Horror Most Bore: The 2 worst horror movies of this year (watch, discuss and review)

 

(My face after both of these films)

Horror: a genre that is based on the emphasis of being afraid, that sense of feeling you are being watched or are not alone when you thought that you were and its goal is set to make you scared, to frighten, or to make you disturbed or uneasy. Now I do tend to dabble into the realm of scares and spooks overtime from the likes of some films, maybe a tv show or two and especially in the area of Horror based Video games and a lot of the time they can have a little mixed from could be better, decent to very scary and would stay with me. Some of the classics that do tend to stick with me are from the likes of classics in film like the Exorcist, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street, to new modern horrors like The Conjuring, Get Out, A Quiet Place or even the likes of X and Pearl and the same for shows like Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor and if interested for something that could have something goofy or a believer some of those ghost hunter shows and even to the likes of gaming classics like Resident Evil, Amnesia, Silent, Outlast and Alien Isolation and all of them would be remembered in some regard for being beloved while also still holding up as some of the best in horror. But what if it was the case that there is that level of Horror that is the opposite of good? because there is that sense that as time goes on some people will find it harder for them to get scared by something and when it does and really gets you from start to finish then it feels real. But I am not hear to talk about the case of what is seen as being difficult to scare, as instead I am looking more at horror that the real scare is why did someone think this was a good idea. Now initially this was presented to me as an idea from someone close to me as an option over the likes of the initial idea that Horror is in a weird mixed state currently but that one would need to be worked on a little longer then that and then it was the case with this one was trying to think back over the 23 years I have been on this earth and wondered what are some terrible horror films I have seen and that is where it brought me to the releases of this year in particular.

Now not to say that we have had some very disappointing Horrors as it has its share of some good ones in there like Talk to Me, Evil Dead Rise and M3gan, some more mixed like Beau is Afraid and just on reception that would be low but may still have some form of entertainment value like the Exorcist Believer and the most recent as of writing with Five Nights At Freddy's. But those will get their due another time (given I plan to do a review for the latter half anyway). No today we are looking at the 2 films that would be the most known to some degree that have been labelled as the worst reviewed films in terms of horror, one that came out all the way back in February and based on a beloved IP and another that came out about 2-3 weeks ago that is based on all things, a Twitter Thread and I have had the pleasure (or punishment for myself) to sit through both of them and these films are Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey and Dear David and I am going to talk about each of them of my thoughts and either give backstory to them or the lore to it and the effects afterwards if any. So let us start with the one that came out first

Movie No 1: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

(Everytime he does this in the film makes me uncomfortable)

So before I go too in depth on this very mixed mess of a film I will give you the quick background to both the characters of Winnie the Pooh and how this film came to be before I dive into my thoughts and how the film plays out. So Winnie the Pooh started as a character created by the author of A.A Milne who based most of the characters of the hundred Acre Wood and the human boy of Christopher Robin off of his young son and his toy animals and what followed was a beloved collection of stories of a lovable but clumsy and forgetful bear who loves his honey and shared adventures with Piglet, Owl, Tigger, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, the Heffalump and of course Christopher Robin and it lead to a worldwide success, merch items and the creation of animated films and series from Disney and that how he is known today. Now I bet you are wondering then why is it that Pooh Bear is now a serial Killer and what it has to do with this film? Well you see their is a system known in the world as Public Domain where after a certain length of time, a character or characters or an IP series or something like it can end up having their copyright expired after a certain while and they become fair use for people to make them into whatever they desire and this is where Winnie the Pooh comes into affect as he was entered public domain in late 2021 / early 2022 and was allowed to be used and made in whatever form that someone pleases to do so and this is when these forms of images of a sadistic looking Winnie the Pooh that looked more of a serial killer dressed like the character started to appear online. This was the work of English filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield, a small filmmaker who worked on a lot of different films based on seasonal events and other fictional creatures and he caused quite the discussion when they were released online from how something so wholesome would be turned into a sadistic serial killer. Now things would be quiet for a bit up until it was announced for a release in the new year and even a limited cinema release and that is where we find ourselves today with talking on this mixed bag of a film.

