In a small way, the small-budget British independent film “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” lured audiences back to theaters two years ago. The concept of Bad Taste and the trailer have generated viral appeal for a guilty pleasure. Then Fathom Events’ theatrical window was so short, there was no chance for word of mouth to spoil the fun. Which was fortunate, because the film itself was an amateur effort.
However, credit must be given to the filmmakers: they absorbed all the criticism (including the impressive “Golden Raspberries” campaign), and committed to making their big profits making better films… albeit along the same lines. Last year’s sequel to “Honey” was said to be a huge improvement. Now there’s “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare,” and it’s a bad one — meaning it appeals to horror fans who brave not just gore but also truly unpleasant ideas.
You might hesitate to call a film focusing on child terror, adult deviance, and sadistic violence exactly “good.” But there’s no doubt that director Scott Jeffery casts a subtly unsettling spell on a tale that features a cross between “It” and the original “Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” Iconic Events’ theatrical release in the US for three days through January 15 will be followed by screenings in other countries starting next month.
The motive, as with other recent “public domain horror” entries, is to cash in on a beloved fictional character whose copyright protection has expired. “Blood and Honey” creator Rhys Vrack-Waterfield, a producer here, and his producers are Jagged Edge Prods. Plan the entire “World of Twisted Childhood” for such joints, with an intense, family-friendly showdown of Bambi and Pinocchio next on the list.
Whether “Nightmare” will remain a surprisingly shrewd aberration within a generally despised subgenre, or prove a harbinger of that category’s continuing redemption, is anyone’s guess yet. One thing is for sure: Thank God J.M. Barrie is long dead, because this movie will definitely kill him.
Not that there is much connection with the Scottish author’s most famous character, who first appeared in print 123 years ago and whose popularity has increased dramatically in his later stages and screen incarnations. The Peter Pan character here is a grotesque, real-world distortion of “the boy who never grew up”—a serial killer whose formative traumas convinced him to “save” children from the corruption of maturity by kidnapping and killing them. Martin Borlock plays a mad, disfigured middle-aged man, and he retains enough fantastical elements to briefly “fly” and glimpse his shadow-puppet-like animation. But those moments only depict his illusions.
After a long prologue in which a young boy and his mother fatefully meet Peter—first as a circus performer, then as an uninvited guest in the house—Geoffrey’s script jumps forward 15 years to the present day. Michael Darling (Peter D’Souza Figone) celebrates his birthday with his older siblings Wendy (Megan Placeto) and John (Campbell Wallace) and his divorced mother Mary (Teresa Banham), and later at school with his best friend Joey (Hardy Joseph). . When Wendy goes to pick him up next, he’s gone. We soon learn that he has attracted the attention of the fearsome Peter, who has kidnapped the boy and dragged him as a prisoner to the dilapidated country house he shares with Tinker Bell (Kate Green).
The Darlings’ fears of this unusual absence are compounded when a mysterious phone call heralds the return of “Peter Pan” – a former territorial child kidnapper who was never caught and is now presumed dead or inactive. Feeling somewhat responsible, Wendy tries to help the police in the search with her own investigation. Eventually this leads her to Michael’s terrified place. But not before Peter wreaks more havoc, including an assault on a school bus full of the boy’s classmates, and on Joy’s hapless family, who becomes another kidnapper.
There is no graphic brutality in the long climax as Wendy tries to save her brother. Less savory is the focus on body horror, with characters sometimes suffering from inexplicable skin diseases or other deformities. The biggest breakthrough in the “TMI” universe is our discovery of the “horrible things” Peter’s mother did to him, including apparently breaking up with…well, Peter.
Jeffrey, who has worked extensively under the name Scott Chambers, is an openly gay producer, director, and actor. However, while some elements of the story here are meant to be sympathetic, one still wonders about the wisdom behind decisions like portraying Tinker Bell as a gender-ambiguous addict. At times, “Nightmare” seems to equate “different” with “sick” and “killer,” creating an unintentionally reactionary effect. It also contains some basic logical holes – although admittedly this is not the kind of film where such things usually matter.
However, as disturbingly rampant trap scenarios go, Jeffrey’s feature is alive in terms of disturbing atmosphere and visceral action. It’s arguably a better treatment of the overlapping themes than 2021’s mainstream film “The Black Phone” and is undoubtedly a big, elegant leap forward from the director’s previous stints behind the camera, a bleak resume that includes “Firenado,” “Exorcist Vengeance” and “Troll Cannibals.” “Humans.”
Here, he has a staff capable of taking his efforts seriously, and the pace is reckless thanks to the powerful wide images of editor Dan Allen and Vince Knight. The big plus is Bridget Melisse’s production design, which makes Peter’s dwelling a kind of ramshackle illusion in which every room and corridor is an occasion to trigger a panic attack. The Neverland he intends to send his captives to is, of course, death. However, the situation in which they await this end is no less dangerous than the tip of a knife or a pair of strangling hands for adults.
There are some decent jumps in “Nightmare”. But what’s scary overall is something much more widespread. Despite the superficiality of the “psychological” film, it conveys a kind of mentally disturbed environment where the hope of survival seems futile. It’s a disturbing enough vision, especially in waging war against children’s sense of protection, that this reviewer took offense to his neighbors: a couple who brought their almost 7-year-old daughter along. When the end credits rolled, her only verdict was “awesome.” I feel anxious when she gets a full night’s sleep after that.