Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 review – "Once again takes a knife to our childhood memories"

Jun. 7, 2024



Once again taking a knife to our childhood memories, this is a pestilent and pointless follow-up.

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A short time after the ‘Hundred Acre Massacre’, Christopher Robin (Scott Chambers) is trying to put his life back together, despite the townsfolk of Ashdown believing he was responsible for the murder spree carried out by Pooh (Ryan Oliva), and his fellow woodland savages, Piglet (Eddy MacKenzie), Tigger (Lewis Santer) and Owl (Marcus Massey).

Christopher seeks help from a therapist to overcome his trauma, but the killing soon starts again, kicking off with three students mangled in the forest. Despite a nonsense backstory invented for the vile anthropomorphic antagonists, returning director Rhys Frake-Waterfield swiftly dispenses with anything resembling a plot, as Pooh and co. relentlessly scythe their way through the local residents. In one sequence, when Pooh invades a neon-lit rave, he bakes someone in an oven, drills into another’s eyes and saws a person’s head off - all inside a minute’s screen time.

To be fair, Blood and Honey 2 is actually a notch above its predecessor, if only because the production values are (relatively) higher. But despite a watchable turn from Chambers, this is largely Neanderthal filmmaking, even with hospital janitor Simon Callow offering up a Scottish accent and a lot of pointless exposition.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is in UK cinemas and US theaters now.

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James Mottram is a freelance film journalist, author of books that dive deep into films like Die Hard and Tenet, and a regular guest on the Total Film podcast. You’ll find his writings on GamesRadar+ and Total Film, and in newspapers and magazines from across the world like The Times, The Independent, The i, Metro, The National, Marie Claire, and MindFood.

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