Disney's Winnie the Pooh, the beloved bear from the Hundred Acre Wood is being reimagined as a murderous beast out for blood in a new slasher movie.
The stories of the anthropomorphic teddy bear based on the creations of English author A.A. Milne hit the public domain five years ago, and director Rhys Waterfield is one of the first to depict the "willy nilly silly old bear" as a bloodthirsty cubby all stuffed with rage.
As far as we know, the basic premise for Waterfield's Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is that when Christopher Robin leaves for college, Pooh and Piglet turn feral and go on a killing spree.
Abandonment issues, much? Oh, bother.
Twitter had some thoughts on that.
\u201cBro that Winnie the Pooh Horror movie gonna be peak fiction fr.\u201d— BasedPota (Not Based Arc) (@BasedPota (Not Based Arc)) 1653573268
\u201cWinnie the Pooh is being made into a R-rated horror film. Yes, really.\n\nThis is why I love the public domain.\u201d— Crimson Mayhem #NewDeal4Animation (@Crimson Mayhem #NewDeal4Animation) 1653520031
\u201cOriginal cast reacts to Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey\u201d— Horror4Kids (@Horror4Kids) 1653566497
\u201cfinna watch the winnie the pooh horror movie on this\u201d— nedarb (@nedarb) 1653540071
\u201c@PopCrave Winnie The Pooh and WHAT!?!\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1653531969
\u201cmartin scorsese: wahhhhh my pussy hurts cinema is bad rn what happened to the art form\n\nwinnie the pooh horror movie:\u201d— tre\u00a5 (@tre\u00a5) 1653530686
Gay Twitter also had some thoughts about Pooh being an LGBTQ+ icon since the character became public domain.
\u201cHappy Bambi and Winnie the Pooh Entering the Public Domain Day, they\u2019re gay now and there\u2019s nothing Disney can do about it.\u201d— TrashMan\ud83c\udf0c (@TrashMan\ud83c\udf0c) 1641062164
\u201cWinnie the Pooh is being made into a horror flick because its now public domain, ok - when are we getting a very gay version of the Great Gatsby???\u201d— A (@A) 1653562339
\u201cwinnie the pooh characters as a gay brunch group. a thread:\u201d— matty b (@matty b) 1619307487
\u201cI want to call your name, forever. And you will always answer me, forever.\n\n~Winnie the Pooh\u201d— Lasekan Dayo (@Lasekan Dayo) 1653065775
In an interview with Variety, Waterfield shared:
"Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult."
“Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral.”
Waterfield continued:
“So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”
According to Variety, the film was shot in ten days in England and just wrapped a month ago.
Waterfield has not disclosed the budget for the film but noted audiences “shouldn’t be expecting this to be a Hollywood-level production.”
Jagged Edge Productions–which Waterfield runs with co-producer Scott Jeffrey, made the film–and ITN Studios will distribute it.
There has been no official release date set.