WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY (2022)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 84 Minutes 6 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Rhys Frake-Waterfield
Cast: Craig David Dowsett, Chris Cordell, Amber Doig-Thorne, Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, Danielle Ronald
With A.A. Milne's beloved children's tale "Winnie-the-Pooh" falling into public domain it did not take long for someone to cash-in, the first one out of the gate is Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a quickie low-budget slasher that takes place in the Hundred Acre Wood. The fil opens with illustrated opening credits that show how a young Christopher Robin befriends anthropomorphized animal pal Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit. But as he matures he leaves his friends behind to pursue college. His animal friends are left on their own and experience the cruelties of the wilds, with Owl and Rabbit dying of starvation, and Pooh and Piglet forced to eat poor Eeyore to survive. Afterward they make promise to never again speak, resorting to feral ways and vowing to have their revenge on Christopher Robin.
Now, five years later, Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon, The Killing Tree) is now a doctor, and he returned to the Hundred Acre Woods with is fiancé Mary (Paula Coiz, Tooth Fairy Queen of Pain) to reunite with his childhood companions, unaware of of their turn toward ferocious violence. Christopher is surprised to see the place of his childhood imagination has turned dark and scary. He and Mary are set upon my Winnie-The-Pooh (Craig David Dowsett, The Area 51 Incident) and Piglet (Chris Cordell, Werewolf Cabal), strangling snapping Mary's neck, tying up and torturing Robin. Meanwhile, university students Maria (Maria Taylor, Mega Lightning), Jessica (Natasha Rose Mills, Return of Krampus), Alice (Amber Doig-Thorne, Easter Bunny Massacre: The Bloody Trail), Zoe (Danielle Ronald, Croc!), Lara (Natasha Tosini), and Tina (May Kelly, The Loch Ness Horror) rent a cabin nearby in the Hundred Acre Wood for a weekend of fun, unaware of the murderous Pooh and Piglet, and much low-budget slasher shenanigans ensue.
When I first heard this announced I was not enthused by the prospect, what looked to be a quickie slasher cashing in on a beloved childhood IP, but I knew sooner or later I would check it out. Now that I have I can honestly say it's not the shit-show that I suspected it would be, at least not to the degree I thought it would. Pooh and Piglet are pretty much humanoid with rubbery masks that don't show much emotions. Likewise their characters are hulking slashers along the lines of Halloween's Michael Myers or Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, devoid of feelings, there only to deliver visceral bludgeoning, with Pooh dousing victims in honey before feasting on them, while a tusked Piglet delivers bludgeoning violence with a sledgehammer, or teaming-up to run over someone head with a car. Pooh and Piglets faces are rubber-faced masks, largely moodily underlit, and they are effectively creepy, at time dripping honey and blood-spattered, both work better than I would have imagined at least.
I thought that the kills nicely violent if not set-up and executed all that well, there looks to be a lot of Halloween influences at play, but the problem is that the story is so threadbare and the victims are pretty bland overall, despite some attempt at backstory, that there's just not a lot to chew on, and the acting is spotty at best. I guess the kick of it is supposed to be that these beloved children's book characters are in a bloody and violent slasher, and sure that's amusing for a minute, but the slasher elements are rote, and it's just not enough for me to get excited about. It's no worse than your average low-budget slasher, but it's certainly not any better, I found it amusing at best, but mostly uninspired.
Audio/Video: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD widescreen (2.39:1). Shot digitally the low-budget slasher looks solid; colors please, shadow detail is solid, and depth and clarity offers some nice details in the close-ups Their a bit of compression and black crush evident, some banding in spots, but I found this relatively minor and not ruinous. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.12 with optional English subtitles, the electronic score by Andrew Scott Bell s uninspired but suits the material quite nicely.
Extras are relegated to a 16-min “Something’s Wrong With Piglet” – Making Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey featuring producer Scott Jeffrey, writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, and actors Natasha Tosini and Danielle Scott, plus a 2-min Original Theatrical Trailer. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a 2-Sided Non-Reversible Sleeve of Artwork, with the illustrated key artwork on the a-side and a landscape image from the film on the reverse.
Special Features:
· “Something’s Wrong With Piglet” – Making Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey (15:41)
· Original Theatrical Trailer (1:55)
Special Features:
· “Something’s Wrong With Piglet” – Making Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey (15:41)
· Original Theatrical Trailer (1:55)
Screenshots from the Scream Factory Blu-ray:
Extras:
