Horror that turns childhood mascots into villains is a booming trade, with films and video video games showcasing simply how terrifying these characters can grow to be. That is exemplified within the much-awaited slasher Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, a movie that seized upon the beloved character turning into public area by turning him right into a maniacal, bloodthirsty creature looking down his former greatest good friend, Christopher Robin. It is an intriguing twist on this premise that makes use of the nostalgia of its character to twist the unique story right into a gory, terrifying show of the bear committing numerous atrocities — but it surely’s lacking one thing. The violence is efficient at horrifying its viewers however the film focuses on this butchery reasonably than delving into the unique story and themes that made the bear so well-known nearly 100 years in the past.

It would not respect these points and misses out on utilizing the supply supplies to create a really subversive story, one thing that The Banana Splits Film does completely. Directed by Danishka Esterhazy, this horror comedy options the brutal killings that made Blood and Honey well-known however explores what made the franchise so nice, utilizing this information to create a really chilling narrative. With this information, immense comedy, and jaw-dropping horror, The Banana Splits Film actually exhibits what would occur in case your favourite childhood characters developed a style for blood.

The Banana Splits Film

Younger Harley is having a dream birthday; he and his household are going to observe the taping of his favorite present. However the dream turns into a nightmare when the animatronic stars flip homicidal.

Launch Date

September 4, 2019

Director

Danishka Esterhazy

Solid

Danielle Form , Steve Lund , Celina Martin , Finlay Wojtak-Hissong , Sara Canning , Romeo Carere

Important Style

Horror

Studio

SyFy

Runtime

90

Writers

Jed Elinoff , Scott Alan Thomas

‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ Would not Know The place It Got here From

Whereas The Banana Splits Film does have an honest quantity of gore, it pales compared to the endless carnage of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – and that is a great factor. Plots centered on nothing however ugly slaughter are a well-liked horror subgenre, with legends like Terrifier or the historic Noticed franchise granting audiences scenes of artistic bloodshed like they’d by no means seen earlier than. It is clear that Blood and Honey hopes to affix these blood-soaked ranks. From stranglings, to decapitations, to a stomach-churning (however artistic) use of a woodchipper, it featured petrifying variations of Winnie the Pooh and his mates decimating a bunch of vacationers and their first good friend, Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon). It provides an fascinating twist to the story, with the animals turning into depending on Christopher feeding them and resorting to cannibalism when he leaves, turning them into animalistic monsters — however the film would not go additional than that. This plot contains themes of maturity, the phantasm of childhood, and the lack of humanity, however reasonably than draw on the psychological terror of those ideas, the movie focuses purely on disconnected scenes of violence to fill its runtime.

The Banana Splits Film had a tougher path to bloodying up its lore as a result of, effectively, there wasn’t a lot to attract from. It was based mostly on The Banana Splits TV present, created by the historic Hanna-Barbera Productions, and featured a rock band made up of the anthropomorphic animals Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky (all distinctive actors). It was a youngsters’s selection present that was entertaining, however not like Winnie the Pooh, the horror movie did not have a narrative to attract from to create a terrifying narrative. So, reasonably than deal with the sequence’ content material, it focuses on its goal: to entertain youngsters. It was a hilarious, heartening showcase of mascot insanity to make youngsters snort and to subvert that, it turned their enjoyable video games into ones of homicide and torture — and made positive their younger viewers watched the complete time.

‘The Banana Splits Film’ Punishes These Who Beloved the Present

The inclusion of kids instantly makes a horror movie extra uncomfortable, and that is a rigidity that The Banana Splits Film attracts on continually. The movie focuses on Harley (Finlay Wojtak Hissong) and Zoe (Maria Nash), a pair of younger youngsters going to a The Banana Splits present taping with Harley’s mother and father and brother, Austin (Romeo Carere). They arrive simply in time for 2 big developments to happen: a studio government decides to cancel the present, and a programming error turns the important 4 mascots into sentient, vengeful monsters. That is the place the horror kicks off, and mercifully, the mascots are focusing on the grownup chaperones who fail to understand the quartet of critters’ work reasonably than the youngsters who love their present. However the youngsters do not escape utterly, because the animals’ thirst for vengeance shortly shifts right into a harmful cruelty, eager to punish anybody who had ever used them for leisure. They kidnap the youngsters, chain them up, and drive them to observe a brand new, bloodier model of their present — and it stars all of their mother and father.

The Banana Splits Film has efficient and darkly comedic gore, however the place it actually finds terror is within the clear trauma the younger viewers undergoes watching the ingenious methods the solid kills their guardians. From utilizing their “Wheel of Endings” to tear somebody aside or working somebody over with their basic “Banana Buggies”, the film takes the unique present’s colourful and enjoyable set and makes use of it as a setting to bloodbath everybody within the studio. Regardless of this bloodshed, Harley continually reiterates that he nonetheless loves these characters who’ve grow to be such mainstays of his childhood, making it that rather more horrifying as he watches them do ugly issues that no youngster ought to ever must see. The group of children being compelled to witness this disgusting present is painful to observe. The distinctive performing of those youngster actors emphasizes how their beliefs in a enjoyable, harmless world are being torn aside in entrance of them. The Banana Splits Present was a sequence meant for the enjoyment and pleasure of kids, and by singling out this goal and subverting it to a sickening diploma, the film creates a horrifying expertise that punishes anybody who ever thought-about the sequence pleasurable.

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‘The Banana Splits Film’ Desires To Spoil Your Childhood

Whereas there’s a rising subgenre of horror movies based mostly on childhood classics, hardly ever do they try what The Banana Splits Film did. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a seminal work on this area of interest class, its use of the unique story to create a chilling showcase of nonstop carnage is bound to thrill so many followers of the style. It instills worry with its violence however is unable to frighten on some other stage. Its refusal to interrogate its personal twist on the unique story means the complete plot feels reasonably one-note. That’s the place The Banana Splits Film thrives, because it took the unique present’s total mission of bringing pleasure to youngsters and makes use of it to create the precise reverse: a plot that focuses on subjecting those self same youngsters to the worst expertise of their total lives. It is an ingenious skewing of a well-known childhood property — and is one thing that related films may study from.

The Banana Splits Film is out there to hire or purchase on Amazon Prime within the U.S.

Lease on Amazon Prime