‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ Director Hopes Fourth Graders Not ‘Ruined’ by Surprise Screening, Teases Sequel Budget and Deaths

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” is back in the news after a Miami teacher reportedly showed the film to his fourth-grade class. With the sequel to the viral micro-budget horror set to premiere on Valentine’s Day next year, Variety spoke to director and co-writer Rhys Waterfield about how much more blood (and honey) audiences can expect and whether he thinks those fourth graders will be OK.

What did you think about the fourth-grade class accidentally watching the movie?

It’s mad, isn’t it? I think it’s crazy. Because when you watch the film there is no way you can mistake it for a child’s film, literally in the first 10 minutes, crazy stuff’s happening. And [the characters] look scary. So I don’t know how — because they said it went on 20 to 30 minutes — I don’t know how it went on that long. I don’t know if the teacher put it on and just walked out and left them or if the kids tricked them or something. Hopefully we haven’t ruined these kids’ childhoods.

How much more blood are we going to see in the sequel?

In comparison to the first film everything’s stepped up massively. It’s a horror film. A lot of the times people are going there for the death scenes and for those elements and we’ve really upped the ante. I think the last time I did a count there was over 30 deaths in the movie, which is quite substantial compared to most movies. I think that’s at least over three times what the first film had and there’s various massacres and stuff. So there’s a lot of blood and a lot of gore.

Has the budget gone up too?

It’s magnitudes higher compared to what it was on the first film. It’s over 10 times what it was.

You had some pretty interesting kills last time. Was it difficult to think up more ways to kill people off for the sequel?

It was actually a bit easier this time because the budget is higher so it expands out your options. And I want them to be really, really crazy. I’ve given Winnie a signature weapon this time. In the other film it was just anything he could pick up really, so it was like a sledge hammer or a bat. But one of his key weapons in this is a bear trap, which is very fitting to his to his character. So we got a really gruesome, scary one made. It looks awesome and he kills people in a variety of ways with it. And there’s some very, very cool set pieces. They were challenging to shoot but they’ll make for some crazy kills. There’s one sequence in the movie which is absolutely wild and I’m really excited for people to see it.

Can you give any hints about what it involves?

There’s a group of girls in a motor home, they’re having a good time and then Winnie the Pooh and Owl turn up and then… they don’t have a good time.

Tigger also makes an appearance. How did you manage to get him in?

You couldn’t use Tigger before because he wasn’t in the public domain then. But Tigger is in the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024 and the film is coming out a month later.

So you’re still on track to release the film on Feb. 14 next year?

Yeah. We’ve finished principal photography and the film is currently in the post production stages. I’m tidying up the edit and we’ve got various departments working on it in terms of the music, sound, grade and animation, VFX, all of that stuff.

You avoided having fur on Winnie the Pooh last time round, partly because fake blood is easier to wipe off latex. This time Tigger and Winnie have fur — was that a challenge?

It was very hard. Because we’ve really pushed the boat as much as we can and it was a very difficult shoot. And elements like that, like having fur on the creatures, it does add an extra level of complexity. For continuity, if you’re going in between when they’re soaked in blood and they’re not soaked in blood, it is harder for those guys to clean them off. But it actually adds a lot, especially on close ups, when you see all of fur and the dimensions to it. It doesn’t just look like latex and rubber, it makes it feel more real.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.