So I will give the context of what the plot of this film is for those uninitiated where I will give a simple summary first before I jump into the more in detail plot. the summary plot goes as such:

"Transformed in Feral and Bloodthirsty after being left abandoned, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet terrorize Christopher Robin and a group of Young women in a remote house"

Now the likes of it you are thinking, ok, seems fair and reasonable, there is something with this but when you really delve into it it does come off as a lot and how everything turns out really just feels a lot of wasted potential and may have needed more time to be properly fleshed out. Now this will go into spoilers on this film and if for some reason you want to see it for yourself then I will scroll down to the next film, but if you have or just want to know how it plays out then lets get to the explanation.

Will say of the bat, the narrative in this film really is all over the place and leaves a lot of questions afterwards that has little to no resolution or reasoning but I will get to those point when I am there. So the film starts with a backstory about how Christopher Robin one day while exploring the Hundred Acre Wood he came across these animal human cross species like creatures in the wood and it consisted of 5 characters of Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, Piglet and of course Pooh (other characters were still under copyright) and they spent nearly every day playing together or him bringing them food up until he had to go off to college and left them there alone. This led to a harsh winter that nearly killed them off very quickly from hunger and in an event that traumatized them they decided the best course of action to survive was for one to be eaten by the rest, which in this case was Eeyore and from doing this made them agree to a vow of silence of never speaking of this again and get revenge against those that essentially abandoned them. Now we jump forward a little while later and Christopher has returned to the wood with his Girlfriend or Fiancé for her to meet them and soon discovers that things are a little different. They walk onto what looks like a set piece from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and look around to find them and feel that something is off (well she does, Robin just thinks its normal). They soon end up hiding in the cabin when someone enters and falls asleep on the bed, they escape but suddenly the girlfriend gets choked to death by Piglet and his chains that he has. Now this leads then to him trying to escape thinking something is wrong with Piglet and when he sees Pooh he think he is there to help but it was all set for him to be captured and soon he becomes a prisoner to these creatures.

Now most questions I have from this point is mainly what happened to Owl and Rabbit, were they also eaten or did they escape because they don't give much context on what happened to them and the only characters we see in this is Pooh and Piglet. But this was only a minor Q related to some other ones I have coming up.

After the titles and the opening scene, we are then introduced to the main girl of the group of women we'll be following now in this film and that is with Maria who is dealing with a traumatic event which is very vague at first thinking it was a bad break up, an abusive relationship or something similar and the therapist suggests to getaway for a while and find herself again which leads to them going to a house in the woods for a weekend or a few days. They then cut to them all travelling down and stop at a garage for no reason, maybe for directions but is hard to tell and then it cuts to them at the house. A short bit later we are introduced to another girl who travelled down on her own and gets spotted by Pooh and then chased into a sawmill when she gets killed by being put through a woodchipper and in this moment we see the level of visual effects in this film and some look alright but a lot of the blood looks like non finished rendering or the graphics of an early video game for liquid material. Back to the house we learn of the traumatic event that Maria had an encounter with some peeping tom watching her from a window and then led to him some other night getting into her house and try to undress her and soon discovers it is not his first attempt with her and then is never brought up again for the rest of the film or even has some sense of resolving the issue by the end as it really doesn't connect much to the narrative at all but maybe to give some sense of depth to one of the characters as most of them have really no character development or characteristics.

Anyway you are probably wondering what happened to Christopher, well he has been kept prisoner by these 2 animals and essentially tortured by them for months with Pooh whipping him with Eeyore's tail, taunting him with the charred skeleton of his GF and being forced to be showered in her blood. Also there is a point I want to bring up but there is many points in this where it shows this Pooh eating honey and it focuses on his face all the time and it often drips out making it look like some form of drooling which is just gross. Anyway this soon leads to them discovering the girls in the cabin and heading over there to kill all of those that are human.

We then have the case of the girls getting killed one by one where the first one we see is in a hot tub by herself taking photos of herself and then soon leads to her being chloroformed and tied up on the road by the car and eventually getting her head crushed by the car wheel. Then they stalk the house of the remaining girls, painting threatening messages on the windows and soon getting into the house. Two of the girls of Zoe and Alice get cornered by Piglet and his sledgehammer where one gets killed by a single swing to the face when she could've easily had the chance to escape from the water and the other was knocked out and taken to their lair. They follow them to rescue Alice and where they also discover Christopher Robin, where they free him and learn of another Woman held captive who has had her face scarred from Piglet. She tries to fight him but is overwhelmed by both and is killed and soon Pooh chases after 2 of the 3 other girls while one hides and gets the jump on Piglet. She then ties him up and essentially I think kills him or seriously wounds him and seems they may have a chance to escape but Pooh hears this returns and kills the hidden girl by impaling a knife or machete through her mouth and throat.

At this point there is about 10 mins left, we have not much in character development and sense of things wrapping up so to summarise what happens next is as follows. The 2 remaining girls come across a group of hunters who try to help them (one I think was the guy from the garage earlier in the film) and then soon come into contact with that sinister old Bear. They take him on at once and doesn't feel anything and then essentially One punch kills each of them where he Bitch slaps one dude so hard half of the skin of his face disappears and kills him, another one gets curb stomped and then one that magically just is introduced in this film in the last 5 mins is that Pooh has supernatural powers and can control an army of Bees to attack and kill people and uses it on the last fleeing person. Now with no hope, the remaining girls floor the car to knock Pooh down but he somehow clings onto the bottom of the truck and tries to kill them instantly and soon the car crashes and one of them is dragged away and decapitated, leaving only Mabel left. As she tries to get the car working again she is also about to be Killed by Pooh but out of nowhere, Christopher Robin rams Pooh with another car crushing him between both vehicles. All seems safe but it seems Pooh may be immortal and escapes the car and has Maria by the neck. Christopher then pleads with Pooh to let her live and take him instead to be with him forever and Pooh ponders on it for a few seconds and then speaks the single line that he has in this film of "No" and kills Maria. As the cars burn behind him, he continues plunging a knife in Maria's corpse as Christopher runs off and the film just ends there to a very messy film.

Now  is there anything in this that I would say that I liked. Well some minor things relating to design and a little presentation. Most of my praise mainly goes to the look of the 2 designed forms of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet that has the sense of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre mixed with a beloved book character and I think the design of the costumes looks good on both and I think works to how an anthropomorphic animals would look a bit like in this world. Another aspect is that it is not too long and comes in at around 80 mins, but some gripe of it is there is definitely noticeable points where they linger on a shot for a bit too long to maybe stretch it out to fit what they feel is a reasonable film length to them that if those scenes were removed or shortened, it would probably be about 5-10 minutes shorter but they had to work with what they got. I also can appreciate the attempt of making such a likable wholesome character into a silent murderous killer that has some sense of unsettling tone to them.

However it doesn't outweigh the issues with this film and that comes with the plot feeling like this was taping two different films together and making it a full story that it feels mismatched and the likes of the characters that are killed, we barely have any sense of caring for them cause we honestly do not know much about them to care for their demise by these animal killers. It also weird to think they had 2 other characters that could've added something to it but just seem to have been forgotten or else will be added to a follow-up maybe but I do not know. If it was a case that they had given some more development to the characters that it can relate to the issues they'll face with Pooh and Piglet then maybe it would make more sense but as it is, this attempt while I appreciate the effort is just way too convoluted and messy with paper thin characters and something that doesn't give much time to flesh out this concept enough.

To score this film I would give it around a 4-4.5. There is some ok elements in there, its just buried under a lot of problems.

So is this the end of this form of the sinister old bear? Well apparently not as it seems this film did well with a good box office on a very small budget and what has spawned from this is that we are getting a follow up to this film with Blood and Honey 2. Now I did mention this in one of my recent Weird Mind News room episodes that it was happening and that this one will introduce 2 other members of the group. The first is with Owl making an appearance (even though he look more vulture to me) and the other cause they'll be entering Public domain is the bouncing bounding Tigger joining the film as well. Now this has also spawned the case that Pooh has also started to be morphed into a popular Horror icon as there is already 2 horror games based on Winnie the Pooh being made with one being 2d and mixed with Doctor Mario kind of gameplay known as.... Winnie's Hole and the other entitled Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh as a giant morphed monster and you are on the hunt to rescue Christopher Robin. Its also the start of turning childhood classics into horror recreations as he has a planned film for both Bambi and Peter Pan in Mind so I may do this thing again down in the future if you are interested and you can make that be a thing by liking and Subscribing to know you are interested.

