A sequel to a Winnie-the-Pooh horror film that was filmed in Sussex has now been released in the UK, with some reviewers describing it as "tedious schlock".

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II is a sequel to the 2023 film from director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, which was released in the UK today (Friday, June 7).

It was able to be made after the first Winnie-the-Pooh book by author A. A. Milne became a public domain work in the United States.

Originally published in 1926 this then became free of copyright, meaning works could be made using those characters.

A. A. Milne was a well-known figure to Sussex having lived at Cotchford Farm in Hartfield and basing the Hundred Acre Wood of the Pooh stories from Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest.

Ashdown Forest was a filming location for the first Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey film, which managed to make more than $5 million from a $100,000 budget last year.

The first film was heavily panned by critics but has it seen any improvement with the sequel?

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II panned by critics

Whilst Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II has seen a slight improvement in terms of critic scores, it has still been received very poorly overall.

The 2023 film had just a 3% score on Rotten Tomatoes (meaning only two of the 62 reviews were positive) and an average score of 2.2/10.

Additionally, it had an incredibly low rating of 2.9/10 based on 29,000 reviews on IMDb (International Movie Database).

In comparison, the sequel has a score of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes (17 of the 35 critic reviews were positive) and an average score of 4.6/10.

There has been a bit of a bump on IMDb as well, with a 4.9/10 rating from 3,900 reviews.

Most top critics who reviewed the slasher were not impressed by what was offered up.

Leslie Felperin, writing in The Guardian, said it was "tedious schlock" which was "neither funny nor scary, despite all the slasher-movie embellishments".

Owen Gleiberman from Variety described it as "mostly a shambles" whilst Nick Schager from The Daily Beast said it "doesn’t feature a competent performance".

However, some critics enjoyed it, with Rebecca Johnson from Film Focus Online writing: "With a deeper story, more kills and improved visuals, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 manages to exceed expectations set out by the original."

Most reviews followed in a similar pattern to the 2023 original, which was nominated for a number of categories at the Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies) last year.

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It saw it win Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

The films have served to launch The Twisted Childhood Universe (TCU) which will be dark reimaginings of various children's stories and characters.

This will include Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung and Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare.