The State And Future Of Killer Childhood Characters

TV & Film

Dec 31

Anyone who studies horror knows that it goes through phases. From the monster movies of the 30s to the slashers of the 80s to the remakes of the 2000s-2010s, horror has many quantifiable eras, especially when it comes to the slasher film. Nowadays, the latest film trend appears to be taking a beloved childhood character that has just hit public domain, and turning them into a slasher killer. It started with 2023’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, which is already widely considered one of the worst films of all time.

However, its success opened the floodgates, and we got an admittedly vastly superior sequel, as well as a killer Steamboat Willie film called The Mouse Trap, that’s actually worse than Blood and Honey, a sequel to that, a third Blood and Honey film, three upcoming killer Popeye films, a killer Mickey/Pooh crossover film, Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, a few other killer Mickey films, a big Avengers-style film with most of the above and more, and to top it off, most if not all of the films mentioned, which is probably not an exhaustive list, are coming out next year.

So yeah, it’s a thing.

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A huge reason for this is the same one as why there seemed to be thirty slasher films released every weekend during the 80s: you can find all of the money you need to make one in your couch cushions, and as such, only three people need to see it to turn a profit. Plus, you never know when you’re going to make the next Freddy or Michael or Jigsaw.

They’re near zero risk, possibly high reward endeavors. The original Blood and Honey had a budget of $100,000 and made over 7.7 million at the box office. The sequel had a higher budget given the success of the first film, a “whopping” half a million dollars, and pulled in similar numbers as the original at the box office. To any film studio that’s ever existed, an atrocious film that makes 77 times its budget is just as good as a masterpiece that pulls in similar numbers.

Is every film that I just mentioned going to turn a big profit? Of course not, as several of them aren’t even going to be released to theaters, and Blood and Honey’s marketing and word-of-mouth helped it reach the heights that it did. Given that the same director who made Blood and Honey is making the Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinocchio Sleeping Beauty and Avengers-style film, you can count on at least all of those getting some profit at the box office. With other characters such as Tintin, Pluto, Betty Boop, Goofy and Donald becoming public domain in the next few years, each January 1st will provide a new “crop” so to speak of characters to twist.

It probably won’t be like that, though, for the simple reason that the gimmick will have worn thin in the eyes of the vast majority of horror fans.

Films like this are kind of behind the eight ball. On top of horror being a genre with a limited audience anyway, there’s nothing about it that gives it wide appeal. How many people truly want to watch a horror movie with a killer Pooh? Probably about enough to get 7.7 million at the box office. Once most of those people say “alright, alright, it was fun the first few times, but now it’s getting boring” the sub-genre will fizzle out.

When it comes to killer characters, there are two options: make a clone of some previous horror icon (or a clone of one of their clones) and paint him to look like Pooh or whoever, or analyze the character you’re working with and see where you can fit “killer” into their personality. There’s nothing about Pooh or Piglet that you could twist to make killer work, so they had to go with the former option.

Which makes it frustrating that they’re going the former route with Peter Pan, when there’s so much to work with if you use the book character as a template.

In any case, how many Jason/Michael-esque killers who look like Disney characters that lumber around the screen slashing scantily clad teenagers are we going to get before we get bored, especially since the market for that is going to be over-saturated in the next year or two? How can four killer Mickey Mouse films going to be unique and not just blur together? This isn’t a sub-genre with a lot of staying power. Only them most die hard of cheesy horror film fanatics who love watching low grade slasher will keep coming back.

Although, I admit that I am one such person.

So what’s the future of killer childhood character movies? Well, they’ll never truly go away. You’ll still be able to find four killer Snow White movies in the hidden corners of Tubi a few years from now. However, you’re probably not going to see anything mainstream, or at least, mainstream for horror fans. The gimmick that will really show its age in a year or so will have faded, and nobody will care that a killer Bugs Bunny movie is coming out in 2035. Blood and Honey definitely started something, but it’s not going to last.

Or I could be completely wrong, and that killer Bugs Bunny movie will be one of the highest grossing slasher films of that year. One never does know.

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