Director Explains the Signature Dark Humor in Blood and Honey

Rhys Waterfield, the director of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, explains the dark and strange humor in his film. 

The film portrays the popular anthropomorphic yellow bear from our childhood, Pooh in a completely different light where he goes on a murderous rampage along with his friend Piglet. The premise is that after Christopher Robin leaves Hundred Acre Woods for college, his beloved animal friends are left to fend for themselves which turns them into violent serial killers. 

Waterfield portrays Pooh as a scary bear in the film, in complete contrast to his previous loving, caring, and honey-loving persona. However, it still manages to keep a certain sort of absurd humor intact despite stressing on the serious nature of the film, which, according to the director, has been done quite deliberately. 

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director explains that he always instructed the actors to treat the premise and the plot quite seriously and not with humor. Check out what he has to say here –

“We did try and take it all very seriously. That was one of the directions I gave the actors. I was like, ‘I don’t want you to kind of treat this like it’s going to be humorous, I want you to act like it’s deadly serious. The humor is going to come in from the fact that it’s Winnie-the-Pooh, you don’t have to play into it. [But] everyone, crew and cast, were in hysterics a lot of the time about what was happening. When you’re trying to direct a scary scene, and then you look to your right, and there is literally a six-foot-man in a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit listening to you, we would just start laughing at that point.”

As of now, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has only been released in Mexico. However, it has already managed to recover its budget along with a profit by collecting around $1 million. The film has a budget of less than $100,000, so it will clearly earn a bigger profit when it hits theaters in other countries on February 15, 2023. 

With the current trend at the box office of low-budget horror movies doing well, it seems like viewers have quite liked the idea of a murderous Winnie the Pooh. As mentioned by Waterfield, the concept of a serial killer Pooh is absurd and will always draw attention. 

The director plans to create a universe out of these characters from popular children’s media and literature by giving them an evil twist. This is clear from the trailer and teaser itself – where Pooh, on a murderous rampage, is quite scary and not funny. 

As Waterfield explains, the humor does not need to be fed to the audience separately. It comes from the fact that it is Winnie the Pooh who’s now after blood instead of honey. This dark humor makes the film different from other horror films. 

When first announced, many thought that the film would struggle to find its audience, but the film has proven such assumptions wrong by achieving success with such limited exposure. The film will surely make more money when it hits theaters in other countries. 

About Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey

Rhys Frake-Waterfield, a first-time filmmaker, wrote and directed Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. The plot is currently unknown, but according to the IMDB description, the film will feature monstrous versions of Pooh and Piglet who are abandoned by Christopher Robin and then go on a murder rampage. Amber Doig-Thorne, Maria Taylor, and Danielle Scott feature in Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey.