When Winnie the Pooh fell into the public domain in January 2022, writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield wasted no time crafting a film to capitalize on Disney’s loss. By May of that year Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was in development and slated for an October release. Thanks to frenzied media talk of “nightmare fuel” and “ruining our childhood,” the film went viral before it was even finished, resulting in additional funding from the studio and subsequent additions and reshoots. It was the right call, as Blood and Honey earned over five million at the box office and already has a sequel with five times the budget in the works. Hopefully, that means we’ll see more of Christopher’s old friends in the next movie, including Tigger — he couldn’t be in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey because he didn’t appear in A.A. Milne’s childhood classics until 1928’s The House at Pooh Corner.
So, is Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey scary? Hardly, as evidenced by the film’s abysmally low Rotten Tomatoes score. No, the movie about everyone’s favorite silly, willy-nilly old bear turned murderous psychopath probably won’t scare most, but it does feature gore and brutality that may make some viewers squeamish. Pooh and Piglet have gone feral, after all, and they crush, slice, and decapitate in their quest for vengeance.
10 Pooh and Friends Go Feral
Blood and Honey opens with one of its creepiest moments. Using simplistic ink illustrations, the narrator explains the tragic backstory that led to Pooh and Piglet becoming homicidal maniacs. As a child, Christopher Robin used to visit the Hundred Acre Wood to feed his woodland friends. When he grew up, however, he abandoned the animal/human hybrids and left them to fend for themselves. Starving and seemingly without any other options, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Owl cannibalize Eeyore; the act is enough to make them all snap and vow vengeance on humanity, especially Christopher Robin. And, in case you forgot the death of the depressive donkey, Blood and Honey reminds you by showing his crude gravestone in the background.
9 The Locals Can’t Help
When running away from Pooh and Piglet’s compound, Maria and Jess meet a group of local men and frantically try to tell them what’s happened. It’s to no avail, though, as Pooh arrives and the locals decide they need to confront him despite the warnings. The four mercilessly beat the bear, but it’s nothing for this woodland critter; Pooh dispatches the would-be saviors with ease.
In one swift motion, Pooh swipes off half of one’s face, leaving behind only his skinless musculature before he falls down dead. Pooh dismembers the second with ease, karate chopping off his hands before crushing his head underfoot like a watermelon. He beats the third, and, to kill the fourth, Pooh reveals another of his powers: he can control bees. The monster sends a horde of insects after the final man, so confident in their killing ability that he doesn’t even bother to look back.
8 Alice Kills Piglet, Pooh Kills Alice
After the horrors she’s witnessed, it’s no wonder Alice is out for blood. She’s able to get the jump on Piglet and knocks him out with his own sledgehammer; when he wakes up, he’s bound, and Alice is standing over him with the weapon. As she takes revenge for the deaths of her friends and lover, the film cuts to Pooh in the distance sensing something is wrong with his porcine pal. Fortunately, Alice is able to get in the final blow on Piglet before Pooh arrives. In his own act of revenge, the beast lifts Alice off the ground and slowly rams a knife through her throat, pinning her to a post.
7 Decapitating Jess
There’s a moment when Maria and Jess might see a light at the end of the tunnel. When Pooh arrives and the locals try and fail to fight him off, the two wisely lock themselves in their truck. They run Pooh over, but that’s hardly enough to take down this bear; he climbs into the bed and creepily crawls toward the windshield as Maria wildly speeds away. Pooh inevitably flies off when Maria breaks, but nothing will stop his bloodlust. He pulls Jess from the truck by the hair, and Maria watches in horror as the murderous beast rips her head clean off her body. Nonchalantly, he tosses the head onto the windshield and Maria turns on the wipers to move it away; no such luck, though, as it just smears Jess’s blood and viscera on the window to Maria’s abject horror.
