unstrung, based onThe Adventures of Pinocchio, was announced as part of the TCU.[50]Pinocchio: Unstrung was referenced at the end ofWinnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2; while other teases to the expanded universe and future projects were displayed through drawings during the end credits.[51][52]
In March 2024, the series' first crossover film titledPoohniverse: Monsters Assemble was revealed, with Scott Chambers confirmed to be reprising his role as Christopher Robin, as well as Megan Placito returning asWendy Darling fromPeter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare andRoxanne McKee as Xana fromBambi: The Reckoning, along with additional horror iterations of fairytale characters such asRabbit,Sleeping Beauty,the Mad Hatter,Cheshire Cat,Mary Poppins andTintin.[53][54][55]
Frake-Waterfield also expressed interest in making films aboutThor, theNorse god of thunder,[56] as well as copyrighted franchises such asTeletubbies,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, andThe Powerpuff Girls.[57][58]
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