Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey | |
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Directed by | Rhys Frake-Waterfield |
Screenplay by | Rhys Frake-Waterfield |
Based on | |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Vince Knight |
Edited by | Rhys Frake-Waterfield |
Music by | Andrew Scott Bell |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Altitude Film Distribution |
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Running time | 84 minutes[1] |
Country | United Kingdom[1] |
Language | English |
Budget | $100,000[2] |
Box office | $7.7 million[3][4] |
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is a 2023 British independent slasher film produced, directed, written, and edited by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. The first installment of The Twisted Childhood Universe,[5] it serves as a horror parody of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh books and stars Craig David Dowsett as the titular character, and Chris Cordell as Piglet, with Amber Doig-Thorne, Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, and Danielle Ronald in supporting roles. It follows Pooh and Piglet, who have become feral murderers, as they terrorise a group of young university women and Christopher Robin when he returns to the Hundred Acre Wood five years after leaving for college.
The film was first announced in May 2022, when it drew widespread attention due to its premise involving a character that was a childhood icon, and it was met with divided reactions. It was produced by Jagged Edge Productions in association with ITN Studios and went into development after the 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh book entered the public domain in the United States in January 2022. The film was shot in 10 days in the Ashdown Forest of East Sussex, England, which serves as inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was originally set for a nationwide one-night event, but a spike in online popularity expanded it to a major worldwide theatrical release. It premiered in Mexico on 26 January 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on 15 February 2023, and in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2023. The film was panned by critics, with many considering it one of the worst films of all time, and received five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture. Despite this, the film was a box-office success, grossing $7.7 million worldwide on a budget of $100,000. A sequel, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, was released on 26 March 2024.