Winnie the Pooh is about to mess with your childhood memories. The beloved bear embarks on a killing spree in new horror movie Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, and all because the character recently entered public domain.
Created by author A.A. Milne in the early 1920s, Winnie is traditionally a kindly bear who lives in a forest with his furry friends, and really loves honey.
In 1961 Walt Disney Productions licensed the character, and made a series of animated movies aimed squarely at children.
But on January 1 of this year, the character entered public domain, meaning anyone can adapt the material. There are caveats however. Your Pooh can’t look like the Disney version, while because Tigger didn’t appear until 1928, he’s still covered by copyright. But aside from that, all bets are off, meaning you can now make Pooh for adults.
Winnie the Pooh now merciless killer
Which is how we’ve got a Winnie the Pooh slasher, courtesy of Jagged Edge productions. Details are currently thin on the ground, with the synopsis simply calling it “a horror retelling of the famous legend.”
- Read More: Winnie the Pooh enters public domain.
But Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey just released a collection of stills. They suggest the film takes place mostly at night, and may well revolve around a home invasion where the target is teenagers. The pictures also feature a killer Piglet.
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What isn’t clear is whether we’re looking at actual Pooh and Piglet dealing death, or whether the killers are humans in Pooh and Piglet masks.
Ryan Reynolds’ Winnie the Pooh
Rhys Frake-Waterfield both writes and directs, but he isn’t the first filmmaker to have fun with Winnie the Pooh since that copyright lifted, as Ryan Reynolds got there first.
On January 2, Reynolds appeared in an advert for a phone company entitled Winnie the Screwed. Reynolds narrates the tale of Edward Bear receiving a huge wireless bill, then discovering he can save money by switching networks.
The ad ends with Reynolds worrying that his interpretation of copyright law might be wrong, as a “Cease and Desist” message appears onscreen. But the makers of this new horror clearly don’t share Ryan’s fear as they’ve apparently completed principal photography, with Dread Central reporting that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey will be released later this year.