Take a Look at Horror Movies Based on Kids’ Characters!

There’s a new Winnie the Pooh movie coming out this weekend, and it hasn’t gone down well with A.A. Milne’s family, but you can see it for yourself at a theatre near you. The movie, which makes use of the fact that some elements of the Pooh-verse are now in the public domain, recasts the cuddly honey-loving kid-lit classic as a ferocious monster.

(It’s not that far-fetched; he was a freaking bear, after all.) Yet, Pooh isn’t the only beloved children’s character to be turned into a terrifying movie villain. This is a list of 12 bad movies that aim squarely for the sweet spot between children’s bedtime stories and nightmares.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

Christopher Robin tells his pantless bear companion Pooh at the end of The House on Pooh Corner that he has to go to school and isn’t likely to spend much time in the Hundred Acre Woods anymore. The aftermath is grimly imagined in Blood and Honey.

Horror Movies Based on Kids' Characters

Left to fend for themselves, Pooh and Piglet turn savage and develop a desire for blood. Murders of young ladies in bikinis have recently taken on a peculiar flavor. There is an abundance of yelling. You don’t even want to know what they did to Eeyore.

Where to Watch: In theaters now.

The Banana Splits Movie

During the 1970s, a block of Saturday morning cartoons was presented by the Banana Splits, a gang of mascot-suited hippies or something. They were eerie and strange even in their original form, which was intended for children. Maybe because you couldn’t figure out exactly what they were doing, or the environment in which they existed.

Horror Movies Based on Kids' Characters

They look like they’re supposed to be in a band, but all they did was run about being noisy. However, The Banana Splits Movie takes us behind the scenes and leans into oddity and horror. Animatronic Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky are robot performers on a children’s show that turn angry and murderous when their show is canceled.

The Banana Splits is not a great film, but it was a terrible performance. Of course, the show’s theme song is very massive.

Bambi Reckoning

If the plot of a film in which Bambi exacts vengeance on the hunters responsible for his mother’s death seems like something out of a Saturday Night Live skit, that’s because it is. The basic idea with Bambi: Reckoning is the same.

Horror Movies Based on Kids' Characters

The movie’s writer, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director of Blood and Honey, explains the movie like this to Dread Central: “The film will be an extraordinarily dark reworking of the 1928 story we all know and love. Bambi, taking cues from the design of the killer robot in Netflix’s The Ritual, will be a merciless murdering machine that hides in the woods. “Bambi has rabies! Be on the lookout!”

Where to Watch: Coming soon

Arthur Malediction

Some respond negatively to horror versions of beloved children’s characters by arguing that they are an insult to the source material and a perversion of the author’s intent, but you can’t make that argument about Arthur, Malédiction.

As the French director Luc Bresson also penned the screenplay for this horror picture based on his characters from his children’s fantasy novels and films, this is exactly what he had in mind. Unfortunately, American audiences were unable to see Arthur, Malédiction in theatres.

The first animated Arthur movie, 2006’s Arthur and the Invisibles, wasn’t received well here, and the cinematic frisson created by having cherished childhood figures turn evil doesn’t work if the characters aren’t beloved, to begin with.

The Mean One

This is virtually a movie featuring the Grinch (who stole Christmas) as the main character. Many of the films on this list are only allowed to remain because their copyrights have expired; in the case of The Mean One, however, it is parody laws that have kept it alive.

In most cases, satirizing established characters is acceptable, provided that a reader or viewer wouldn’t confuse your work with the original. The main character, thus, is dubbed “The Mean One” and has a grumpy appearance without actually being the Grinch.

Despite popular belief, the town’s name is not “Whoville,” but rather “Newville.” She’s Cindy Lou Who, etc. Based on the evaluations, those name shifts are about as smart as The Mean One gets.

Where to Watch: The Mean One was released theatrically in December 2022, but isn’t available for streaming presently.

Christmas Evil

It seems like every year there’s another horror film in which everyone’s favorite holiday symbol, Santa Claus, or someone dressed as Santa, murders the good guys. A violent night is available. And Silent Night. I could go on and on, but here are just a few examples: “Silent Night Deadly Night,” “To All a Good Night,” “Santa Claws,” “Silent Night Deadly Night 2,” “Santa’s Slay,” and so on. But without a doubt, Christmas Evil is the best of these films.

Horror Movies Based on Kids' Characters

Harry, played by Fiona Apple’s dad Brandon Maggart, is a weird guy who is totally into Christmas and Santa. He dons a red outfit, loses his mind, and murders everyone, as promised, but it’s how he loses his mind and kills everyone that makes the movie so enjoyable during the holidays. In addition, no other film in history can top the ending of Christmas Evil.

Where to Watch: AMC+.

READ MORE: 8 Best Reboots of Shows You Loved as a Kid!

Rare Exports a Christmas Tale

Oh, wait a minute, maybe Rare Exports is the best film in which Santa Claus murders humans. This Norwegian film is a holiday tradition in my house.

It’s different from other Christmas horror films because it doesn’t involve a man dressed as Santa Claus. Like the monster in John Carpenter’s The Thing, Santa has been freed from his icy tomb here. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should see this film. Very nice.

Where to Watch: Streaming on Peacock.

Pinocchio’s Revenge

If you thought “This is the worst version of Pinocchio ever made” after viewing 2022’s Pinocchio: a True Story, you haven’t seen 2093’s Pinocchio: Revenge. Like Puppet Master and Dolly Dearest, it was a hit with home video audiences in the mid-1990s and is essentially a rip-off of Child’s Play.

Horror Movies Based on Kids' Characters

It’s about a puppet named Pinocchio who seems to be possessed by a serial killer’s ghost, but is it?? The most striking dissimilarity between Pinocchio and its source is that the latter lacks the well-crafted suspense and outlandishness that make Child’s Play a timeless classic. When you sit down to watch a film titled “Pinocchio’s Revenge,” the last thing you expect is a strangely serious tone.

Where to Watch: Available for rental only.

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