Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey hits cinemas today and is the latest horror film that is spreading across social media like wildfire after the successful poster release in May 2022.
When the trailer dropped in September 2022, the TikToks and Twitter posts ramped up, with the anticipation of release day causing quite the stir amongst adults and children alike.
Disney decided to expire copyright of Winne the Pooh and his friends in January 2022, and as such, this popular children’s franchise has now been twisted into what can only be described as a very poor evolution of something beautiful into something sinister, and one that is very likely to capture the attention of children.
What’s it about? The film serves as a horror retelling of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh books and follows Pooh and Piglet, who, after being abandoned by Christopher Robin as he headed off to College, have now become feral and bloodthirsty killers, after suffering a cold winter in Hundred Acre Wood.
After fending for themselves for so long, Pooh and Piglet embark on a murderous rampage, terrorising a group of young university women and as well as their old friend Christopher Robin.
What you need to be aware of The movie features several bloody, violent themes that are not suitable for children and as such, has been given the Australian Classification of R18+ meaning:
‘The content is high in impact. R 18+ material is restricted to adults as it contains content that is considered high in impact for viewers. This includes content that may be offensive to sections of the adult community. Only a person who is over the age of 18 years is allowed to enter the cinema.’
This rating however isn’t deterring young people, with social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram providing them with not just the trailer, but with snippets of themes from within the movie including these seemingly popular kill scenes:
A simple Google search of Winnie the Pooh features write-ups about the film as well as videos from the movie, making it incredibly accessible to any child with internet access. And as most social media platforms work on an algorithm, popular content is featured within their feeds so it is very likely that it will be presented to your child for viewing if they are on popular platforms.
Use your judgement All children are different in terms of resilience and tolerability so here’s a few things to consider before allowing young people to view the movie or the related content:
Research the movie and the content themes yourself
Preview, ponder and then parent. After you have watched it, use your best judgement as to whether you think it is suitable for your child
Don’t fall victim to the ‘but all of my friends are watching it’ because it’s simply not true
Consider the social media platforms your kids have access to – TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat will be especially high risk factors when it comes to snippets being seen
You know your child best, assess their fear factor but also their ability to bounce back.
If you decide to let your kids watch Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey, ensure they know not to replicate anything within the movie like many kids did during the wave of Squid Games. This was a challenge for many Schools across Australia and the world with children becoming aggressive, being violent towards others and causing lots of trouble for themselves and others. It’s also important that they know that they shouldn’t share the content they might see with others.
Sometimes young people might be scared to tell an adult if they see something inappropriate online as they fear that their devices may be taken off them or their access may be revoked. It’s really important that you continuously have open conversations with your children and/or students about how to let you know if they feel uncomfortable by something they have seen or read online and that they know you are always there to support them.
And if they do accidentally view Winnie the Pooh content, sit them down and have a chat about what they saw and how it made them feel. It’s really important to stress that it’s not real life.
And brace yourself, director Rhys Frake-Waterfield already has plans for a Pooh sequel and the decimation of Peter Pan, envisioning an entire universe of ‘crazy concepts’.