‘Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey 2’ – A childhood ruined

I just cannot fathom it. An international icon like Winnie the Pooh is finally available for public use. Boundless possibilities rest on the shoulders of film-makers large and small, who could take a world-renowned silly old bear and create something to stand on his puffy yellow shoulders. The result? Nothing more than a generic slasher horror with half-baked ideas and the kind of special effects that would be embarrassing for a student film.

There is an indelible charm to the low budget trappings of Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey 2. It’s far from the expectation of these anthropomorphised characters, and there is a sort of twisted glee to seeing them receive the grotesque treatment by any means necessary, in this case hobbled together by duct tape and splashed with red paint.

The issue with Blood and Honey 2 isn’t its horror content, but just how dull it is. Most of the movie centres on Christopher Robin reeling from the events of the first film, which have since been altered, with the film shown to audiences now a film within this sequel. The actual events seem to have been no less traumatic, resulting in Robin’s regular visits to a therapist, and a new social status as a pariah as his tales of eight-foot tall bear men going on a killing spree are seen as a mere attempt to hide his own vicious crimes.

While his plight is no doubt tragic, it’s not exactly compelling to watch. From there the film takes a swift turn into the absurd in its attempt to weave an origin story for Pooh and his 100 acre friends. The proposed storyline is confounding and made worse as characters stumble in darkly lit scenes, leaving viewers with nothing pleasant to see or hear.

Then in the last 20 minutes, it becomes the film it ought to have been all along. A sheer unabashed slash fest with terrible dialogue, severe gore, and a sick and twisted sense of humour. The characters shine the most as the film gives them something to sink their claws into, and the audience can revel in the brutality of their favourite childhood characters.

If the entire movie was more like its climax, you would have a bona fide bad movie hit. Instead the slog to get there is unrelentingly banal, and doesn’t warrant one sitting through it.

Rating: Read A Book

Damian Levy is a reviewer and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.