It’s been five years since his last appearance in the 2018 film “Christopher Robin,” but Winnie-the-Pooh is back and has a lust for vengeance in the new low-budget horror movie “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.”

“Blood and Honey” was released on February 15 as part of a Fathom event in limited theaters nationwide, including locally in San Bernardino.

It was so awful, perhaps it shouldn’t have been released at all.

I am a fan of both horror and Winnie the Pooh, so when I first heard of this movie, I found it a bit odd that the loveable Pooh Bear could be a hash-slinging slasher. As I read more about the plot, I began to understand the vision for this movie. Still, I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around the execution.

That confusion started with the question pretty much everyone who has heard about the movie is asking: how does this movie even exist? 

Due to the expiration of the 95-year-old copyright on A.A Milne’s 1926 book “Winnie the Pooh” at the beginning of the year, Pooh Bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods became the property of public domain. This meant anyone could use the likeness of the children’s characters to do anything they wish. 

“Blood and Honey” director Rhys Frake-Waterfield jumped at the opportunity and began to write. Frake-Waterfield has made a name for himself working on low-budget horror movies of the “Sharknado” variety.

This movie features Christopher Robin (Nikilo Lion) as an adult coming back to visit his old friends, whom he abandoned when he went to college. He finds the Hundred Acre Woods a very different place than when he left it, and his friends are not the cuddly crew he remembers. They have developed a hatred for people.

After a grisly opening scene, we are introduced to our main cast of murder victims, most importantly our final girl Alice (Amber Thorne) and her traumatic backstory. From that point we are left with little to no plot, blatant nudity, and gruesome kills. This might not be so bad if the movie were more clever, but the best line from Pooh throughout the entire movie was, “You left.”

A lot of things contributed to this mess of a movie. Its low budget of $100,000 looks even cheaper. The obvious flaunting of the actresses bodies is pointless and gross. And the film’s story and execution was all-around awful. The story was meaningless, leaving us with mindless slaughter and some hideous designs for Pooh and Piglet that made them look too much like cosplayers at Comic-Con than fairy tale characters gone bad.

My opinions aside, Rhys Frake-Waterfield definitely seems to have had a good idea here. “Blood and Honey” has already made 3.8 million at the worldwide box office, $1.5 million of that here in the U.S. Fathom Events extended the one-night release to a full week, and the film will be released to VOD in April, where it will no doubt draw curious viewers to enjoy bloodthirsty Pooh Bear in the comfort of their own homes.

Just know that when that time comes, you’ve been warned.