The internet went into a tizzy recently with the announcement of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honeya new horror film that utilized characters ripped straight from the pages of AA Milne’s original children’s books. This movie would see feral humanoid versions of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet going on a rampage after they’re neglected by Christopher Robin. Such a project was made possible thanks to the initial iteration of this iconic literature figure going into the public domain in 2022 (Disney still has a trademark on their version of Pooh). Though this may seem like a jarring use of a character made for youngsters, Blood and Honey is following in the long tradition of public domain children’s characters getting repurposed for much grislier adult means.
While companies like Disney have a firm grasp, or even a stranglehold, over the general public’s default image of characters like Snow White or Cinderella, they do not own these characters in their entirety. Many classic fairy tales that are still passed down to kids were made in an era before copyright law was prominent, which allows anyone to have a go at making, say, a Red Riding Hood movie. This has often meant animation studios creating cartoons meant to mimic your standard Disney title, but it also means that adult-skewing projects have a chance to exist without worrying about getting suffocated by powerful lawyers.
Initially, the concept of public domain characters being used for adult purposes included a heavy focus on reimagining such individuals through a highly sexual lens. Appropriately for the year in which it was released, the 1969 film The New Adventures of Snow White was a sex comedy that reimagined not just the titular princess but also Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in ribald nudity-heavy scenarios. This fate even befell fairy tales written closer to the modern world, at least compared to the likes of Snow White. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865, but 111 years later, it would inspire the 1976 erotic comedy Alice in Wonderland. No familiar childhood fables were safe from getting a risqué upgrade for adult audiences.
The popularity of 1970s horror fare like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween took violent and gory horror films from obscure oddities directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis to the mainstream. This meant a whole new avenue opened up for how public domain characters could be reimagined for eye-catching adult-skewing movies. 1984 would somewhat see an early example of this trend with Silent Night, Deadly Night, a slasher film about a man who kills people while dressed as Santa Claus. Though the film did not involve Kris Kringle chopping off people’s heads, it did lean heavily, especially in its marketing, on the iconography of a public domain children’s character like Santa being paired up with decidedly non-family-friendly behavior.
The immense controversy surrounding Silent Night, Deadly Night, namely over its advertising emphasizing the idea of a scary version of St. Nick, cut the film’s theatrical release short. However, it also showed how much attention one can muster up when you warp people’s notions of how a beloved childhood icon should behave. That kind of guaranteed publicity was not going to go unexploited forever. That same year, another violent horror vision of beloved children’s characters emerged from the Neil Jordan feature The Company of Wolves, which was inspired by the story of Little Red Riding Hood. A trend was forming that would not be stopping anytime soon.
The boom of the direct-to-video horror market in the 1990s only increased the ubiquity of titles looking to deliver freaky visions of familiar relics of your childhood. An established brand name can make a VHS tape more instantly recognizable to potential viewers, and what’s an easier brand name to exploit than one attached to a public domain character? This is where the likes of Pinocchio’s Revenge and Snow White: A Tale of Terror (the latter featuring acting heavyweights like Sam Neill and Sigourney Weaver) came in, delivering disturbing interpretations of public domain figures often used to entertain kids. The original Jack Frost from 1997, about a murderer transformed into a killer snowman, could also be said to be part of this trend, given that its title referenced the ubiquitous Winter-themed character of the same name.
The 21st-century did not see a complete end to this trend, with the likes of Gingerdead Man following in the footsteps of earlier entries in this genre. Interestingly, the ubiquity of these kinds of takes on classic fairy tales and mythological characters in the public domain did decrease a bit in prominence. This was because more family-friendly fare was beginning to mimic the incredible success of Shrek by delivering their own skewed visions of Goldilocks, Pinocchio, and other public domain figures. Even Disney got in on the act with Chicken Little and Enchanted. People were still interested in seeing familiar characters getting brought down to Earth, it was just happening in more PG-rated confines.
This trend couldn’t last forever, though, and the revival of more traditional fairy tale fare in 2010 with Disney titles. Alice in Wonderland and Tangled ensured that this generation’s response to Silent Night, Deadly Night would not be far behind. Sometimes, 2010s approaches to darker manifestations of public domain properties emerged as sanitized mainstream entertainment, like Snow White & The Huntsman. Though the color palette had been toned down and nobody was singing songs, The Huntsman was a decidedly PG-13 affair, one missing out on the three B’s (blood, breasts, and bombast) that often defined earlier and grimier takes on these kinds of characters.
These old exploitation films had problems in tackling sexuality and violence, most notably in their nonchalant depiction of sexual assault against women. However, their commitment to extreme nudity and violence did offer something new and cheekily naughty compared to the mainstream fairy tales that inspired them. Snow White & The Huntsmanby contrast, was an example of using a public domain property solely for the brand name rather than as a leaping-off point for exciting transgressive entertainment.
More mischievous and violent visions of public domain characters still flooded store shelves, streamers, and even theaters, the latter being evident in Krampus. This 2015 title from director Michael Dougherty reached into classic German folklore to deliver a horror movie about the mythological figure who was basically evil Santa. It was a title that twisted lots of seemingly happy staples of Christmas into something more twisted and grisly. A few years earlier, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale emerged from Finland with a story about a feral version of Santa Claus while, back home in America, a unique vision of Hansel & Gretel infused with R-rated action was unleashed in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
The trend of using public domain characters in a manner that would make strict parents clutch their pearls is always evolving. This is partially to keep up with the tastes of moviegoers and also to ensure that this subgenre can always be on the cutting edge of which characters have recently fallen into the public domain. So it is with Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which started filming mere months after the Pooh character fell into the public domain. The rarely stagnant nature of this subgenre ensures that every possible familiar character of old children’s entertainment will be exploited as much and quickly as possible.
While it’s easy to see the monetary reasons that would make media companies like seeing public domain characters utilized in this way, what is it about this concept that general audiences find so endearing? Whether it’s pornographic films from the 1960s, slashers from the 1980s, or today’s Asylum horror movies about Cinderella or Snow White, why do people keep watching these films in high enough numbers to ensure their persistent existence?
Part of it comes down to just the inherent amusement in seeing somebody twist around recognizably innocent material into something more warped. Thanks to how family-friendly companies like Disney plaster their characters everywhere, cheerful and cutesy interpretations on Winnie the Pooh and Pinocchio are everywhere. Seeing somebody douse such characters with blood and violent urges can feel like a transgressive thrash against the status quo. Plus, some of these adaptations, particularly several more faithful retellings of Pinocchio, prove appealing in how they get back to the darkness that often defines the original fairy tales these characters originated from. Their modern incarnations may be connected to syrupy cheerfulness, but many public domain characters got their start in stories chock-full of brutality that could only exist in R-rated fare.
Whatever the reason for these properties existing, the enduring presence of twisted adult takes on public domain children’s characters, not to mention all the internet attention thrust upon Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey makes it clear these kinds of projects won’t be going anytime soon. That means moviegoers need to brace themselves for some truly subpar pieces of trash that believe just spouting harsh profanity and displaying nudity is enough to make a movie substantively “adult.” However, the likes of Krampus show that there is some enjoyably naughty fun to be had with reimagining public domain figures more grotesquely. There is potential within these kinds of movies… or at least the potential to be better than something like Snow White & The Huntsman.