As the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey trailer reveals, the people behind the movie definitely know how to drum up hype and audience anticipation for what promises to be a truly strange experience. Not to be confused with Disney's Winnie the Pooh movie franchise, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is a horror retelling of the classic children's story. In a nutshell, the movie answers the question of what would happen if Winnie-the-Pooh was a slasher, though this isn't the only reason for all the hype.
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Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey director Rhys Frake-Waterfield got the green light to start producing the movie when A. A. Milne's original 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain in January 2022. This is why the title has hyphens and adapts only elements from the original story, without any of the changes made in Disney's adaptations. In Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, Christopher Robin has left for college and cut off the regular food supply for Pooh and his friends. This turns the once cuddly residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood into predatory killers. While not technically their property, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey fits the disturbing modern trend of dark classic Disney movie remakes.
Promisingly, the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey trailer shows that Frake-Waterfield knows exactly what he's doing: basically committing to a long-running meme. This movie sounds like a joke, but the trailer and the promotional efforts have a self-aware tone that indicates that this meme-turned-film could be headed for glory. Whether Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey looks genuinely "good" is up for debate, but it certainly looks like a lot of weird fun, and each new revelation about the movie has been very successful in terms of drumming up more hype.
Will Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey Actually Be Good?!
Everything about Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey implies it has the potential to become a cult classic. Prior to directing this, Rhys Frake-Waterfield's filmography included B movies like Firenado, Demonic Christmas Tree, Spiders on a Plane, and Snake Hotel. However, he might be exactly the type of director needed to flesh out such a bizarre and inherently hilarious concept. Crucially, the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey director has already taken steps to avoid spending too much time in development hell by "expediting the edit and getting it through post-production as fast as we can.” Though this suggests the final output will be rushed, audiences aren't really expecting a pristinely-shot cinematic masterpiece. Instead, viewers want to see these beloved childhood characters transformed into gritty creatures of horror, an expectation Frake-Waterfield seems extremely eager to deliver.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is not the first time A. A. Milne's classic children's book has been subverted into horror. Years before this movie was even conceptualized, artists posted countless illustrations online depicting Pooh, Christopher Robin, Piglet, and the other residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood in a variety of eldritch and classic-horror-inspired scenarios. That said, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey will be the first time the concept is actually translated into film. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey's release date remains unclear, but Frake-Waterfield's comments suggest that it might hit theaters by early 2023.