Well that's one down and now it is time for one that has been brandisized to the point it really near ruins the original concept.

Movie No.2: Dear David (Why do you suck)

Now like the previous film I will give some backstory to this as the project itself is solely based on the concept of a long running Twitter Thread from around 5-6 years ago. The concept of the story was their was a comic artist named Adam Ellis, who created this tale that he was essentially being haunted by a small child named David who had an incident that left him with a dent on his head like that image above and over the course of a couple months, he gives us the tale of how he has experienced strange phenomena from the rocking chair in his room rocking back and forth to seeing strange things happen in his apartment complex that he witnessed as well as his cats, seeing things through his door peephole and being left tired through the night trying to find answers to his situation. Now all is said and good but it becomes much more unsettling when he has some really creepy and well established images to go alongside it that make it look genuine.

 Now this lasted for a short bit of time over I would say about 3-5 months and it was well done for what it was worth and that should be where it ended, but of course I wouldn't be talking about this today if it wasn't for this thing called a "film" tries to do with this story. Now there has been a case that a story from a Twitter thread was made into a film to great success with the film known as Zola, yet they couldn't even do that and the pinpoint reason why is who is the one behind it and that is of course Buzzfeed. Yes Buzzfeed studios is the team behind this cause I believe the artist was from Buzzfeed at the time (may still but am not sure) and this is where the case of it really start to take a lot of focus as it feels very much like a Buzzfeed advert throughout. But I am getting a little too far ahead and will first address the plot summary before I will delve into the film itself.

To summarize the plot:

"After responding to Internet Trolls, a man becomes haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. Based on the viral Twitter thread by Buzzfeed comic artist Adam Ellis."

So as you can tell the plot for this has been slightly altered to try and make it the case of how the child came to haunt the artist by the case that the child is a demon because he was cyber bullied for sharing his art and I wish I was joking on that cause this is how it ended up how it all starts off. So I am about to head into spoilers so as mentioned above you can skip to the end of this section where I score it but if you want to hear the story then stick around

So the story starts with the case of a small Convenience store and Internet café of someone talking about how over 30 million people have the internet (this scene is set in 1996 by the way) and then it goes to David who is busy on some form of internet chat room uploading some art, gets scared by his mom and then when she leaves he gets trolls calling his art bad and then someone coming along to tell him to Game end himself in a fire.

From there they explain that the whole thing is based on a true story as well, which of course is bullshit. Anyway we are then introduced to Adam as he upload a new art piece and we see the comments on it as he heads to work at Buzzfeed (a place that will make up a good portion of this film). We meet some of his co-workers who tell him not to give in to the trolls and then we meet the boss that tells them to take stories from other publications and make it their own method, then does some report to Adam that he has the aura of "Relatable AF" (which is what he actually says in the film). This is where I bring up a major annoyance of this film and that is the writing is very rough that they will try to have relatable and topical words and still make it sound cringe inducing to sit through. Anyway while that goes on we go to 2 kids who are simply messing in chat rooms as catfishing people and they soon are put into contact with David where they give the rules that are based on the thread that they can only ask 2 Questions a never 3 or else something bad happens. Well one of them decides to ask 3 and soon he dies from something shoving a hand down his throat and making him piss himself.

Now back to Adam he is working away on his stuff and soon gives in, has a drink and starts calling out some trolls before he is suddenly contacted by ghost account David himself and soon he starts to message and follow him and everything like that. Now things from here start to happen that soon lead to him starting to experience things in the night where he ends up in a trippy version of his room where he cannot leave his bed and sees a rocking chair across from his bed rocking back and forth and soon over the next night or 2 of seeing David in the chair where he will also have provided asking him the first Q. Overtime one of his coworkers helps him from lack of sleep by helping him research on some form of paranormal experience and also for company as his partner is away caring for his mom and having that sense of feeling distant as he seems to not be able to respond properly to him. Now at this point in time he moves upstairs to the room above as the neighbors have moved upstate so he moves up there to escape but it seems to still persist with him following him up there and messing with his mind and his Cats who seems to sense someone on the other side of the door and seeing things through the peephole and taking photos with a polaroid with some odd circumstances that soon lead to him creating the start of the thread.

