The director turning classic children’s characters like the Winnie-the-Pooh into horror movies

A hundred acres of wood is a magical place. While watching Piglet “Heffalumps ,, this is where Winnie-Thhe-Poh likes honey, and Tigger jumped on his spring tail.

But what has been a cheerful childhood memory for a long time has recently become a nightmare.

British director Rhys Frake-Waterfield in 2023 Winnie-Thhe-Pooh: Blood and HoneyAA Milne Children’s Classic’s Slasher adaptation. Inside, cute and cute Pooh does not eat honey – instead of drinking the blood of his victims. Piglet is not a tense, loyal friend, but a maniac that uses sledgehammer. Oh, and the gloomy but cute donkey Eeyore was defeated by a hundred -acre wooden Chums. Oh, uncomfortable.

Not just pooo and friends who go to the darkness. Peter Pan became a injured child tractor. Peter Pan’s Neverland nightmareMickey Mouse Birthday Party turned into a serial killer Mickey’s mouse trapAnd in late July, Bambi appeared as a mutated, monster. Bambi: Calculation.

These films are part of a phenomenon that emerges in horror cinema, where beloved children’s characters who fall from the copyright turn into terrible, bent killers.

“I think it is normal to enjoy watching Winnie-Thhe-Poh to cut off and smashing his heads, F Frake-Waterfield says. “Too much fear feels quite repetitive, so we wanted to do something that takes people: ‘F — Is that?’, ‘Someone did this?’, ‘What’s the director?’ ‘

Despite their visible deviations, low -budget films attract good crowds. Blood and honey Less than $ 155,000 to make 8 million dollars worldwide. Although the continuation is not as successful as the first, it is still Globally 1.57 million dollars against a microt. To put this on the perspective, a great action version like Mission: impossible – Last CalculationProduction was able to make a cost of over $ 600 million, with approximately $ 920 million worldwide. Meanwhile, Blood and honey He won his budget about 52 times.

But not everyone is on board. Movies Usually critical – Blood and honey In 2024, five Razzi squeezed (Parodi for terrible films) even sweeping – and social media, they disgust.

So, what’s wrong with some people about these films, and how did they manage to gain acceleration despite the reaction?

Why now?

Loading

In January 2022, AA Milne’s original Winnie-Thhe-Poh stories entered the public property. This meant that the characters depicted in the classic of children were ready to suddenly grab, and released the way of re-reviving POH as a revengeful killer of Frake-Waterfield.

AA Milne’s characters, Felix Saltten’s copyright in 2022, 1923, the oldest version of Bambi, and the original version of Mickey Mouse, known as Steamboat Willie, who entered the public sphere two years later.

In particular, the repetitions of these characters are still under copyright. For this reason Mickey’s mouse trap The killer does not contain a surprise cameo from Donald Duck – this character was a Disney attachment to Mickey’s Clubhouse. Why Pooh didn’t wear a red crop? Blood and honey – Pooh could not get Disney red shirt until 1932.

Frake-Waterfield always says he’s interested in getting any IP that he can “escape from using”. “If I sue, I won’t do this. My limit for now. This is just a little further at some point to see where the boundaries are actually.”

Artistic brightness?

Considering the profit margins alone, these films would be undisputed, especially considering how little needed to create them (Frake-Waterfield usually says they spend about £ 300,000 on production).

Isaacs says that their relative financial achievements should not be very surprising. As a result, fear is a destructive species. “Art should sometimes make us feel really disturbing, or he says.

“In a horror film, there is a joy who says that he is willing to push the envelope to such a degree, that he will take your most valuable figure and turn it into a dark, perverted object. There is something interesting and challenging artically.”

It is also politically interesting. For example, traditional Disney stories tend to discover that children can serve conservative liberal narratives and some of them can think of problematic views on gender and strength – the “good king” takes the “bad king .. King of Lion. However, turn these Slasher adaptations into their heads.

Isaacs says, “Why can’t one take the image called innocence and restructure this dark figure?

The adapted child’s stories are not like the essence of joy. Dr. Gregory Dolgopolov, the Magnificent Outback Film Festival and Film Researcher at the Vision in the ENW, says that most of these tales were moral analogies that initially interfere with violence and horror to deal with real concerns.

“Confronting the darkness in stories can serve an important psychological purpose even for children in appropriate forms. Helping the audience’s fear“He says.” Everyone knows Pooh and loves it, so it’s easy to transform the material a darker fashion and exploit it as part of the audience’s taste and break the taboos. “

Or disgust?

Since it was released Blood and honeyFrake-Waterfield says regularly gets online hate. He read the last message as follows: “Psychopath, which drugs are you on?”

“Hate and reaction are really cruel. We take daily abuse, from oral attacks and death threats to personal insults. Scott [Jeffrey]My common producer, now he has a follower, Frake says Frake-Waterfield. “ Fortunately, I have a very thick skin, so it doesn’t really affect me. “

This reaction is largely caused by some people’s emotional ties with resource material, says Dolgopolov and wider concerns about the protection of valuable cultural works.

“These films challenge the nostalgic love of the audience for the safe symbols of our childhood. For some, no matter how creative or legally allowed, the result feels wrong to pass this line.”

Dolgopolov believes that these films are made for shock value and commercial exploitation rather than only meaningful artistic interpretation.

Will these cute killers live?

Frake-Waterfield has great plans for this sub-genre. In 2024, Jagged Edge Productions (distributing most of these films), POOH and all his bad friends on the screen, a Marvel Esque Crossover announced the “Twisted Childhood Universe”.

Although the audience will probably remain a niche, Isaacs says that the fandom should not be lost, especially because newly adapted characters and Crossover films. Recently, it has been pointing to a general explosion in fear, which is the franchises Smile unexpected Great global success.

Loading

However, these adaptation films do not need to rely on the box office, because most of their achievements are obtained from the buzz on social media and online forums.

Isaacs is important to remember that creators have adapted works of art for centuries. So, why the police of this special adaptation form?

“The nature of destructive art is to go to the place where other traditional forms of art will not go… [are] This is what makes art exciting, coded, re -coded and constantly reinterpreted. I think as an artistic culture, I am worried that we are asked to limit more police and that is usually unhealthy. We must ensure that people experience strangeness alongside traditional, traditional, respectful things. “

Loading

Dolgopolov agrees that the Australian creators will not be surprised if he finally jumps into Bandwagon.

“I expect someone to cook a bench wellington about Mr. Squiggle, Skippy, Snugglepot and Cudldlepie and enter a bloody ramp and challenge a last girl while challenging Ivan Milat and challenging Gumnut Dolls,” he says.

Although he does not see any problems with his dreams again Blood and honeyHe says it’s best to reinterpret the original material as meaningful as possible.

“I hope they like the material and not only use it as a suitable template. Perhaps they can reveal the aspects that can be hidden at the open view, such as Eeyore’s philosophical interventions from the original.”

Learn movies to add the next TV to add the next TV, flow series and your movies. To obtain Monitoring list It was delivered every Thursday.