Before Winnie The Pooh Slasher Film, There Was Disney Channel's Equally Horrifying Welcome To Pooh Corner
Beware the Hundred Acre Wood!
Jagged Edge Productions broke the Internet Wednesday night with the reveal of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a horror reimagining of the beloved children's franchise that sees Pooh and Piglet embark on a murderous rampage. (Yes, really.)
The silly ol' bear's devilish turn was made possible when Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain in January, meaning no one holds the exclusive intellectual property rights anymore. (Disney still holds exclusive rights to their interpretation of the character, but A.A. Milne's original stories are now out of copyright.) But long before Blood and Honey was conceived came another, equally terrifying piece of entertainment: Disney Channel's Welcome to Pooh Corner.
If you were a child of the 1980s or 1990s, you likely remember Pooh Corner — and if you don't, you probably will once you see the main title sequence (embedded above) again. It's straight-up nightmare fuel. (Seriously, just imagine sitting in a dark room and having that song come on...) The live-action Winnie the Pooh series — which featured full-bodied puppetry and filled in the whites of Pooh's sunken eyes, for added trauma — premiered in tandem with Disney Channel's launch, on Monday, April 18, 1983, and lasted for 120 hair-raising episodes.
Though its last episode aired Dec. 25, 1984, Welcome to Pooh Corner remained a Disney Channel fixture for the next 13 years, presumably to scar young children for life. Reruns were last seen nearly 25 years ago to the day, on May 30, 1997, and only select episodes — including a one-off special titled "Too Close for Strangers," wherein Pooh and friends warn viewers about stranger danger and child molestation — can be found in the deepest, darkest corners of the Internet.
As for what to expect from forthcoming horror film Blood and Honey (release date TBD), writer/director Rhys Waterfield warns our sister pub Variety that the "tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff" takes an extremely dark turn after being abandoned by a college-bound Christopher Robin. Because he and Piglet have had to fend for themselves, "they've essentially become feral, so they've gone back to their animal roots," he says. "They're no longer tame. They're like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey."
One such scene, as seen in several photos below, sees the demonic duo chloroform a bikini-clad woman, drag her body out of a hot tub and into the middle of the road, then drive a car over her head. We also get a glimpse of Eeyore's tombstone after the depressed donkey is consumed by his starving friends. Entertainment for the whole family!
Keep scrolling for additional photos from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, then hit the comments and tell us which property — the largely forgotten TV show or the upcoming slasher film — looks more terrifying.