6 Pooh Isn’t Done with Christopher
After Pooh decapitates Jess, it’s time for him to claim his final victim. The beastly bear drags Maria from the truck, but before he can act, Christopher arrives to save the day. He slams the truck into Pooh, folding him over the hood and incapacitating him, but not for long. Christopher leaves the bear to burn with the truck while he goes to Maria’s aid, but Pooh gets up and moves before they have a chance at getting away.
The truck explodes into an enormous fireball that burns in the background as Pooh menacingly stalks toward his final victims. He grabs the blood-soaked Maria and holds a knife to her throat while Christopher begs for her life, offering to stay with Pooh should he show her mercy. This bear, though, has no mercy left in his heart. In his only line in the film, Pooh gruffly tells Christopher, “You left,” before slitting Maria’s throat.
5 Christopher’s Capture
Watching Piglet kill his fiancé in cold blood was, apparently, not enough to convince Christopher that his former friends aren’t so friendly anymore. He soon finds Pooh, and the pair of beast men corner Christopher while he repeatedly begs for their understanding and forgiveness. They slowly approach Christopher as he screams, and then, in another of the film’s illustrative scenes, drag him to the cave where they ate Eeyore. Pooh forces his ex-best friend to see the consequences of his actions — the bones of the friend he doomed to die. To rub it in even more, the not-so-cuddly duo burn Mary’s corpse and torture Christopher with her charred remains.
4 Lara Is Crushed By a Car
The social media-obsessed Lara just wants to have fun, but she gets more than she bargains for when Pooh and Piglet show up at the women’s cabin. Bored by her friends and in desperate need of attention, Lara takes a solo dip in the hot tub to take plenty of wet bikini selfies. Unfortunately, she never manages to see what’s happening behind her in those selfies; creeping toward Lara through the flickering lights are Pooh and Piglet. The two take Lara by surprise, chloroforming and then hogtying her. When she awakens, Lara realizes to her horror that Pooh is slowly driving toward her. Piglet eggs him on and harasses Lara until the tires finally reach her, crushing her skull and popping out one of her eyeballs.
3 Pooh Tortures Christopher Robin
After Pooh and Piglet show Christopher what they were forced to do, it seems like the two might have killed him off. Instead, we later discover that Pooh is keeping his former friend alive and chained in his tree house. Christopher begs Pooh to stop what he’s doing, and the bear has a moment of crisis as he reminisces about Chris as a young boy. The memory infuriates him, and Pooh violently begins tearing up the tree house before intently grabbing Eeyore’s tail from off the wall. He whips Christopher senselessly before showering him with his fiancé’s blood.
2 Piglet Kills Zoe in the Pool
The couple Alice and Zoe start the movie off in rocky terrain, but they eventually reckon with their relationship when the killing starts. So, when Alice is forced to watch as Piglet brutally murders her love, it’s that much more devastating. The two are ambushed by Piglet while hiding out by the indoor pool; he immediately knocks out Alice and pushes Zoe into the pool. She frantically tries to stay away as Piglet torments her from the edge with his swinging chain. After he’s had his fun with this, Piglet switches out the chain for his sledgehammer and slowly walks through the water to get to Zoe. Try as she might, Zoe can’t get away and Alice tearfully watches as Piglet smashes her lover’s face in.
1 Piglet Eats Some Blood and Honey
Poor Charlene. The captive woman Maria and her friends discover tied up at the compound is battered beyond recognition. She explains that she was forced to watch as Piglet murdered her husband, and, after seeing her face in a mirror, completely loses it. Charlene steals the gun from Maria and shoots it to summon her captor. Piglet obliges, but Charlene can’t shoot him — she already spent her last bullet.
Recoiling in terror, Charlene is met from behind by Pooh, who shoves her to the ground before pouring an entire jar of honey on her face. Maria, Jess, and Alice watch from afar as Piglet chows down on Charlene’s face, her bloodcurdling screams echoing throughout the compound.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is available now for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, and Vudu.
