I was gonna delay this review… but i really don’t wanna have to put this one on The Spooktacular Eight (never gonna happen) this year or having to deal with it in 2025, so might as well catch up to the “Twisted Childhood Universe” and see how the story continues.
And i do genuinely mean “continues” because the first one didn’t so much ended as simply stopped, so half-assed was even in sequel-baiting itself, i guess because there was no more money to make it 90 minutes long, those mask really ate into the budget, or maybe not.
So yeah, in a stupid way there was even more reason to continue a story they didn’t finish telling properly (as if they didn’t planned like this, but whatever), so Blood and Honey 2 – i’m gonna use this short-hand from now – continues the merry tale that someone had make into a slasher, with Christopher Robin surviving and coming back to civilization to tell everyone of what happened…. with the expected and logical result of anyone – aside from some of its close friends and family – believing that he has gone cuckoo and maybe even murdered those girls himself.
Regardless, the incident is eventually dubbed as the “Hundred Acre Massacre” and they even make an horror film adaptation out of it, ruining Christopher Robin’s medical career and reputation even worse, basically making him a reject, a “pooh pariah” if you will.
On the “kemono killer friends” side of things, Pooh and Piglet have both healed from being dead or nearly dead (honey really can fix everything), have completely thrown into the bin the whole “we don’t speak-a the a-human” oath, but are extra mad that Christopher Robin revealed their existence to the world (as some people did believe him and basically went hunting for them), so they go on another murderous rampage, this time for an actual reason, as in getting revenge on Robin for outing them by going on a murder spree in his childhood/home town, Ashtown.
“They” as this time around they saved enough double-dollars to afford also a Tigger and Owl mask, which were conveniently never seen or asleep in a plot-proof cabin in the previous film.
The Pooh mask is still the best looking one, the Owl one is ok, but you can tell this time around they are made to emote more and have the actors speak… not good lines, but one they do talk, spitting the usual killing quips you’d expect from a slasher, but there’s also the decent costumes they made for Owl and Tigger… ok, more Owl, Tigger has basically a onesie and a mask thats too similar to Pooh’s, despite Tigger having a technically more elaborate costume.
it’s miles better than the lousy warthog mask for Piglet in the first one, here he actually looks like a pigman… though he’s killed off early and is actually Owl who does most of the kills until the final town massacre extraordinarie, a bit confusing given how Pooh’s name being in the title, and Tigger doesn’t show up untile late in the final act, come on, now.
And yes, the masks overall don’t look as good as the first one, but then again, those were cheap as well and didn’t account for the actors having to talk, so considering the still low budget, this trade off – for how much it actually matters – is for the better.
The effects are also better, quite decent overall, even though for some of the minor kills they just cut to a ripped off limb floating in the river (or just seeing the silouhettes during the kill), there are barely any of these “cop-outs”, which are still kinda laughable because it’s not like you go into seeing a movie like this for the plot, but some of the kills are quite fun, like the “long range bear trap decapitation leading into a pinata finish”. The final confrontation is a bit anticlimactic,
At least this sequel uses its time to also give some backstory explaining how there were to be literal manimals (or younglings with animal features) in the woods to begin with, basically going the “X-Men X Pet Semetary X Kemono Friends” route, with a little twist too… so it’s something.
It was kinda clever to have some clips of the first movie put on TV here as the movie within the movie based on the “real events”, watched by the horror obsessed kid , nice Friday The 13th touch, not original but then again, after the first you know exactly what you’re gonna get, not exactly an idea that invites much coming up with fresh ideas, and it being derivative is par for the course.
I like they kept doing the animated sketchbook intro (and some sequences later on), this time to explain what happened immediatly after the ending of the first movie and give the gist of things, same style of pencil sketch doodles, but already looks better than in the first and indicates this time around there’s some actual budget.
Weirdly enough, they recast the main characters that don’t have an animal mask on… which isn’t an issue since there were so few characters in the previous movie to begin with, but it feels even more like they should just have done this instead of doing the crap-bore of the first Blood & Honey. Regardless, the recasting is honestly painless and acting is okay, just expect some thick regional british accents, and some honest competence that will even make you give a rat ass about the characters and the backstory behind the forest fiends. Colour me surprised.
Even the spotty lighting of the first one has been (mostly) fixed here.
So yes, it’s indeed a notable improvement all around compared to the first Blood And Honey, but it just means it’s decent enough, still ridiculous and creatively desperate, just executed with more, actual budget, some ideas and a lot more effort around the stupid concept than simply “Winnie The Pooh is a slasher villain now” and calling it a day (even though the core is still just that), so credit given when its due, and it is, it’s a pretty big step forward in quality but i wouldn’t wanna compliment Blood And Honey 2 too much, this sequel would had to REALLY work his ass off to be even worse than the first one, like actively trying to be worse.
Though i will admit at least there is some dedication there, you can argue of the creatively bankrupt concept, but for an indie low budget production, this (and to some degree the first one, i guess) could have been so much worse in every single aspect. Like, i dunno, those “Curse/Revenge of [public domain fairytale character]” (Revenge Of Jack Frost, Revenge Of Humpty Dumpty”, etc).
Not quite the Hotline Miami adaptation we expected, one could say, though.
Unsurprisingly it ends with sequel bait, but guess we won’t find out until the crossover finale of the Twisted Childhood Universe, there’s a Neverland one up next, then Bambi The Reckoning and a Pinocchio one before getting to “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble”, which is the real title btw, i couldn’t make this shit up, otherwise i would be most likely on the staff for these.
And that i guess would be “Phase 1” of the TCU, as there is Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey 3 slated for a 2026 release. Can’t deny these guys are keeping busy.
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