Now over the next stint, the boss of Buzzfeed think this is all a random concept unbeknownst that Adam is essentially having a crisis being haunted by a demon child with a dent. They essentially market the fuck out of it with Buzzfeed articles and suggest the whole method of Exorcism on the apartment and putting salts at the door but doesn't work and David gets into the room, nearly chokes him by his aura and whacks him in the head with a typewriter after asking a 2nd Q. Soon after reawakening, he hears noises downstairs and comes across his partner Kyle who has a bit of a confrontation with him after not hearing from Adam when Adam says he tried to call but unbeknownst to Adam, Kyle called him multiple times when it is not seen. It leads to a case of having time away from each other when Kyle accuses Adam of cheating when Grindr appears back on his phone when he doesn't remember doing so. So essentially David is manipulating his tech to push people away from Adam to really destroy everything and ruin your life and that sense leads to him becoming more isolated from his peers.

This leads to the next night where instead of being trapped on his bed he is taken to a new location where he witnesses how he ends up with the big old bump on his noggin cause David was looking at questionable imagery and his dad sees it, David goes nuts and tries to strangle his dad, Mom sees it and then nearly kills the son by bashing him in the head with something that gave him the bump on the head. What this leads to is Adam is literally gone to the level of being completely broken feeling everyone seems to be against him that supposedly people are mad at him for certain messages and voice recordings when he doesn't remember sending them, been feeling isolated and lacking in sleep, so of course the Buzzfeed boss has the idea of making it multi-media and find a way to an end of it (which shows Adam looks dead inside and sees it as not a problem but someone who has been working very hard). From there he tries to call his partner again and make an effort to open up to him and to ask for help to find the source of breaching the data of the David account so will see how much of an effort is made on that later.

Now he first gets I think a medium that makes the assumption we already know there is negative energy around the Rocking chair and at the computer so no surprise there and then feels he gets more of a better fix from an Internet sleuth that tells him of yet another new character to this expansive world that is known as "Loopy Linda" (a character never brought up in the original thread) who turns out to be David's Mom. This leads him to finding out the name of David and discovering that he has woken up from a 21 year coma, he goes to the hospital and is told he is dead and then sneakily takes some doctors card, sneaks into his office and discovers he is dead and his body has been taken or missing from the morgue and finds the info for the doctor that analyzed Linda and check the status of David and goes to her house. He gets their, door left open in dark house, finds documents of David on a desk and some disturbing image of a drawing to how that kid earlier was killed. He then goes looking for the Dr but surprise she is dead by being hung from the stairs, does the whole eyes open and scares him out of the house.

Now at this point I have lost the sense of reasoning on this film and becomes tedious in the last I'm saying 20 mins of this film but let me get through this. So once he leaves the house he goes home and tries to stay up for the night by being on a sugar boost and caffeine so that David can't get to him when he sleep which makes me question, are they trying to make him Freddy Kruger at this point. Well it doesn't last as he falls asleep and David appears on the tv and makes Adam cut himself with a knife but he stops it when Adam calls Kyle in his dream (which is weird cause I thought a phone doesn't exist in the dream realm). So then he returns to work, work colleague mad at him for messages he didn't send and then another worker beside him getting help on something and think they have sent him the most vile list of the 10 reasons to off oneself, which to him having a breakdown in the office and the boss stopping him and saying to take some time off and care for yourself. At the same time Kyle responds again (amongst mad at some voice notes) that the David account doesn't exist. This leads to Adam spiraling making art based on getting rid of David (mixed with dumb generic negative comments) and in the process he accidentally asks David a 3rd Q when David morphs one of his pieces to make him do so and now he is screwed.

