By Yasmin Rufo, BBC News
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield. Photo: Altitude Films
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has swept the board at the Razzie Awards, winning five of the 10 categories.
The slasher film took advantage of the copyright for AA Milne's classic tale expiring, and reimagined the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood as vicious serial killers.
Sylvester Stallone's Expend4bles also picked up two awards.
Announced the day before the Oscars reward Hollywood's finest, the Razzies name and shame the year's worst films.
The organisers describe their awards as the "ugly cousin to the Oscars".
When it was released last year, the Pooh film received a string of downright awful reviews.
The Guardian called it a "a terrifying combination of not-scary and not-funny" awarding it one star, while Empire said it was "the poorest writing and acting seen in a theatrically-released horror film in living memory".
The movie won worst picture, worst screenplay, worst director and worst rip-off. Pooh and Piglet, depicted in the film as blood-thirsty killers, also won worst on-screen couple.
But the negative reviews have not deterred director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who won worst director. He has announced a sequel to the film and other horror films centring on beloved children characters such as Bambi and Peter Pan.
According to US copyright laws, rights to characters can be held for 95 years. After that, the characters can be legally shared, performed, reused, repurposed or sampled by anyone without permission or cost.
At the beginning of 2024, the copyright for Walt Disney's 1928 animated short film Steamboat Willie expired.
As a result, the trailer for another new slasher film, featuring a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse, was released on the same day the copyright expired.
A new Mickey-inspired horror game, showing the rodent covered with blood stains, also dropped on the same day.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey did manage to escape winning in some categories, most notably worst actor and actress.
The worst actor award went to Oscar winner Jon Voight for his role as an Irish mobster in Mercy.
The film, which follows a former combat surgeon who faces ruthless Irish gangsters holding innocent patients hostage, received mainly negative reviews.
Expend4bles (2023), directed by Scott Waugh and starring Megan Fox. Photo: Millennium Films - Campbell Grob / Collection ChristopheL via AFP
Megan Fox picked up two awards this year - one for worst actress in horror-heist film Johnny & Clyde and the other for worst supporting actress for her role in the fourth instalment of the Expendables franchise.
Expend4bles, as it is stylised, also saw Sylvester Stallone, who has been nominated 16 times over the years, win worst supporting actor.
The full winners list
Worst picture: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Worst actor: Jon Voight, Mercy
Worst actress: Megan Fox, Johnny & Clyde
Supporting actress: Megan Fox, Expend4bles
Supporting actor: Sylvester Stallone, Expend4bles
Worst on-screen couple: Pooh & Piglet, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Worst remake, rip-off or sequel: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Worst director: Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Worst screenplay:Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
Redeemer award: Fran Drescher
- This story was first published by the BBC.
