Elevated horror is so 2018.
Still, none of those films may hold a candle to the upcomingWinnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
GameSpot: First of all, what is Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey about?
Rhys Frake-Waterfield:
The general theme of the film is about abandonment.
As he grew up, he was nurturing them.
He was almost treating them like a pet.
When he was 15 or 16, he needed to move away to go to college.
And then, when he went to college, it resulted in his friends having a loss of food.
They needed to fend for themselves more.
Then, winter came and they had to go back to their animalistic instincts to survive.
Yeah, so Eeyore gets eaten.
And that’s what’s happened with Pooh and friends.
They now have this warped hatred, particularly for all of humanity, and for Christopher Robin.
They’re feral and they’re out for blood.
And they’ve eaten people.
Christopher Robin comes back, which is where we fast forward to in the movie.
He spots them and they go into this rage after seeing him.
And during this, their rampage affects a group of girls who are going on a rural retreat.
And you get people having their heads smacked with sledgehammers.
They get their heads run over with cars.
Some people get chloroformed, knives stabbing them in the throat… loads of stuff.
We can produce and get projects moving really fast.
And instantly, my eyes sparkled at the thought of it.
It’s really silly and fun.
And also it piques a lot of people’s interests.
Because you’re like, “How has he become a monster?
Because it’s hard to initially imagine.
So yeah, the idea came to us about February.
Immediately we were like, “Hey, let’s start going with it.”
And I started looking up costumes, how he could look, how the story could go, locations.
I was saying, “Where can I get this based?”
So, it was quite fast we moved.
And then, once it was filmed, about two months after, it just started going absolutely viral.
She’s having a lovely time.
And then behind her, you see Pooh and Piglet creeping up on her from the darkness.
And yeah, it’s just so strange.
Is this going to traumatize people who grew up with Winnie the Pooh?
Because my husband is a huge Winnie the Pooh fan.
I don’t care what you have to do.
I’m not seeing that movie.”
There’s two camps of people with this film.
You’ve got 50% who love it.
They’re like, “This is the best thing.
It’s such a unique idea.
The concept’s amazing.”
They’re super, super excited for it.
But then, you’ve got another 50% of people who I am the devil to.
We’ve literally had petitions getting made in the UK to stop it.
We’ve had death threats.
We’ve had someone saying they’re going to call the police on us.
It’s been mad how controversial this is.
And that’s still coming out now as the film’s releasing.
You’ve got 50% [on] one side, 50% [on] the other side.
Well, that’s the response we want with people.
There’s two versions of Winnie the Pooh.
There’s the Disney version, which is the cute, lovable one.
That’s the one kids should watch.
They don’t need to watch the film, our version.
Our version, it’s completely optional.
This is targeted towards a more horror audience.
And for people who don’t want to take it too seriously.
It’s a bit satire-y.
And it’s a bit fun and silly.
But watching it is completely your choice.
You said that it’s satire.
So, it’s okay if we laugh at it?
That’s exactly what I want.
I was trying to put my mind [into] how a buyer would be thinking.
What do you want to see?
I wouldn’t want it to be just a deadly serious film.
I’d want to be able to sit there and just laugh.
And it’s very dry humor.
I told all the actors and actresses not to play into it.
I wanted them to actually believe it’s really, really scary.
And the humor and the silliness comes in from the fact it’s Winnie the Pooh doing something.
Like he’s holding a knife [and] running after someone.
That’s what makes it look a bit goofy and a bit fun.
So yeah, I want people to laugh in the cinema.
You’re supposed to go there to have a good time–be entertained, laugh, have fun.
Not every horror film needs to have a deep metaphorical undertone and be really grounded and elevated horror.
There can be these silly fun experiences, too.
I noticed on your credits list you have Peter Pan and Bambi horror films coming up.
Is this a new niche that you found for yourself?
I like watching them, but I know what I’m about to watch, basically.
And it’s hard for them to be innovative or different.
They become very formulaic.
But these retellings and these new characters, you don’t know what’s going to happen.
You don’t know what lore is going to be built up around them.
You don’t know what their differing characteristics are.
And it doesn’t have to just be limited to Winnie.
There are many other characters out there.
And they’re not just the Disney ones.
Bambi, I think, is amazing for it.
Because everyone’s like, “Bambi’s going to be a monster?”
And it has that same effect of, “What the hell?”
And their interest piques.
And yeah, Peter Pan’s another one.
But there are so many other ideas out there.
There’s so [much folklore].
It’s about someone creeping into a kid’s bedroom and taking something under their pillow.
It’s got this darker tone to it.
So, there are stories and ideas like that, which I can integrate into this.
So, it’s going to be the horror fairytale universe.
Like Marvel’s [Cinematic] Universe.
But my low-resource one, at the moment.
But we’re starting to get more money and more budget behind some of these now.
Because people are seeing the potential in it.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to make some really, really cool ones in the future.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey is in theaters on February 15th.
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