Say it isn’t so. A much-beloved childhood literary character and his sidekick have become the stars of a dark and grisly movie. It’s all because of the end of copyright protection and its entrance into the public domain.

In the 1920s, many copyright protections on content were introduced in the pop culture of the era. They were set up to expire 95 years later. That’s now. The characters of our childhood, and the childhoods of other generations, are in the public domain. Without copyright protection, it’s open season for screenwriters.

It’s not just Winnie the Pooh and his friend, Piglet, that have gone dark and murderous. The filmmaker behind “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” also has two other movies planned based on characters that are entering the public domain. Rhys Frake-Waterfield has “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” and “Bambi: The Reckoning” in the works. Next year, Disney will lose Mickey Mouse. The exclusive rights to Mickey’s likeness as depicted in his first cartoon, Steamboat Willie will be in the public domain. In the next 10 years, Bug Bunny, Batman, and Superman will be up for grabs in the public domain, too.

Not all of Pooh’s friends are included and there seems to be a market for the dark and scary horror movie version of Pooh.

The characters and stories created in the 1920s have evolved from their black-and-white days. Steamboat Willie’s Mickey Mouse is not under the same copyright as King Mickey from Kingdom Hearts. Similarly, since only the copyright on A.A. Milne’s 1926 book, Winnie-the-Pooh, (which Disney acquired in 1961) expired last year, the Pooh horror flick faced restrictions in its depiction of the Poohverse.

Tigger was off-limits since he bounced into the lore in 1928.

Pooh wasn’t allowed to wear a red shirt because he was routinely nude until 1932 (okay, but what if his shirt gets covered in blood?).

There’s an appetite for nightmare-fuel twists on familiar content. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey already earned $1 million in its first market, Mexico, despite being made for less than $100,000. A sequel’s in the works

How depressing. Winnie the Pooh is a serial killer and I’m not happy about this development at all. Pooh is terrorizing the remote house of young women in this micro-budget slasher film.

Countless cherished characters have passed into the public domain before, but perhaps never so abruptly and savagely as Pooh.

Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore, and Christopher Robin all became public domain on January 1 last year when the copyright on A.A. Milne’s 1926 book, “Winnie-the-Pooh,” with illustrations by E.H. Shepard, expired. Just a year later, Pooh and Piglet can now be found on a murderous rampage in nationwide movie theaters — a head-spinning development that’s happened faster than a bear could say “Oh, bother.”

Depending on how you look at it, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” is either a crass way to capitalize on a beloved bear or an ingenious bit of independent filmmaking foresight. Either way, it’s probably a harbinger of what’s to come.

Tigger is safe until 2024 since he debuted in “The House at Pooh Corner” in 1928.

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” was made for less than $100,000. It opened Friday on 1,500 screens in North America. That’s a wide release for a small-budget movie. It made $1 million in Mexico. “I kind of thought this could do a small theatrical run in some places and do quite well commercially,” says Waterfield. “But it’s blown up way beyond that to a scale that’s insane.”

Waterfield doesn’t understand why people are upset. He’s even received death threats. Welcome to 2023.

“You’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned to do a movie like this,” Waterfield says. “It baffles me. People think making an alternative version of him is somehow infiltrating their minds and destroying their memories. When I get claims that I ruined people’s childhoods, I’m genuinely confused. I just kind of brush it off and carry on making more of them.”

Here’s a brief description of the storyline. *SPOILER ALERT*

When Pooh, Piglet, and the other Hundred Acre Wood residents are abandoned by Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon), they struggle to fend for themselves. While suffering extreme starvation, Pooh decides to kill and eat Eeyore. Ever since Pooh and Piglet operate as feral, bloodthirsty creatures who hate human beings.

Pooh and Piglet are more humanoid than bear and pig-like.

“I hate this word and I might not be able to say it — anthropomorphic. Hybrids. Half-bear, half-man, and half-pig, half-[man]. So that was a decision because I wanted them to have the ability to hold weapons. So if I made Winnie the Pooh just a bear, he’s got paws. All he will do is go around swiping people and killing them, maybe biting them. But with hands it becomes so much more fun because he has weapons, he can drive a car, I can do all these really interesting things.”

And, for you sickos out there who are interested in this garbage, there will be a sequel. Ugh. Leave our childhood literature alone.