It finally happened, I finally watched the Winnie the Pooh murder flick. The public domain has a reputation issue, especially in the United States of America, the registration and renewals system meant that a large proportion of the content in public domain were the works that were no longer commercially viable and forgotten. While that included some fantastic pieces of art like
It's a Wonderful Life, it also included its fair share of cash ins and low budget-low effort schlock. Of course, the copyrighted material also included its fair share of rubbish too.
Well, recent news hasn't done much to improve that reputation.
When Winnie the Pooh went public domain it was big news, and then news of a horror movie coming out, capitalising on the publicity and the lack of need to go past Disney for approval. I am of course speaking of Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey (BH). BH premiered in 2023, I've only just gotten around to watching it. The reason for the delay? It looks interesting enough to pay for and Whinnie the Pooh wasn't a big part of my childhood, I had one of the books, and I'd seen and been bored by some of the Disney cartoons. I wasn't offended by the idea of a homicidal yellow bear, I just wasn't that interested.
In fact, I'm not that interested in the film on its own merits, so I'll use BH as a springboard to a wider discussion on the film industry. A common question on film forums is simply, "why are only getting exploitation horror movies of characters that come into the public domain?" And the answer is simply capitalism. Film is art, but it is art created within a business, the reason we're getting so many horror movies is the same reason the Friday the 13th et al. are in their double digits. Movies cost money and investors expect that money back and with profit, horror is a genre that can be done quickly and cheaply and has a good track record of returning the invested funds and at least some profit. There are exceptions of course, there are horror movies that flop hard and movies that are expensive and take time to craft, but there is a blueprint for a quick return on investment.
BH is just an excellent example of that blueprint with the added bonus of timeliness, lots of people were talking about Pooh Bear and friends and a solid marketing hook. It was quite controversial when it was announced and released, that raise attention and improved the odds of financial success dramatically. The film did so well it has a sequel and led to the greenlight of several other projects and the copying of the formula by other filmmakers.
Reliable information on movie financials are hard to find, but the figures I did find are that BH had a $100,000 budget and made $7.3 million in profit so far. That's an excellent ratio and after watching I'm a little surprised the budget was that low. Technically speaking, BH is a perfectly competently made movie and doesn't look particularly cheap. It doesn't look expensive either, you can see the shortcuts, but I've seen movies with more budget look worse. There's location shooting, some practical effects work, the scenes have multiple angles to make them more interesting, the night scenes are well lit etc. There's even a short sketchbook style animated introduction that is genuinely creepy and does a good job of establishing the Why of the film. The actors aren't anything special, but they're all competently working with what little material they have before being beaten to death by two big thugs in masks.
The fish rots from the head down
The main issue with BH is that it was created solely for making some money and exploiting a favourable market environment. Everyone is doing a fine job, but that's the problem, it's clearly just a job. If you've watched much horror, then you'll know where each scene will end shortly after starting. Once the creepy animation ends, it's a series of character encounters the murderers for some reason and will either be killed or chased a bit first and then killed. Repeat a few times until the credits roll. In principle this isn't an inherent issue, there are location slashers that are fun, creative and chilling, the issue again in the lack of interest beyond making a complete product. I'll give a spoiler free example of the problem here: the opening establishes that the reason Pooh and friends do not talk is so they can pay the actors a lesser rate is because they have sworn to cut off all vestiges of there humanity and become truly animal. That is an interesting premise and could make for an inventive film. Sadly, the execution is just that they don't talk. They wear clothes, use weapons and power tools and cars, they are just bad guys in masks. Retool the introduction to Christopher Robin was imagining his friends and years later a gang of sadistic killers escape to the woods and find the masks and other toys and you'd only have to change one flashback scene to get the same film.
The cast is fine, but it's quite clear that they're just doing their jobs, this is a pay cheque, a credit and something for their reels, nothing more. The nuts and bolts of filming is competent, everything that needs to be in frame is in frame, but there's a lifeless efficiency that never disappears, it feels like an assembly line production.
The only sparks of something beyond a business plan, this movie displays, are the aforementioned animation at the start and a repeated streak of meanness. That may sound strange, and It's difficult to describe without watching the film, but this film has multiple sequences where the killer has the victims at its mercy and then takes their time enjoying their helplessness before violently dispatching them. For the Christopher Robin character, this makes a certain narrative sense as the premise of the film is that Pooh and Piglett hold him personally responsible for their bad fortune and have deep personal grievances, but for the rest it's just violent cruelty for the sake of violent cruelty. I'm not sure if that's a hint at a darker theme, or just another marketing ploy to generate further controversy.
I've seen cheaper films, I've seen less technically competent films, and enjoyed them a lot more than what BH is offering. Still, at least now the dam has been broken maybe we can get better material using Milne's creations, I'm not opposed to another horror movie so long as that movie has something actually worth making a movie about.
Part II - The Banana Splits Horror movie
No, the Banana Splits movie isn't in the public domain, nor to my knowledge are the original Banana Splits. The reason I'm discussing them here is:
- It's the best example I can think of at present of a Blood and Honeyesque movie made out of a copyrighted franchise
- It also exposes the failings of Blood and Honey in comparison
In 2019 the world was graced by frankly extremely odd news. The Banana Splits were back! You remember the Splits, right? Well, I did remember the Splits, a cable channel I sometimes watched in the 90s re-ran that show during its kids block. So I knew for a fact I was in the minority who remembered that show, and I was in the even smaller minority who was interested in seeing the movie based on the premise, they go crazy and attack people. It was such a strange sequence of events and frankly quite a rare and bold usage of an IP.
Despite remembering roughly who the Splits were like Pooh they weren't a cornerstone of my youth, I remembered the song, La la la, la la la lah, One Banana Two Banana Three Banana Four, etc. But that was just a fresh enough idea to intrigue me. If this seems hypocritical regarding what I've been saying about BH, well I'll admit that there are similarities especially around the desire to use controversy and media buzz to promote both movies, but, the Banana Splits were a completely dead and forgotten IP so the decision to move forward with the project wasn't a cash grab, though of course money was a goal.
More importantly, it also had more going on than just exploiting marketing trends and reactive social media. The movie had things to say about fame and the entertainment industry and the disconnect between the image of media and the reality. By no means is it earth-shattering, but it was enough material to give the characters something to work on and conflict and tension at some points. I think the best way to explain the differences between the two movies is in this way; the killers of BH are animal/human hybrids who act like souless machines, the killers in the Splits are robots who act like animal/human hybrids.
They found a way to make a movie about the goofy Banana Splits costumed animals interesting to watch, Blood and Honey was just tediously mean.
