The Ending Of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey Explained
With A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard's first "Winnie the Pooh" books becoming public domain back in 2022, it took nearly no time at all for someone to turn the beloved children's book characters into blood-soaked slashers. Rhys Frake-Waterfield, in his directorial debut, helms "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey," a horror retelling that reimagines Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and his old pal Piglet (Chris Cordell) as savage killers. Pooh and Piglet are filled with feelings of revenge after Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) leaves for college, causing them to turn rabid. Now, they look to not only enact brutal punishment on Christopher Robin but also terrorize a group of college girls staying at a cabin just outside the 100 Acre Wood.
"Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" is a pretty standard slasher with the added novelty of seeing beloved and generally innocent characters like Pooh and Piglet become bloodthirsty monsters. It's got outrageously gory and nasty kills, gross imagery, and effects that reflect the low-budget feel of the film. Its depiction of these classic characters will certainly make viewers' stomachs turn in disgust and lives up to its "Blood and Honey" name in more ways than one.
As such, let's delve into how "Blood and Honey" puts a horror spin on Winnie-the-Pooh through its original story and even how Frake-Waterfield has talked about expanding "Blood and Honey's" world into a unique kind of cinematic universe. Here is the ending of "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" explained.
Horrifying half-breeds
So how did such sweet and friendly characters like Pooh and Piglet become evil? Well, the film's animated opening dishes out some details about what made Pooh and Piglet become so cruel. First and foremost, it is explained that Pooh and Piglet are "half-breeds," meaning they are half-human and half-animal. This explains their more humanoid bodies and probably why they live in a forest away from the rest of society. While Christopher Robin showed them compassion and even brought them food as a child, his departure to college leaves them in a tough place.
The harshness of winter and starvation forces them to kill and eat Eeyore, which has a traumatizing effect on them. They ultimately abandon their sense of humanity and even stop talking altogether. It's still unclear what happened to Rabbit and Owl, since they're mentioned as well, but Pooh and Piglet are shown to be ravenous animals — as evidenced by how they pick apart their prey — and it's incredibly disturbing. The opening provides viewers with a horrifying origin story full of betrayal and grotesque horror that sets the tone for everything that follows.
Holding Christopher Robin hostage
Although Christopher Robin left Pooh and his friends years ago to attend college, he decides to return with his fiancée Mary (Paula Coiz) as an adult to reunite with his best friends. However, things aren't the same anymore. The 100 Acre Wood has become a dark and desolate place, and he can even see Eeyore's grave, which should be a bad indicator on its own. Eventually, he comes face to face with the friends he left behind and they set their terrifying revenge plan in motion.
After Piglet chokes Mary to death with a chain, Pooh and Piglet have Christopher Robin in their clutches and are definitely not going to let him off easy. While his fate in the film's opening moments seems grim, he's actually kept alive. However, based on what Pooh and Piglet do to him, Christopher Robin probably would just prefer death. Pooh's torturing methods for Christopher Robin are legitimately tough to watch and make for one of the film's most gut-wrenching sequences.
Overcoming fears
Once Christopher Robin is captured by Pooh and Piglet, the film introduces us to a young woman named Maria (Maria Taylor) as she and her friends go to a secluded cabin just outside of the 100 Acre Wood. While it might seem kind of random for this group of girls to head to a remote cabin for the weekend, there's actually a therapeutic reason behind it all — the trip is a mental health retreat, as the girls are rallying around Maria as she recovers from a traumatic stalking incident.
It is explained that while Maria was sleeping one night, she noticed someone watching her from outside her window and even locked eyes with the stalker. The stalker eventually made his way into her house, and Maria could feel him undressing her. It's a chilling story that would make anyone fearful of heading to sleep.
The girls have joined Maria on this recovery retreat in the hopes that it will help her overcome her fears and move past that horrifying incident. Unfortunately, their arrival only leads to more horrors.
Saving survivors
After some of their friends have been butchered by Pooh and Piglet, Maria and Jess (Natasha Rose Mills) follow them back into the 100 Acre Woods, where they come across their vile little village. The two save their friend Alice (Amber Doig-Thorne) and then come across other survivors who have been tormented by Pooh and Piglet. The first is Christopher Robin, who is still strung up in the middle of their slaughterhouse. He's in no condition to move because of how badly he's been beaten, so the girls just untie him and leave for now.
