Elevated horror is so 2018. Now, in 2023, we are in a time of “bonkers” horror, one that started with 2021's Malignant and continued with 2022's Barbarian, Terrifier 2, and kicked off 2023 with M3GAN. Still, none of those films may hold a candle to the upcoming Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Yes, that's right, your favorite snuggly teddy bear, your cherished childhood memory, is turning into a bloodthirsty killer.
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey asks the question of what happens when Christopher Robin outgrows his imaginary stuffed friends. And unlike Disney's Christopher Robin film starring Ewan McGregor, Blood and Honey shows the answer to be rather violent. We spoke with Frake-Waterfield about his soon-to-be classic/abomination (depending on how attached you are to Winnie the Pooh and his friends). He told us what this movie is about, who this movie is for, and some of the trouble he has faced with "destroying" people's perception of their favorite childhood memory.
GameSpot: First of all, what is Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey about?
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
The general theme of the film is about abandonment. It's centered on Christopher Robin having this relationship and this friendship with Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and the other creatures when he was younger. As he grew up, he was nurturing them. He was almost treating them like a pet.
When he was 15 or 16, he needed to move away to go to college. And then, when he went to college, it resulted in his friends having a loss of food. They needed to fend for themselves more. Then, winter came and they had to go back to their animalistic instincts in order to survive. The consequence of that, when food was getting low, was they had to eat their friend, Eeyore. Yeah, so Eeyore gets eaten. Their mind warps because they were so used to being household pets, that going into the wild, it would dramatically change their mentality. And that's what's happened with Pooh and friends.
They now have this warped hatred, particularly for all of humanity, and for Christopher Robin. They're feral and they're out for blood. And they've eaten people.
Christopher Robin comes back, which is where we fast forward to in the movie. He spots them and they go into this rage after seeing him. And during this, their rampage affects a group of girls who are going on a rural retreat. It's a bit of a cabin-in-the-woods kind of vibe where they've gone there to escape reality, the busy life of the city, and just have a nice chilled weekend. But then, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet are on a rampage near them, and they get caught up in the onslaught which follows. And you get people having their heads smacked with sledgehammers. They get their heads run over with cars. Some people get chloroformed, knives stabbing them in the throat… loads of stuff.
Wow. Knowing that Winnie the Pooh was coming up on becoming public domain, did you start on the film before that? Or did you not start working on this until after it was already in the public domain, and then you were rushing to get it up?
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
It was afterwards. We can produce and get projects moving really fast. And when it got to about February, I think it was, we realized that the concept was available, it was in the public domain, so we could make a movie out of this if we wanted to. And instantly, my eyes sparkled at the thought of it.
You've got a lot of typical horror villains, where you've got werewolves, vampires, zombies, blah, blah, blah... And I thought, there's something super unique and super interesting with this, where you are twisting a character which was always deemed as being lovable and small and cute into this monstrosity. And, at least afterwards, everyone has started to see the same sort of thing I was imagining right at the start--that it's just really strange imagery.
It's really silly and fun. And also it piques a lot of people's interests. Because you're like, "How has he become a monster?” Because it's hard to initially imagine. So yeah, the idea came to us about February. Immediately we were like, "Hey, let's start going with it." And I started looking up costumes, how he could look, how the story could go, locations. I was saying, "Where can I get this based?" And I started just going full steam ahead with it, putting all the pieces together, started writing the script, and then directed it about a month and a half after the initial idea of the inception. So, it was quite fast we moved.
And then, once it was filmed, about two months after, it just started going absolutely viral. And some of the stills got shared, particularly one where you've got this girl enjoying her time in the jacuzzi. She's having a lovely time. And then behind her, you see Pooh and Piglet creeping up on her from the darkness. And yeah, it's just so strange. It's so weird to see a massive Winnie the Pooh with a huge stomach, his little ears, with chloroform in his hands.
Is this going to traumatize people who grew up with Winnie the Pooh? Because my husband is a huge Winnie the Pooh fan. And when I told him about this, he's like, "Yeah, I'm not seeing that movie. I don't care what you have to do. I'm not seeing that movie."
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
There's two camps of people with this film. You've got 50% who love it. They're like, "This is the best thing. It's such a unique idea. The concept's amazing." They're super, super excited for it. But then, you've got another 50% of people who I am the devil to. They think I'm pure evil--I'm destroying [the] lives of children, and yeah, I should be put in jail. We've literally had petitions getting made in the UK to stop it. We've had death threats. We've had someone saying they're going to call the police on us. It's been mad how controversial this is. And that's still coming out now as the film's releasing. You've got 50% [on] one side, 50% [on] the other side.
Well, that's the response we want with people. There's two versions of Winnie the Pooh. There's the Disney version, which is the cute, lovable one. That's the one kids should watch. And if people want to have that cemented as their view of Winnie the Pooh, then they can stick to that. They don't need to watch the film, our version.
Our version, it's completely optional. This is targeted towards a more horror audience. And for people who don't want to take it too seriously. It's a bit satire-y. And it's a bit fun and silly. But watching it is completely your choice.
You said that it's satire. So, it's okay if we laugh at it?
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
Yeah. That's exactly what I want.
I was trying to put my mind [into] how a buyer would be thinking. When you're in a cinema and you put money out, and you're picking up a ticket for Winnie the Pooh as a horror movie, what are you thinking? What do you want to see? And my mind was thinking, if I paid for this, I'd want it to be fun and I'd want it to be silly. I wouldn't want it to be just a deadly serious film. I'd want to be able to sit there and just laugh. And it's very dry humor. I told all the actors and actresses not to play into it. I didn't want them to find it funny that they were running away from Winnie the Pooh, and for it to come across as a B-movie. I wanted them to actually believe it's really, really scary.
And the humor and the silliness comes in from the fact it's Winnie the Pooh doing something. Like he's holding a knife [and] running after someone. That's what makes it look a bit goofy and a bit fun. So yeah, I want people to laugh in the cinema. You're supposed to go there to have a good time--be entertained, laugh, have fun. Not every horror film needs to have a deep metaphorical undertone and be really grounded and elevated horror. There can be these silly fun experiences, too.
I noticed on your credits list you have Peter Pan and Bambi horror films coming up. Is this a new niche that you found for yourself?
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
Yeah, I'm cementing in a bit of a world here, where I really want to do loads of retellings. Because I've always had this view that I'm just getting quite bored with some of the typical villains out there--the ghosts and the werewolves and the vampires. I like watching them, but I know what I'm about to watch, basically. And it's hard for them to be innovative or different. They become very formulaic. But these retellings and these new characters, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what lore is going to be built up around them. You don't know what their differing characteristics are. And it doesn't have to just be limited to Winnie. There are many other characters out there. And they're not just the Disney ones. Bambi, I think, is amazing for it. Because everyone's like, "Bambi's going to be a monster?" And it has that same effect of, "What the hell?" And their interest piques. And yeah, Peter Pan's another one.
But there are so many other ideas out there. There's so [much folklore]. The Tooth Fairy could be really interesting, for example, because that's so synonymous with childhood, but it's creepy. It's about someone creeping into a kid's bedroom and taking something under their pillow. It's got this darker tone to it. So, there are stories and ideas like that, which I can integrate into this. And I want to make a bit of a universe surrounding retellings, where we've taken all these nostalgic characters and legends, which we've all heard of, so they have that marketability, and then twisting them and altering them into a horror landscape.
So, it's going to be the horror fairytale universe.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
Yeah, exactly. Like Marvel's [Cinematic] Universe. But my low-resource one, at the moment. But we're starting to get more money and more budget behind some of these now. Because people are seeing the potential in it. I'm hoping I'll be able to make some really, really cool ones in the future.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey is in theaters on February 15th.