WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2, now playing in theaters
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is a bloodbath of a horror film that still finds some surprisingly emotional beats to explore by the end of the movie. The follow-up to 2003’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, the new film is effectively a soft reboot of the prior movie. Although the events in that film occurred in-universe, the previous film is established as an in-universe movie adaptation of the 100 Acre Woods Massacre. In the aftermath, Christopher Robin has found himself increasingly isolated in the town of Ashton, who don’t believe his stories of monsters in the woods until it’s too late.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2‘s cast doesn’t skimp on the gore and violence, with the monstrous takes on the classic children’s characters racking up a truly staggering kill-count by the time the credits role. Revelations about the origins of Pooh and his compatriots add a surprisingly tragic layer to the splatterfest though, all while explaining how the characters can bounce back from seemingly fatal blows. The ending of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 even finds a way to tease the future of the Twisted Childhood Universe.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 ends with Winnie the Pooh taking an ax to the head, but this isn’t the end of the silly old bear. After slaughtering numerous people across the town of Ashton and in the 100 Acre Woods, Pooh finally comes face to face with Chris once again in the woods. Distracted by the gravesite that he dug himself out of in his youth, Pooh isn’t able to stop Chris from slamming an ax into his head. This seemingly kills Pooh, with Chris and Lexy escaping the woods.
It’s a cathartic moment for Chris and the audience, especially taking into consideration that Chris’ parents were among Pooh’s victims. However, this is not the end of Pooh. The final scene of the film reveals that Owl eventually recovered his body and brought it back to their hideout. Owl comments that despite his fatal injury, Pooh will return. This is reinforced by Dr. Gallup’s notes from earlier in the film, which revealed his creations (including Pooh) have a healing factor. This way, the horror franchise can bring back Pooh even after he dies.
One of the big twists of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2 focuses on the origins of the monstrous takes on Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Owl. As explained by a repentant Cavendish, he was hired by the twisted scientist Dr. Gallup to kidnap several children for experimentation. Gallup worked to fuse the DNA of the children with that of animals, creating the horrifying hybrids seen throughout the film. One of these children was Billy, Chris’ brother, who was fused with bear DNA to create Pooh.
It’s an interesting revelation that adds a tragic layer to the story. Pooh’s outreach and twisted friendship with Chris when the latter was a child seemingly stems from their familial connection, It makes Pooh’s later actions all the more horrifying too, as he ends up returning to his childhood home and slaughtering his own parents. Chris actually briefly calls Pooh by his birth name, briefly giving the killer pause during their final fight. It’s a wild revelation but one that adds a lot of layers to the overall story.
The other experiments of Dr. Gallup are mentioned in the film, although only a handful of them are seen in the movie. This includes Piglet, Tigger, and Owl, who dug their way out of the graves Gallup buried them in after trying to kill them. Owl is established as a leader among the experiments. He’s the one who convinces Pooh to stalk the town of Ashton instead of simply waiting for people to come try to kill them. While Pooh and Piglet are portrayed as blunt instruments, Owl and Tigger are shown speaking, planning, and taking relish in their carnage.
Piglet, like Pooh, technically doesn’t survive the events of Blood and Honey 2. Early in the film, a group of hunters seeking out the monsters locate Piglet and get the drop on him, killing him with a shotgun blast to the head. However, both Pooh and Piglet’s corpses are seen in the film’s final scene. The gore around Piglet’s neck is shown moving slightly, implying that his body is healing from the wound ahead of another rampage. The film also teases there were more experiments by Gallup, teasing how other Winnie-the-Pooh characters like Rabbit could appear in the universe.
The final scene of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (which plays out after the initial credits) reveals Owl located Pooh and brought his corpse back to their hideout. Following up on Dr. Gallup’s notes about his creations developing something of an enhanced healing factor, the scene reveals that Pooh is already starting to recover from his injury along with Piglet, who was killed earlier in the film. This sets up Pooh’s return in future stories and gives him an in-universe explanation for why fatal injuries can’t stop him.
The credits to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 also tease some of the other monsters that exist in this world, showcasing artwork that portrays vicious versions of Peter Pan, Pinnochio, and Bambi. Films focusing on all three have been confirmed to be in the works, which will eventually build to a crossover film featuring all of them. These characters could be the result of Gallups’ experiments, or products of similar villains in the world. Pooh and Piglet’s apparent resurrections highlight how the characters can easily return for the upcoming horror crossover event.
Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is surprisingly introspective at certain points, which is a far cry from the plot’s typically gory focus. Chris’ story in Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2focuses on trauma and grief, with Chris struggling to deal with the memories that haunt his subconscious. At the same time, Chris must deal with the locals of Ashton believing him to be responsible for the grisly murders that took place in the 100 100-acre woods, which results in Chris losing his job at the local hospital and being ostracized by some of his friends.
Chris’ arc in the film forces him to confront the pain he felt upon losing his brother Billy, and the grief he feels when he discovers Pooh is what became of his sibling. Ultimately, Chris is able to confront these truths and move past them, apologizing to Billy for what happened to him while striking down Pooh. The result is Chris surviving the film and being seemingly vindicated thanks to footage of Pooh’s attacks reaching the police. Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is mostly about grimly funny gore, but also takes time to reflect on the challenges of trauma.