The director of a Winnie-the-Pooh slasher horror parody said people have threatened to kill him following the film’s release in America.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, which was filmed in Ashdown Forest, sees Pooh and Piglet go on a murderous rampage after being abandoned by Christopher Robin.

Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director of the film, now says that he has received death threats and people calling the police over his A.A. Milne-inspired creation.

The director of the film told Far Out Magazine: “I’ve had petitions to stop it. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had people saying they called the police.”

The film, which was created after the original copyright on Winnie the Pooh lapsed, is set for release in the UK next month.

The slasher was named as one of the most anticipated movies of 2023 but has now received swathes of reviews following its release in America.

The Guardian describes the film as a “dashed-off operation with little to recommend it as cinema”.

Filming for the slasher took place in Ashdown Forest, the inspiration for the fictional Hundred Acre Woods of the books, across ten days in early 2022.

A trailer for the movie features scenes where Piglet hits someone in the head with a mallet, Pooh kidnaps a woman, while the main characters try to escape the pair’s clutches.

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Describing the film’s premise, director Frake-Waterfield told Variety: “Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not given them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult.

“Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral. So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is set to debut in UK cinemas on March 10, with a DVD and Blu Ray release in April.

A sequel for the film is also believed to be in the works after the viral success of the first film.