WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY II (2024)

Studio:   ITN Distribution
Director: Rhys Frake-Waterfield
Writer:   Matt Leslie, Rhys Frake-Waterfield
Producer: Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Scott Jeffrey
Stars:    Scott Chambers, Tallulah Evans, Ryan Oliva, Teresa Banham, Peter DeSouza Feighoney, Alec Newman, Simon Callow

Review Score:

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Summary:

Amid another massacre, Christopher Robin uncovers a shocking secret from childhood that connects him to the murderous Winnie-the-Pooh in a terrifying way.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the aftermath of "The 100-Acre Massacre," Christopher Robin becomes a pariah in the small community of Ashdown due to most people disbelieving his claim that anthropomorphic animals committed the gruesome murders. The few people who do believe Christopher begin hunting the 100 Acre Wood for the creatures, which forces Winnie-the-Pooh and a freshly regenerated Piglet to reunite with their long-lost friends Owl and Tigger to survive.

Mia and her friends Jamie and Alice conduct an amateur seance to summon the 100 Acre Wood monsters. Pooh and Owl viciously slaughter all three women and set fire to their RV.

Owl and Piglet convince Winnie-the-Pooh that Christopher Robin is to blame for their woodland home being invaded. To boost their group's strength, Pooh releases Tigger from captivity.

Alice's boyfriend Darrell brings his friends Aaron Jones and Shepard on a hunt to take revenge against the animals for killing his girlfriend. The hunters manage to shoot off Piglet's head with a shotgun, but Pooh kills Shepard. Darrell dies from accidental gunfire. Pooh savagely mauls Aaron.

Christopher Robin loses his job as a junior doctor at Ashdown Hospital due to the controversy surrounding him. On his way out of the building, Christopher notices Aaron, a classmate from childhood, being rushed in for his mauled face.

Christopher regroups with his caring parents Alan and Daphne, who often deal with vandals because of the unwanted attention Christopher draws. Christopher also talks with his younger sister Ella, who prefers the nickname Bunny, about her concerns over the killer animals.

Owl and Pooh dismember a father birdwatching in the woods with his son. Later, Pooh and Owl kill three police officers who try to search their forest lair.

During one of his regular hypnotherapy sessions with Mary Darling, Christopher finally recovers a haunting memory of his brother Billy being abducted by an unseen man during a childhood party with their friends. After discussing the memory with his best friend Lexy, who was also at that party, Christopher tells his parents what he now remembers about Billy's disappearance, too. Internet research regarding a rash of local abductions from that time leads Christopher to articles about genetic scientist Dr. Arthur Gallup.

Christopher surveys the site of an upcoming rave with Lexy and their longtime friends Finn, Ava, and Cara. Cara informs Christopher that he isn't invited to the dance party because of his damaged reputation for being an alleged killer.

Officer Daughtry comes to the Robin house to question Christopher about the attack that disfigured Aaron. Afterward, Christopher visits Aaron at Ashdown Hospital. Unable to speak, Aaron writes on a board that Christopher was right about there being murderous monsters in the 100 Acre Wood. Elsewhere, Owl kills Finn.

Christopher recognizes hospital custodian Jaret Cavendish as the man who abducted Billy. After following him home, Christopher confronts Cavendish. Cavendish confesses that he paid off his gambling debts by kidnapping children for Dr. Arthur Gallup, who used the children in experiments that combined human and animal DNA. Gallup became spooked when he made monsters, so he set out to destroy all evidence of their creation by killing the mutant kids and burying them in the 100 Acre Wood. Cavendish followed Gallup to the forest and killed him, but he then learned the kids somehow crawled out of their graves. From files and tapes he goes through later, Christopher learns the hybrid creations have regenerative abilities. Upon finishing his story, Cavendish suddenly shoots himself in front of Christopher.

Pooh stalks Lexy while she is babysitting a boy named Freddie. Cops come to the house and end up killed by Pooh. Lexy calls Christopher to corroborate his claims of anthropomorphic animals and to tell him their friend Finn was brutally murdered. Lexy warns that Christopher's family might be in danger.

Pooh breaks into the Robin residence and murders both Daphne and Alan. After staring angrily at a picture of Christopher's brother Billy, Pooh abducts Bunny. Christopher arrives at the house to find his parents slaughtered and his sister missing. Christopher realizes Pooh is really his brother Billy, mutated by Arthur Gallup's experiments and now grown up, and he is killing people connected to their shared childhood.

Pooh and Tigger go on a rampage at the rave, killing dozens of partygoers including Cara and other friends of Christopher and Lexy. Christopher arrives for a confrontation with Pooh that spills over into the 100 Acre Wood. At the grave that he crawled out of years ago, Pooh remembers being Billy and drops his flaming chainsaw. After apologizing to his brother, Christopher uses the distraction to cleave Pooh's head in half with an ax. Pooh falls into his former grave.