The other survivor they come across is Charlene (Danielle Scott), a woman restrained in a ritual setting who has clearly been brought to the edge of her sanity. Half of Charlene's face is completely swollen and she can barely stand when Maria and her friends first come across her. Further, she now holds a bitter grudge against Piglet for murdering her husband, and it makes her just as vicious as they are.
Although we see exactly what Pooh and Piglet do to those they kill — and it's not pretty — it's just as horrifying to see what happens to the ones they leave alive.
Pooh and Piglet's slaughterhouse
As mentioned before, Pooh and Piglet don't senselessly slaughter all of their victims. Christopher Robin is one, in particular, that they're fond of keeping alive for quite some time. Eventually, we see that Christopher Robin is being kept in their makeshift slaughterhouse, where they keep the bodies of those they have killed and continue to torture their least favorite people. Christopher Robin is surrounded by the skinned corpses of Pooh and Piglet's past victims, including his beloved fiancée Mary. It's a gory nightmare in which no one wants to find themselves.
Pooh's honey gorging only makes things grosser, as it drips disgustingly off his face, and watching him throw a raging fit shows how scary he truly is. It gets even worse when Pooh grabs Eeyore's tail and begins to viciously whip Christopher Robin. The visible welts on Christopher's back instantly make you cringe, and it's a mortifying moment that no viewer will ever forget.
Pooh and Piglet's slaughterhouse is a perfect showing of how feral these versions of the beloved characters have become, and seeing the torn-apart corpses is a legitimately skin-crawling moment for audiences.
Charlene's revenge
By the time Maria and her friends find Charlene, she's about as broken and beaten as anyone could be in this situation. She freaks out at the first sight of her battered face, and it breaks her enough to want her own brand of revenge. After all, Piglet did kill her husband and they've tortured her to the point where his mind is at its breaking point. She grabs Maria's gun and starts screaming for Piglet to show his ugly face so that she can kill him. Piglet shows up not too long afterward, but Charlene's plan doesn't go as she might have hoped.
While she's able to get Piglet in her sights, she's unable to fire the gun and Pooh comes up behind her to knock her to the ground. Once she's on the ground, Charlene suffers a horrifying fate that feels legitimately wrong to see play out. Pooh drips some of his gross honey on her before Piglet approaches and chows down on her face. Charlene essentially becomes pig food and — given what she's already been through — it's a cruel end full of suffering.
Slaughtered pig
After gnawing on Charlene, Piglet is ready to follow Pooh and cause more havoc but runs into someone else on a revenge mission. Alice was absolutely gutted when she saw Piglet smash her girlfriend Zoe's (Danielle Ronald) face with a sledgehammer. Now with Piglet all to herself, she can't miss this opportunity to avenge Zoe. Without hesitation, Alice pulls a surprise attack on Piglet and strings him up in a vulnerable position with his own chains so that she can fully act on her revenge scheme.
With nowhere to go, Piglet is forced to face Alice's wrath. After announcing who she's avenging before each swing, Alice bashes Piglet's head until he drops dead. It's a nasty turn of events in the film that sees the hunter become the hunted. While it's still rough to see Piglet go out like this, it feels pretty deserved considering everything he's done.
However, Pooh avenges him not long after that, as he sticks a machete right through Alice's mouth — killing her instantly. Alice might've gotten her revenge, but it comes at the cost of her own life.
Breaking down Pooh's bloody fight
As Maria and Jess try to escape Pooh, who is reeling — and even more bloodthirsty — after seeing Piglet be killed, they come across four local men who attempt to go toe-to-toe with Pooh. Although they come off as creepy at first, these men are ready to defend the ladies. Once the men see Pooh, they gear up with different weapons to take him on. At first, it seems like they might actually stand a chance since they beat him up without much of an issue and even cause Pooh to bleed out a bit. However, Pooh quickly turns the tables on them.
