Let me start with this disclaimer: I have not seen any of the Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey movies. Nor am I interested in this thing known as The Poohniverse. (Yes, I know technically it’s called the Twisted Childhood Universe, but most folks call it The Poohniverse.)

So, you may be asking yourself why in the world did I go see Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare? Curiosity killed the cat after the Tinkerbelle clip came out. However, I am honestly glad I went to see it because I was pleasantly surprised by this film. 

In this universe, Peter Pan (Martin Portlock) is a clown at a circus who uses the circus to pick out his victims to “send to Neverland,” a place where children can live forever. Basically code for child killer. An attack is thwarted leaving Peter severely wounded and he disappears. He re-emerges 15 years later to continue his reign of terror with the help of Tinkerbelle (Kit Green), a transgender woman who believes they are a fairy. They are also addicted to heroin, which is dubbed “pixie dust.” This causes them to see the real Peter Pan’s shadow, who tells them who to “send next” to Neverland. At least we THINK it’s the Real Peter Pan’s shadow.

The latest victim is Michael Darling (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), a loner outsider kid who is kidnapped on his birthday. His older sister, Wendy (Megan Placito), gets distracted when picking him up from school and misses his abduction. The film goes back and forth from Wendy redeeming her actions and Michael trying to survive both Peter and Tinkerbelle’s actions. 

This is where the film gets harsh. The scenes inside “The Lost Boys’ Home” have an intensity that is one part The People Under The Stairs and another part any 90’s horror direct-to-video film. There are genuine moments of scariness within this house of horrors, where the rooms seem to smell of death and the televisions play killer crocodile videos non-stop. (This also acts as a reference to Tick-Tock the Crocodile.)

While the film has some intense imagery and amazing makeup effects, it does has its flaws. For starters, we don’t really know exactly why Peter comes back after all this time. The actions and motivations of the characters are seriously unclear. On top of all of this, we have Charity Kase as Captain Hook but there’s no explanation for why or any backstory for how Hook became Hook. In fact, Hook is barely in the film, making the scenes with them a confusing waste of time. 

I am sure this is the case for the Pooh films as well. However, in this case the flaws do not get in the way of entertaining you. I walked away feeling like I got my money’s worth, which honestly shocked me given how low my expectations were.

Will I continue the Poohniverse? I don’t think so, but you never know. That CGI killer Bambi with rabies movie could be a delicious disaster.