Police officers find Bunny and reunite her with Christopher, who recovers with Lexy in the ordeal's aftermath. Meanwhile, Owl brings Pooh's carcass back to their forest lair as he prepares to resurrect both Pooh and Piglet to get revenge on Christopher.

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Review:

Move over, Amityville. Your name is mud, and has been for many years now.

When it comes to DIY indie horror, the new king of cash-grab cheats is "public domain pilfering." The instant any classic character from cartoons, comics, films, TV, or books has its copyright expire, we can count on frothing vultures to swoop in and scoop up that property for royalty-free use in some B-movie, usually of the bargain bin variety. These producers are the filmmaking equivalent of ambulance-chasing lawyers, ghoulishly gaining gigs simply by being first at the crime scene, then creating a crime scene of their own with whatever chintzy creature feature they cough up.

Since we're still some time away from Blumhouse or a Hollywood studio spending real money on a clever reimagining that might transform a beloved childhood icon into a truly chilling monster, we have to first deal with the fledgling franchise now known as the "Poohniverse," which started in 2023 with the first "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" film, and currently threatens further expansion by trying to make Pinocchio, Bambi, and The Mad Hatter the new Freddy, Jason, and Pinhead. Before adding those other ex-Disney employees into the mix, however, we must make it through one more murderous misadventure with the 100-Acre Wood roster in "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II."

The original "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" (review here) was almost universally derided as a scattershot slasher that would have rightfully whizzed by unnoticed if not for its tenuous connection to A.A. Milne's famous creations. Early buzz on the sequel indicated "Blood and Honey II" would be better in terms of story, performances, and overall production quality, none of which had high bars to begin with anyway. "Better" isn't the right word. I'd instead say "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II" is "marginally more tolerable," as it's only slightly less shabby than its predecessor, although I can't be sure if its improvements were intentional or just incidental.

You may remember Pooh and Piglet were the only two anthropomorphic animals to appear onscreen in the first film. You may also remember Piglet was bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer. Apparently, he survived, because Piglet returns in this sequel only to be killed almost immediately when his snouted head is definitively blown off with a shotgun blast. Piglet's regenerative ability earns an explanation later in the movie, but maybe he'll become this series' Kenny and we can expect to see him experience another gruesome demise in every subsequent sequel.

Owl takes Piglet's place for the bulk of "Blood and Honey II." Tigger drops in as well, though it's mostly just Pooh and Owl serving up slaughter, essentially mirroring the first movie's paltry pairing of only two Winnie-the-Pooh characters while the rest of the 100-Acre Wood's denizens remain unseen or unused.

The two terrorizers are no longer men in cheap Halloween masks. Now they're men in cheap makeup, a minor upgrade over lazy latex coverings, yet still a copout to avoid crafting a full-body design that looks like anything other than an ordinary person in a costume and cowl. Bert Lahr looked more like a lion than Tigger looks like a tiger here. He's laughably loaded into what seems to be a straight-jacket to complete his "this is just a guy in regular clothes" appearance. Meanwhile, Pooh often shows up in silhouette, as though the filmmakers wanted to hedge their bet on being legally "safe" by not letting lawyers get too good of a look at anything.

One upgrade that does work is the replacement of the previous Christopher Robin actor with a different performer. "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II" boasts some surprisingly serviceable acting for several roles, though Scott Chambers operates on a completely different plane as Christopher. Chambers's dramatic portrayal of Pooh's friend-turned-target for vengeful violence is far better than expected, and frankly far better than a fright film needs at this low level.

"Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" only did the bare minimum. "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II" puts in a pinch more effort, but it still takes the easy road whenever possible. Even with a little extra money added for small upticks like fire FX and a higher body count that includes dozens of dancers dying at a rave, it's still impossible to overlook the cheapness of it all. "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2" takes a shot at telling an actual story this time around, which is worth noting, yet some corner-cutting on later plot points and a lot of stitched-on scenes that only exist for inconsequential victims to get torn apart make for messy momentum.

The glaring issue overall is, neither of these movies ever feel like true takes on "Disney envisioned as horror." Pooh and company don't feel like evil versions of familiar storybook characters you grew up on. The forest setting doesn't feel like a nightmarish reflection of the 100-Acre Wood. It's just masked men in an off-the-rack wardrobe cutting up phony-looking limbs while digital blood sprays the screen. And when there's no more meat than that on such bare bones, what does either "Blood and Honey" movie have going for it other than a flavor-of-the-month gimmick they never actually take advantage of?

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score: 30

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