How does he do so of screwing him over. Well he somehow creates some other being that controls him as a video game form with a knock off controller and makes him pour himself in liqour and sets him alight to really make him Die in a Fire. This leads to him confronting David in some void and tells him that this is his punishment for being mean and then some other people he knows make the most generic and cringey insults. Then back in the real world David appears and attacks Adam in his burning complex, they have a fight and Adam overpowers him and finally kills him. In the process his partner and co-worker come in to rescue him and they get him to safety and then they finally realize he was telling the truth when they see his phone that was possessed by David and now he is dead it is all fixed and then in the back of the ambulance apologizes and says he will be more open while flashing a final look at David before the Ambulance drives away. Now you think that is the end of it but no it cuts to a female streamer talking on the story trying to make it a little bit of a meta kind of thing, but that ends with David entering her chat, she answers 3 questions and then starts slamming her head hard on the desk multiple times before it cuts to black ending this film, and will say it is a very tough watch.

Now I will have to ask if there is anything good in this film and there is very little I would say unfortunately. If you know for a lot of things and what you may know overtime is that I give a lot of things the benefit of the doubt but this one just felt tacked on and barely really followed the story. They had potential of making it like the form of keeping it mysterious and more unsettling instead of using the basic generic horror tropes for everything from jumpscares to backstories to all that stuff and makes it even more tedious. Now I will say that when they do some elements of the actual thread and follow it then it seems fine but adding things to it and make it feel bloated just doesn't work and they make up the case that David dies in this yet in the thread he is still alive in the end so I guess they had to make up some ending to it. It also doesn't help that it is bloated more with random side stories and relationship issues but I guess it is to help give them some character development so I'll give it that over Blood and Honey that didn't give much in development of characters but it is still not too much of a major development that if it was trimmed down a little bit or worked more to focusing on the actual thread story then I feel it may have worked more or to make it shorter it may have helped it. Also want to address the most overused aspect and that is the sheer marketing placement of Buzzfeed in the film that it honestly makes it so much more tedious that they are present for most of the film when it is never brought up in general in the original story. I know it is the case that it is a story from an artist from Buzzfeed but it needs to be said that overdoing it makes it more annoying.

Overall I was thinking it was going to be a tough watch but even I had a point of wondering do I continue watching this as it just felt dragged out and as more a marketing tool for Buzzfeed then on a story of a somewhat eerie thread.

Dear David Score: 2-2.5: What could have been done really well as more of following the piece or even as a found footage type film is bogged down by a horror mixed with a drama and a major marketing piece

Conclusion

So to wrap up this piece in general, what did I learn from this entire experience? Well I will say the case that Horror can be quite the challenging subject and similar to other genres will not appeal to everyone. When their is a sense of trying to honour something or experiment with it I can see the appeal and appreciate the effort. I see some sense over the last few years that their is some effort made and some creative minds that are either starting out with making something or from those you would not expect them to make in that genre coming along and making something that can turn out really well or maybe they may not have the best start but there is still an effort to them and they improve overtime. Now I know the case that I have bashed both of these film in this piece but I can see that there may at some point been some attempt to be made or that I can see the potential from the final product. I appreciate the effort and concept made of making something that was wholesome and make it much more of a messed up concept but if given the chance with the follow up of developing the world and characters and creative kills then I can see it being something that could turn into a great little series. As for the other one, what this felt a bit like was a little too close to being overshadowed by the studio making it and I feel to give it the attempt by a different studio or creator and make much more closer and faithful to the original concept then it could work a whole lot more as I see the potential of making the story as it is into something great eventually. It needs to be more done from some upcoming creative or in a tone similar to some of those really creative Analog horrors like the Backrooms, Mandela Catalogue or even the FNAF VHS tapes to make something cool and unique out if it. But as things stand on both they were simply some films I sat through that I think have potential with another go around but if done poorly again then I wouldn't bother and don't plan to watch them again anytime soon at all.

Now if you enjoyed this piece and want to see more, let me know in the comments down below of what other bad films to watch and if you have seen these 2 films give me your thoughts on them in the comments below. As always I hope you all stay being wonderful people and have a great day every day and to have a very Happy Halloween too and stay safe out there too :)

Signing off

Sam H