A Hooked On Horror Review: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

I'm not really sure where to start with this one. I'll admit, I was intrigued by this film. I was curious to see how Rhys Frake-Waterfield would take such a beloved iconic childrens character and turn them into a pyschotic, feral killer. And the fact it pissed so many people off gave me a chuckle, so I was going into this with reasonably high hopes for a fun indie slasher.

I was wrong. I was so very very wrong.

Transformed into feral and bloodthirsty, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet terrorise Christopher Robin and a group of young women at a remote house.

As horror fans we all know there are some absolute howlers out there, but they're still enjoyable under the whole "this is so bad it's good" vibe. Unfortunately Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is not one of those films.

I know there was most likely budgetary issues that forced certain things not to be done but a lot of this film is just sloppy, lazy film making. Whilst fully embracing the tropes and cliches of most horror films, it mever fully embraced the whole indie horror vibe. Felt like at times it was trying to be more of an arthouse film than the fun indie slasher it should have been. Never feels like it knows what artistic direction it's going in. Shame as there are some incredibly well shot scenes in the film.

Apologies to the cast but the acting in this is poor from start to finish. Gets to the point where you just get more and more annoyed the longer that character lives. It doesn't help that the script is pretty dire too, but again it just feels like maybe the cast weren't really given much direction.

The plot seems to go absolutely nowhere and just becomes an out and out indie slasher. That would be fine if there weren't other pretty major character development plot points that were seemingly put in the film for absolutely no reason what so ever. There's a lot that will leave you scratching your head by the end.

Whilst the film makers behind this may call them 'Easter Eggs' the film was just full of moments directly lifted from far superior horror films. As I said above, it's just lazy. And as for the soundtrack, the less I say about it the better. It's beyond bizarre and feels like it would pop up in a Hellraiser or Exorcist rip off.

Ok so maybe the kills can be the films saving grace? Sadly no. Whoever signed off on the CGI (especially the CGI blood) should re-think their current career. Most opportunites to showcase some pretty cool kills and special effects (whether practical or CG) were ignored or the action was kept off camera. And when we finally did get to see some of the gory action, it was so bad it made the werewolves in An American Werewolf in Paris look Oscar worthy. Oh and Winnie the Pooh slapping people to death- that's all I have to say about that.

The only positives things I can say about this film is that the masks were really cool and well made. Just a pity that didn't carry over onto the rest of the film. It's a huge shame as this had a lot of potential and could've been something special for horror fans.

The posters and trailers are a lot better than this film actually is. Do not waste your time folks, it's just so bad. It's laughable most of the time, but not in a good way.

Despite there being one or two enjoyable and entertaining moments, it's a dull and poorly made (z-list) horror that will be forgotten about and lost into obscurity in a matter of years.

Let the film enjoy it's 15 minutes of fame before it ends up on the shelves in Poundland.