Macabre…ish Horror Review: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

 

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey, 2023/ 1 hr 40 min

 

Christopher Robin (Frederick Dallaway) meets anthropomorphic animals in the forest and he befriends them and began feeding them. After he grows up and goes to medical school, abandoning them, his friends began to starve over the winter. Out of desperation they killed and ate Eeoyore, the abhorrent act traumatized them and they became feral and developed a hatred for humans, specifically Christopher. They renounced their humanity and swore to never speak again.

 

Years later, now an adult, Christopher (Nikolai Leon) returns to the Hundred Acres Forest with his new wife, Mary (Paula Coiz). He wants her to meet his old friends but the forest is desolate and Mary is afraid. Christopher continues his search and finds their shelter abandoned. But then someone comes in and the duo hide, soon Christopher wants to investigate, against Mary’s better judgement, and they run into Piglet, who strangles Mary despite Christopher’s pleas.

 

He’s then cornered in a cave by Piglet (Chris Cordell) and Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and after tearfully and profusely apologizing for abandoning them, he’s dragged back into the forest, they burn Mary’s body and show Christopher what remains of Eeyore.

 

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Later, a student, Maria (Maria Taylor), rents a cabin in the Hundred Acre Woods to help heal her trauma. So she takes her friends, Jessica (Natasha Rose Mills), Alice (Amber Doig-Thorne), Zoe (Danielle Ronald), and Lara (Natasha Tosini) on a tech free holiday. Tina (May Kelly) gets lost on her way to the cabin and she pulls over and unsuccessfully calls the others, who’ve already put away their phones. Spotting Pooh, she runs and hides in an abandoned workshop. Pooh who pounds her head to a pulp against a wood chipper and pushes her in, grinding her up.

 

Back at the cabin the friends support Maria, who is struggling. She shares her stories of being stalked in front of the fire.

 

At Pooh’s treehouse, Christopher Robin, hangs from one if his ceiling hooks. Christopher tries to connect and appeal to Pooh’s ‘humanity’. Pooh struggles with memories of the past and in a rage, he trashes his house, grabs Eeyore’s tail and whips Christopher, bloody. Then Pooh props up what remain’s of Mary in front of Christopher and pours her blood over his head, just to torture him further.

 

At the cabin, Lara is taking selfies in the jacuzzi and catches Pooh, lurking in the background of a photo. He slips into the darkness and once she thinks she’s alone again, she returns to the hot tub. Then Pooh and Piglet incapacitate her, hog ties her in the middle of the street and slowly drives a car over her. Lara’s screams alert Maria and Jessica who find her body in the street, her head, obliterated.

 

They return to the cabin to call for help and the door is open. They need to alert Zoe and Alice, who have no idea anything is wrong. The four of them wander around the dark house, looking for weapons as Winnie and Piglet search for them, they separate into pairs. Unfortunately, Alice and Zoe are cornered in the pool house. Alice is knocked unconscious but wakes up just in time to see Pooh, in the pool, slam a sledge hammer into Zoe’s head.

 

Jessica and Maria see Pooh and Piglet abduct

Alice and decide to follow them into the forest.

 

Back at the treehouse, not only is Christopher there and Alice but another woman, Charlene (Danielle Scott). She’s been tortured, her face is horribly disfigured and upon seeing her face, she wants revenge. Her husband was killed by Piglet before she was brought here. Jessica and Maria release them all.

 

Charlene arms herself and challenges Piglet so she can kill him. Instead, Pooh subdues her, covers her in honey and is mauled to death by Piglet. Meanwhile, Alice, Maria and Jessica look on in horror. When Pooh comes for them, they fight him with fire.

 

Not Alice though, she hangs back and gives Piglet a taste of his own medicine. He’s placed in Charlene’s chains and bludgeoned with a sledge hammer. She does well until Pooh arrives and stabs her in the mouth, pinning her body to the wall via her neck.

 

Maria and Jessica run for the road, flagging down the car coming toward them. The women express that they are in danger but instead of leaving, the men want to confront Pooh. And for all their postering and bluster, Pooh takes everything they got and then painfully obliterates each of them, one by one.

 

Meanwhile. Jessica and Maria, desperately search the vehicle for keys and find them at the last second. They manage to run Pooh over but all it nets them is another passenger. As they careen down the road, he tries to punch his way in until they crash. Then Maria wakes to Jessica being dragged away and decapitated and just as she’s about to meet her end, Christopher Robin comes out of nowhere in another vehicle and hits Pooh, pinning him between both vehicles.

 

It’s still not enough, he extricates himself and comes for them. Christopher begs for their lives. But it doesn’t work. Pooh slices Maria’s throat. Pooh, in a rage, brutalizes Maria’s corpse as Christopher looks on in horror.

 

 

This British Independent slasher was directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and it is a daring and horrifying retelling of beloved characters and story. I really enjoyed the multimedia aspect of the film and the concept. This is super gory and aggressively violent. I wish it wasn’t so visually dark. There were moments of just pitch blackness and other moments that were so dark that while it was not pitch, it was still too dark to really see the scene. It’s also very graphic but again, some of the scenes were less so because it was so dark. This movie was good and bleak! I can’t wait for a sequel!