‘Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2’ Review: Bloodier, Weirder, And Better Than Before
In May 2022, Dread Central reported on a mysterious new horror movie called Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey, capitalizing on A.A. Milne’s children’s character entering the public domain. News spread like wildfire through the 100 Acre Wood and now, not even two years later, the sequel is about to hit theaters, simply named Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2. This time around, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and co-writer Matt Leslie (who joined the team for the sequel) use an expanded budget to craft a bloodier, weirder, and all-around bigger film that is a vast improvement to the first. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a fantastic film, but it’s a damn fun one, especially when Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2 leans fully into its campy overtones.
Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 opens months after the 100-Acre Massacre where Christopher Robin (now played by Scott Chambers) is believed to be the crazed serial killer behind the vicious killings. Everyone looks at him with disgust and he even loses his job as a nurse at the local hospital due to the controversy. As he tries to pick up the pieces, Pooh (Ryan Oliva) and Piglet (Eddy MacKenzie), plus their new friends Owl (Marcus Massey) and Tigger (Lewis Santer), are scattering pieces of their victims through the 100-Acre Wood as they decide to take on the entire town of Ashdown to enact their revenge.
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With Winnie-The-Pooh: Bloody and Honey 2, Frake-Waterfield and Leslie want to avoid just another slasher blood bath with young girls getting slaughtered in their bathing suits. They try to build a more disturbing lore about the origin of Pooh and friends by including Christopher Robin’s parents and their shared traumatic past. Yes, there is a trauma narrative running through this film. It’s handled decently well, but the overall story often veers into the self-serious psychological drama before spinning into a ridiculous scene of slaughter complete with CGI blood. Tonally, there’s definitely a concerted effort to elevate this above just a silly slasher that goes viral for nothing other than its title. But there’s still work to be done in striking that balance where it doesn’t feel like tonal whiplash every few minutes.
But let’s be honest, a lot of viewers are here for kills by our favorite storybook characters and Frake-Waterfield uses that marginally expanded budget to get Pooh and Piglet a new, more vicious look. These no longer look like men in stylized rubber masks. Instead, these look like strange hybrid creatures, abominations that hate the world for how they’re treated. Pooh has razor-sharp teeth and massive claws while Owl looks like a sickly man covered in sparse feathers. The new looks downgrade the silly factor significantly. The silly factor is instead relegated to wild set pieces, including a particularly gnarly rave massacre that involves Tigger uttering the phrase, “Come here you fluorescent bitch,” to an unfortunate rave attendee.
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While the new looks are spot-on, it’s often difficult to see said designs, as well as the bloody details of Pooh’s nastier kills thanks to a lack of lighting, which is, unfortunately, a common thread in horror right now. I understand using darkness and shadow to mask effects and maximize budget, but some moments are almost inscrutable save for the sound design and score (another bombastic banger from composer Andrew Scott Bell, who also composed the first film’s score).
It may sound impossible for Frake-Waterfield and team to strike the perfect balance between camp and serious narrative, especially when tackling an inherently campy premise. And perhaps it is! But applause has to be given for their continued dedication to not only making these films, but to learning from each one. It’s easy to see a film like Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 as a desperate money grab with little to no thought put behind it. But after watching how they built upon their established mythology and crafted even scarier monsters this time around, it’s difficult to not be impressed with what they accomplished. Sure it’s not flawless, but it is the perfect campy slasher to watch on a Friday night, and sometimes that’s all you need. I’m still not convinced we need an entire Poohniverse, but I guess we’ll see…
Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2 comes exclusively to theaters from March 26 to March 28, 2024, from Fathom Events.
Summary
‘Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2’ is a vast improvement to its predecessor, campy and weird but a bit too self-serious for its own good.
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