Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey director Rhys Frake-Waterfield's next movie will be Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, and it may be able to beat its predecessor. The upcoming Peter Pan horror movie is just another entry in a trend of taking public domain family-friendly properties and turning them into horrifically gory thrillers. While this has been going on for a while, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey definitely brought more attention to the niche genre - something that Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare could seriously benefit from.
Not much is currently known about Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, but if it's anything like Waterfield's other film, it will most likely be another nightmare-fueled fantasy. The success of the horror movie inspired by Winnie the Pooh has shown that this strange subgenre has a lot of legs, with several new takes on classic Disney movies currently in the works. Out of all of them, though, it seems like Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare is the most likely film to come out on top.
Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare Can Embrace The Story's Scary Aspects
Unlike some of the other properties that have been turned into horror movies, Peter Pan is a natural subject for a horror movie. While the story is typically presented as whimsical and fun, Peter Pan actually has a lot of scary aspects. Not only does Peter Pan kidnap children, but he even lives with a tribe of dangerous young boys in the woods. While the Disney film mostly focuses on fairies and mermaids, there are surely all kinds of dangerous creatures that populate Neverland, some that could probably make for a pretty terrifying film.
The darkest part of Peter Pan is actually Neverland, with the location providing some existential horror on top of the aforementioned monsters and mythical creatures. Kids never grow up in Neverland, and while in some ways this sounds nice, the concept is actually horrifying. The setting of Neverland means that the kids that Peter Pan kidnaps can't even hope to escape through dying of old age, with Pan's victims being forced to live on the island forever. This is an incredibly dark concept, one that Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare can use to make itself stand out from the crowd.
Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey's Success Helps The Peter Pan Horror Movie
Although the film wasn't received well, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey's box office returns have been huge, with the film making $1.58 million in its first week against a $100,000 budget. The buzz that this film has created could naturally promote Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, with the Winnie the Pooh film still being fresh on everyone's minds. Turnaround times for low-budget horror movies are pretty small, meaning that Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare can probably be released before Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey leaves the national conversation.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey's box office could also help Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare get a bigger budget. Since Rhys Frake-Waterfield has established himself as a successful director, investors may be more confident in his next film, potentially giving the film more resources. Even if Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare gets a budget of only $1 million, that's still 10 times what Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey cost, making the film even better.