Winnie the Pooh is getting a murderous makeover. In the first trailer for the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Winnie and Piglet have become bloodthirsty killers in the woods for an upcoming horror rendition of the beloved children’s storybooks.
The synopsis is just about as outlandish as its trailer: after Christopher Robin leaves Winnie and Piglet to go to college, the pair of woodland critters descend into madness and begin killing those who have the misfortune of turning into their neck of the woods. In the trailer, Winnie and Piglet appear essentially as human figures donning cheap plastic Winnie and Piglet masks as they go on a slasher rampage.
Directed by Rhys Waterfield, whose filmography, including titles like Spiders on a Plane and Firenado, appears to hew mostly to campy Sharnado-esque thrillers, the film was quick to hop on A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories after they entered the public domain at the start of this year. Disney’s version of Winnie, though, in his trademark red shirt, is still under copyright protection, which would explain Winnie’s lumberjack outfit and human-shaped figure in the trailer.
In its absurdist horror twist, the film brings to mind such recent outlandish cinematic spins like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, though this may top the cake in turning our cherished pooh bear into a deranged serial killer.
“When you try and do a film like this, and it’s a really wacky concept, it’s very easy to go down a route where nothing is scary and it’s just really ridiculous and really, like, stupid,” Waterfield told Variety. “And we wanted to go between the two.”
If the trailer is any indication, that appears to be wishful thinking. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is set to release later this year.
