WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD & HONEY 2 (2024) Is Bloody Sweet...Mostly (REVIEW)
Nostalgia is a helluva drug, and it's a drug that the masses can’t seem to get enough of. While there are varying degrees of positives/negatives about nostalgia and how it affects us, it is undeniable that we have at some point felt a yearning for something from a previous time in our lives. Whether it is being nostalgic for the freedom that childhood afforded you before the responsibilities of adulthood or the feeling that “horror movies were better in the 80s” nostalgia impacts how we see the the present, even if it hides the truth of the past in rose-colored glasses. Nostalgia is a tool that the entertainment industry is keenly familiar with and uses with reckless abandon to lazily engage viewers by latching onto past ideas and trying to rekindle now-extinct flames that fueled the zeitgeist. Sometimes nostalgia is good for taking something familiar and turning it on its head, which is likely the best way to describe Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2, the recently released sequel from Rhys Frake-Waterfield that continues the story of the murderous bear from the 100-acre wood. Is this sequel more nostalgia-grifting, or does it take old ideas and recycle them into something desirable?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Not wanting to live in the shadows any longer, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger take their fight to the town of Ashdown, leaving a bloody trail of death and mayhem in their wake.
HOW IS IT?
There is something uniquely perverse about the idea of taking beloved children’s characters and turning them into murderous maniacs. Perhaps it is the same experience when you see your favorite comedic actor playing their first non-comedic role, or a typecast actor breaking out into something completely different, but there is a fascination with seeing just how twisted our memories of a thing can be before it is no longer recognizable. “Blood & Honey 2” is about as far away from the original characters as you can, and having no familiarity with the first film it is clear that these characters may share a namesake they certainly don’t share the same values. “Blood & Honey 2” is at its best when it leans into the absurdity of this premise and indulges in over-the-top violence, but it struggles to maintain that tone throughout often due to getting in its own way and trying to complicate what should be a rather simple story.
The premise of “Blood & Honey 2” is revenge. Pooh and Piglet, now joined by Owl and Tigger are scorned after their deadly rampage in the previous film (so is told to us by voice-over) and are taking their rage to the town. This time, Christopher Robin is trying to recover from the trauma of the last film only to be met with intense scrutiny and disbelief by the townspeople, that is until the animals start showing up and killing everyone. It’s a simple plot that unfortunately becomes overly complicated with attempts to drive motivation for killers while painting a more nuanced picture of Christopher Robin. What “Blood & Honey 2” does best is take characters you know and put them in outlandish situations that beat to a pulp the childhood memories of these characters. The makeup effects for all four look great, and the kills are often far more inventive and interesting than they need to be. This is what exploitation cinema should be, mindless violence perpetrated in absurd ways. Case in point, the addition of Owl. With an aesthetic that combines bird feathers with the mask from Phantom of the Paradise and the line delivery of a LOTR character, he is easily the most interesting thing to watch whenever he is on-screen. In many ways, he resembles nothing of the Owl from the books, but there is something unique to this interpretation that is brought wonderfully to life by Marcus Massey. Pooh is similarly interesting to watch on screen as he goes from upright to all fours chasing down ravers, but his disproportionate body does take some getting used to. Pooh and Owl are also the most violent of the four, and the violence here is mostly great, mostly.
Where “Blood & Honey 2” struggles the most is picking a lane. On the one hand, “Blood & Honey 2” tries to defy criticism by creating a more germane mythology around these characters, but on the other hand, all we just really want is to see these characters kill people in interesting ways. While the former can fare better for world-building, it runs the risk of feeling overly important to the point of parody. Scott Chambers is great in his role as Christopher Robin, but it is almost too much considering the absurdity of the premise. The goal of a film like this shouldn’t be to convince the audience that these characters are real, but rather to lean into the fact that we know they aren’t supposed to be killers and shock us when they do. There are genuine attempts here to create a massive world, like how these woodland creatures came to be, but it gets lost in the rest of the film because it just isn't as interesting as watching these characters kill people. Ultimately, this choice to focus more on narrative comes at the cost of pacing. The movie starts with a bang but loses steam fast around the midway point for about 15-20 minutes before picking up again for the last act. Some of the additions, like Tigger, just don’t work. Taking the overly-excitable tiger and turning him into a meth-head with a middle schooler vocabulary worth of insults isn’t as entertaining as it sounds. Much of this has to do with the shoehorning in of obscenities as Tigger will remark “bitch” as he kills various females. It’s uninspired stuff and probably would’ve worked better if Tigger hadn’t said anything or at least said something less bland. At the end of the day, “Blood & Honey 2” teeters on being a cult classic but misses the most important part, keeping it simple and stupid.
LAST RITES
“Blood & Honey 2” is not going to win over any haters, but for those looking for some mindless violence carried out by some of their favorite childhood characters, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better alternative. “Blood & Honey 2” is best when it recognizes how silly this all is and owns it, but struggles when it attempts to make the silly more serious.
THE GORY DETAILS
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Where can you watch it?
WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD & HONEY 2 recently completed a short theatrical run via Fathom Events and will hit home video in the future.
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