- Staring
- Amber Doig-Thorne, Natasha Tosini, May Kelly
- Director
- Rhys Frake-Waterfield
- Rating
- R
- Genre
- Horror
- Release date
- February 15, 2023
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
What if the beloved characters Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, when left to their own devices, went feral and murdered and ate every human that they came into contact with? This is the question asked and answered by Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey.
Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey
Taking place in the fictional 100-Acre Woods from A. A. Milne’s 1926 children’s classic “Winnie the Pooh” series, Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey is not the Pooh that you remember from your childhood. You see, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, et al. were actually adolescent mutant half-breeds (half-man half-beast) when a young Christopher Robin first stumbled upon and befriended them.
Ostensibly, they shared all of the fun and adventures that you remember reading about as a child, however, once Christopher Robin came of an age to leave and go to college, the group of misfits fell into hunger and despair. Unable to fend for themselves, they were forced to turn to cannibalism, with only Pooh and Piglet surviving the plushy purge. Driven to madness by what they had to do to survive, they turned their rage toward humanity, gave up speaking, and became little more than bestial monsters.
Unlike Cocaine Bear, which tries and fails to bridge comedy with a mishmash of multiple horror subgenres, Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey knows exactly what it is, a slasher monster movie with a ridiculous premise, and it stays laser-focused on this.
With that as it’s single conceit, Blood and Honey brings very little that is new to the horror genre, relying exclusively on tropes and cliches to move the action along from one horrific and gory set piece to another. In fact, were it not for its unique if ridiculous premise, I’d say that this flick was entirely forgettable.
In what is sure to lead my therapist to suggest extra sessions, I found myself laughing out loud at some truly horrific scenes. But how could I not? It’s Piglet and Winnie the friggin Pooh running over people with cars and literally slapping the faces off of people. Despite the absurdity, Blood and Honey manages to deliver mostly satisfactory jumps and scares, and boasts gross-out gore sufficient enough to satisfy the biggest fan of the genre.
As unbelievable as it seems, somehow this nonsense works. The eerie and pitch-perfect score and cinematography make up for many of the film’s shortcomings, like middling performances, virtually no story of which to speak, and movie monsters in static rubber masks that you can see the bottoms of.
When it’s all said and done the laughs are of the out-loud variety and the thrills are sufficient if a little sparse. Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey will entertain horror fans as well as those who like movies that are so bad that they are good, and most likely it will become a cult classic, but its slow pacing and somewhat bland supporting cast will keep it from achieving Evil Dead levels.
WOKE ELEMENTS
There’s not enough of a story or runtime to fit in much of anything, let alone woke nonsense. However, the filmmakers did manager to shoe horn in a lesbian couple whose burgeoning relationship added nothing to the overall narrative.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
5 comments
Don
June 2, 2023 at 8:31 pm
Hold up the only plot element is a lesbian couple but this is not woke? I think you just described woke-ish. And as far as worth it, I can’t think of a worse film. Movie was nothing you wanted it to be, most importantly, remotely believable
James Carrick
June 2, 2023 at 10:35 pm
The lesbian couple was barely an afterthought in the film, so we took some points off. Had it been a major plot point and preachy, etc., we would have taken more. Regarding the overall rating/quality of the film, this most certainly is a movie only for those who enjoy bad movies.
Vanessa
November 5, 2023 at 11:42 am
I really was looking forward to see this movie and even paid again on peacock to get my subscription renewed only to be let down big time for one the costume was awfully could have been so much better looked like it was just thrown together .it could have been so much more realistic which really threw me off like it looked more like a human then bear or piglet which threw the movie off for me and made the movie stink like big time like I’ve seen drawings of horror Winnie the Pooh and the hundred acre gang that were ten times better and there’s so pose to be a second one really well I hope they make Pooh and piglet more like themselves and not so much like humans dressed up in a bad face mask.Ither than that maybe it would have been better just saying .I’m like a big fan of horror movies but defienty give this one hands down so sad 😭😭😭😭
James Carrick
November 5, 2023 at 2:16 pm
It’s definitely only enjoyable for those who like bad movies.
Belanah
November 13, 2023 at 3:18 pm
I hate and absolutely dispose the idea of this. Winnie the Pooh is a symbol of childhood innocence or was a symbol of childhood innocence. I hate that someone took this and made a gory blood slasher film. I love Winnie the Pooh he’s supposed to be a cute and cuddly bear who goes on sweet and innocent adventures. I hate the idea of this.