A pretty wild scene follows after Pooh knocks over one of the men and proceeds to slaughter them all in distinct ways that show Pooh's brutal strength. By this point, the film has shown itself to have no problems delivering gory kills, and Pooh holds nothing back here. We're talking nasty head stomps, deep throat slits, and punches so hard that blood explodes on impact. Pooh even sends an army of bees after one man who tries to escape, and it's a perfect mix of silly and epic.
This scene has the same jaw-dropping energy as Michael Myers' bloody killstreak at the end of "Halloween Kills," and it shows that Pooh is truly on the warpath now.
One wild ride
After all four of the locals have been horrifically dealt with by Pooh, Maria and Jess use the car the men drove up in for a quick escape that doesn't quite pan out. As they speed off into the woods, Pooh somehow climbs on top of the car and it seems like nothing will cause him to let go. Maria tries to swerve and speed up, but Pooh is just inching closer to the driver's seat. Maria ultimately decides to slam on the brakes to try and get Pooh to fly off. While it works in the moment, it ultimately causes more harm to her and Jess than it does to Pooh.
Unfortunately, the sudden stop causes Maria to hit her head on the steering wheel, which makes blood pour out of her forehead. As a result, no one is going to be able to drive away. An uninjured Pooh slowly makes his way back to the car and drags Jess out of it. With Maria totally dazed by the accident, there's no one to stop Pooh, which leads to him decapitating Jess. Given how innocent Jess felt as a character, it's definitely a rough end for her, and the way that Pooh crudely tosses her head back at the car shows that he's not playing around anymore.
Saved at the last second
After Pooh kills Jess, it feels like Maria's fate is pretty much sealed. Her injury is too severe for her to quickly get away and the car won't start, which leaves her in a vulnerable position. Beyond that, Pooh has shown such a dominant physical strength throughout the film that taking him head-on will certainly lead to a swift death. As such, when Pooh eventually drags Maria out of the car, the only thing that the audience can reasonably expect is that she's about to become another bloody victim of the bloodthirsty bear.
However, Maria is unexpectedly saved at the last second by Christopher Robin when he suddenly shows up in another car. It's a total surprise since he wasn't in the best shape in the last scene he was in. However, it seems like he's mustered enough strength to find and drive a car, which he rams right into Pooh, pinning him between the two vehicles.
Even though Pooh looks like he is in total control, Christopher Robin quickly turns things around — possibly saving both himself and Maria. Sadly, their sense of safety doesn't last for long.
Pooh speaks
Pooh might seem good and dead when Christopher Robin pins him between the two cars, but like any good slasher villain, he springs back to life just before Christopher Robin and Maria can escape. Pooh looks pretty terrifying as he separates himself from the cars without any issues and stalks his way toward Maria while the vehicles explode behind him. It's actually kind of epic, although it quickly becomes horrifying as Pooh grabs a blade and puts it to Maria's throat.
In a last-ditch effort to save Maria, Christopher Robin attempts to plead with Pooh. He says that he's sorry and that Pooh should take him instead since he's the one Pooh is really mad at. At first, it seems like his pleas could save Maria, but Pooh does something that changes everything.
In a harrowing moment, Pooh breaks his vow of silence to say, "you left," before slashing Maria's throat, highlighting why he is denying Christopher Robin's pleas. It's a shocking moment and the film ends on a very disturbing note as Pooh repeatedly slashes Maria after she dies while Christopher Robin screams in agony and fear.
A sequel and something more
While the film doesn't tease any kind of sequel possibly happening in the future, Frake-Waterfield has discussed not only doing a sequel to "Blood and Honey," but doing more horror retellings like it with other properties. It is confirmed that a sequel is in development with Frake-Waterfield returning as director. As said by Frake-Waterfield in an interview with Dread Central, he hopes that with a sequel he and his team can "ramp it up even more and go even crazier and go even more extreme." Even wilder is that Winnie-the-Pooh isn't the only one getting a horror retelling.
Thanks to other classic children's characters also becoming public domain, the makers of "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" are also developing horror-inspired versions of "Peter Pan," currently titled "Peter Pan: Neverland Nightmare." In addition, Frake-Waterfield also has his sights set on a "Bambi" film as well, which is rumored to be titled "Bambi: The Reckoning."
It certainly seems like a new trend is forming — perhaps we're on the verge of a shared universe that will see these horrifying monstrosities collide and eventually even crossover?