The wait is finally over to see just how corny and gory Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey really is. The utterly ridiculous horror parody of novelist A. A. Milne’s children’s books about Winnie-the-Pooh and his fellow anthropomorphic residents of the fictional Hundred Acre Wood. The entirely independent slasher sees Rhys Frake-Waterfield make his directorial debut for the horror retelling of the classic children’s tale. First announced in May 2022, the project garnered attention from its bold choice to include a beloved childhood and pop-culture icon — a decision that received mixed reactions. The unconventional slasher went into official production once the copyright on Milne’s 1926 novel Winnie-the-Pooh expired and it entered the public domain in the United States on Jan. 1, 2022.
That gave Frake-Waterfield the go-ahead to adapt the likeness of Milne’s characters for the big screen, even in the most horrifying way imaginable. But there were still some restrictions that forbade the inclusion of every Winnie-the-Pooh character, including the fact that Frake-Waterfield had to avoid any elements that were unique to Disney’s depictions of the character. With that in mind, which characters are featuring in the unholy offspring that is Blood and Honey?
Winnie the Pooh
It wouldn’t be Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey without, well… Pooh. Naturally, we’ve seen more of Pooh than anyone else, since he’s the ringleader of the mindless massacre. As played by Craig David Dowsett, this tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff isn’t as cute and cuddly as we remember. Like the stuff of nightmares, Pooh has been abandoned by his childhood friend Christopher Robin and left to fend for himself, resulting in a murderous rampage against all trespassers to the Hundred Acre Wood, including Christopher Robin himself and his fiancée, Mary Robin. Having been betrayed by his best friend, Pooh has abandoned his humanity and developed a hatred for all things human, reverting to his primal, animalistic state. From what we’ve seen of Pooh in the trailer and exclusive clips, he’s a force to be reckoned with and perhaps infinity more deadly than his partner-in-crime, Piglet.
Piglet
We’ve seen considerably less of Piglet than Pooh, but still enough to be shaking in our boots. From what we can gather from previews (without spoiling too much now that Blood and Honey has hit theaters in the US), Piglet appears to be the brawn behind the operation, whereas Pooh is the brains. It looks as if Piglet does a lot of the heavy-lifting, namely the most brutal of kills, while Pooh reserves his vendetta for Christopher Robin and him alone. Portrayed by Chris Cordell, Frake-Waterfield’s rendition of Piglet is the exact opposite of the friendly, pacifistic piggy we’ve known before. This time, he’s a homicidal maniac with no regard for human life, destroying anyone and anything in his path. There have been some complaints about Piglet’s mask, which looks far less believable than Pooh’s, but we should remember that his film isn’t taking itself too seriously, so neither should we.
Christopher Robin
If Pooh is the star, then Christopher Robin is the plot device. A. A. Milne’s version of Christopher Robin was a happy-go-lucky, inquisitive young man who only saw the wonder in the world. There’s been many depictions across media where Christopher Robin has left the Hundred Acre Wood and his friends behind to pursue life goals, such as starting school or college. That difficult decision always went down a lot better in the animated world than live-action, since Pooh and Piglet are downright mad that Christopher Robin abandoned them. It’s Christopher’s neglect that sends Pooh and Piglet spiraling into a dark place that they can’t come back from, as his selfishness ruined their lives. English/Ukranian actor Nikolai Leon embodies the young dreamer in Frake-Waterfield’s adaptation.
Eeyore
So he isn’t actually in the movie, but technically… he is. Although we don’t see Eeyore, it’s implied that he met a rather unfortunate end at the hands of Pooh and Piglet’s sheer desperation. In the trailer, when Christopher and Mary Robin arrive at the Hundred Acre Wood, they’re immediately unsettled by how barren the forest has become. Mary comes across a wooden sign that reads “Eeyore R.I.P” and suggests they leave. We can infer that when Christopher Robin abandoned Pooh and Piglet, they were forced to find food for themselves and ultimately killed and ate Eeyore in an act of cannibalism. That’s a rather depressing thought, which suits Eeyore’s personality perfectly. But what a tragic demise.
We can confirm that although Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore and Christopher Robin all became public domain on Jan. 1, Tigger and several of the other characters listed above do not appear in the film because Disney holds separate copyright restrictions over them from their animated works. Who wouldn’t have wanted to see a rabid Tigger?