Tigger warning: Winnie-the-Pooh slasher movie a lot to bear

With Pooh, you’ve got this lovable little friendly bear and I’ve twisted him into the exact opposite.

Rhys Frake-Waterfield

Gone are the innocent days when there was nothing more dangerous in the Hundred Acre Wood than the odd Heffalump or Woozle. In the forthcoming movie Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey sees AA Milne’s Pooh Bear and Piglet turn feral, torturing and slaughtering nubile women holidaying in a cabin in the forest.

Made by the British production firm Jagged Edge, Blood and Honey has been licensed under US law, which decrees that a book’s copyright expires after 95 years. In Blood and Honey, Pooh and his friends turn savage after being abandoned in the woods and left to fend for themselves when Christopher Robin moves on with his life and goes to college.

British filmmaker Rhys FrakeWaterfield had the idea for the film in March after reading that Pooh had entered the public domain.

“When you don’t have a massive budget it’s important to have a strong hook, so having Winnie-the-Pooh seemed perfect,” he says. “It’s because of the contrast that people are excited: There are lots of famous characters you could make a horror film about and people wouldn’t be that interested — with Pooh, you’ve got this lovable little friendly bear and I’ve twisted him into the exact opposite.”

Although it’s a gorefest, FrakeWaterfield describes the movie as “quite deep at points”.

“[Pooh and his friends] don’t have enough food and that’s ultimately why Pooh has to eat Eeyore, it was the only way he could survive, and of course having to eat his friend completely warps him mentally, and now he just hates all humans. It’s not the typical horror film where you just have got a monster in the woods killing everyone with no reason behind what they’re doing.”

Oh God, poor Eeyore! Does he feel any contrition? “I get Instagram messages from people saying, ‘You’re ruining our childhood’, and there have been petitions to stop the film.”

Frake-Waterfield’s thoughts, meanwhile, have turned to his next project: a horror version of Peter Pan. “What’s been getting most attention is what I’m planning with Tinkerbell.”

And are there any characters he regrets are not out of copyright? “I’d love to make a film with the Teletubbies”.