The “Twisted Childhood Universe” (also known as the “Poohniverse”), is undoubtedly charting a course for a vast expansion in 2025. Since striking internet gold with Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and continuing the momentum with Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey II, creator Rhys Frake-Waterfield hasn’t let the viral success of the series go to waste. Now, an extended universe based on horror versions of classic children’s characters is expanding with Bambi: The Reckoning and Pinocchio: Unstrung, but not before the franchise’s first deviation from the Blood and Honey films — Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare.
It’s no secret that the Blood and Honey movies were made primarily to capitalize on the denizens of the 100-acre wood joining the public domain, with the inherent shock value of Pooh and Piglet killing people being too good to pass up. However, the concept of a horror film centering around a twisted version of Peter Pan honestly holds water. The idea of an immortal boy who abducts children and takes them to a magical land infested by pirates is a dark premise that can be easily tweaked into a horror-centric plot. Sadly, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare seems to be more concerned with copying other better horror stories instead of fully committing to its intriguing idea.
Much like the classic tale it is inspired by, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare follows Wendy Darling (Megan Placito) and her family, with the young woman ready to enter adulthood and move on with her life. Only, in this version, Peter Pan is not a fun-loving rebel who fights pirates and doesn’t wanna grow up. This Peter (Marin Portlock) is a notorious and vindictive serial killer whose primary victims are children and any other adults who get in his way. While Peter promises to take these unsuspecting kids to Neverland, the actual reality of his trips is much less magical. Wendy finds herself tracking down this gleeful cretin when her little brother Michael (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) is abducted to become one of Peter’s “Lost Boys.”
Peter Pan Himself Is ‘Neverland Nightmare’s Biggest Strength and Biggest Misstep

So, let’s start with the obvious — Peter Pan is an adult man in Neverland Nightmare instead of a plucky young kid or even a teenager. This honestly feels counter-intuitive, as keeping Peter a kid would have made him being a serial killer more unique and disturbing. Movies like Trick ‘r Treat and Orphan have easily proven there’s a market for children’s horror villains out there, so why not try to capitalize on that? The age doesn’t help the fact that Peter’s scarred face makes the character almost unrecognizable from who he’s supposed to be an adaptation of.
Thankfully, actor Marin Portlock seems to be having a lot of fun in the role. Though he may not exactly be a great adaptation of Peter Pan and he seems to have a new voice every time he speaks, he still has enough horror movie killer charm to keep viewers entertained. Megan Placito’s Wendy is also a more than capable final girl, delivering a solid performance as a sister desperate to save her brother.
Several other characters from the classic story also make an appearance in some capacity, and while this starts to dip into spoiler territory, these will probably be the most controversial depictions. One of these characters is transgender, and while it’s far from the most offensive depiction of a trans person — and the film does deserve credit for casting someone from the transgender community for the part — the fact that the title this character is typically referred to is often used as a derogatory term for queer individuals isn’t great. The other example is literally inserted into the story at the last second as if the filmmakers forgot this character should probably be present in a Peter Pan story.
‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’ Is Far Too Reliant on Familiar Horror Tropes

Image via INT Studios

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’s first horror set piece involves Peter in full clown makeup, trying to convince a kid that he’s a friend while he’s in a crevice on the floor. If that description didn’t make it obvious already, this is about as big of a rip-off of It as it possibly gets, even down to Peter introducing himself to try and gain the boy’s trust. As far as cold opens go, it’s far too derivative of other horror flicks.
Again, it’s a real shame that Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare doesn’t try to capitalize more on its audacious concept. There have been so many different versions of Peter Pan over the years that there is so much inspiration to choose from. Instead, we get a formulaic, by-the-numbers movie that could have any horror slasher slotted in as a stand-in. if you were to watch Neverland Nightmare on mute without any context, it’s hard to imagine anyone would pinpoint this as a Peter Pan movie. Even Once Upon a Time had a more compelling version of a villainous Peter Pan despite being so far outside of the horror sphere.

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Admittedly, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare has come a long way from the microbudget production value of the first Blood and Honey. There are some nice gore effects and the makeup overall is as solid as Skull Rock. The same can’t really be said for the kills, which all feel very formulaic and could be seen in just about any other horror film.

Image via Jagged Edge Productions

Making a feature-length film on any scale is a remarkable achievement no matter how you slice it. Regardless of your feelings about these films, the Poohniverse continues to grow and be moderately successful. Apart from some fairly poor sound effects and ADR, the film is technically solid. The adverse result of a net positive like that is that one can’t really blame the problems of Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare on budgetary constraints.
Perhaps the biggest issue with Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and the entire Twisted Childhood Universe is that it takes itself far too seriously. Playing a silly and on-the-nose concept has its strengths, but only if that story lends itself to its wild and wacky concept. Neverland Nightmare’s zanier moments don’t land because of its self-serious tone. Even Blood and Honey has a supernatural element, which makes Neverland Nightmare’s decision to be more terrestrial even more bizarre. Instead of exploring a twisted version of a magical realm, this pseudo-trip to Neverland keeps things stuck in the real world that the kids of these stories are usually trying to escape.
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare releases in select theaters on January 13, 2025.

Where it could have been a twisted dream of a childhood classic, ‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’ should take the second star to the right and just keep on going.

Pros

Marin Porlock and Megan Placinto give dedicated performances.

Cons

Doesn’t make proper use of the Peter Pan IP.
Blatantly rips off other established horror films.
Takes itself too seriously despite being a horror movie based on a children’s story.

Release Date

February 24, 2025

Director

Scott Chambers

Cast

Martin Portlock
, Megan Plactio
, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney
, Charity Kase
, Teresa Banham
, Kit Green
, Jenny Miller
, Nicholas Woodeson
, Jay Robertson
, Campbell Wallace
, Chrissie Wunna
, Belinda Fenty
, Kierston Wareing
, Charlotte Coleman
, Frederick Dallaway
, Jamie Robertson
, Riccardo Carmelita
, Adam Speers
, Kelly Rian Sanson
, Lucas Allermann
, Ardy Yusuf
, Evelyn Morris
, Myles Perry
, Rhys Frake-Waterfield
, Lewis Santer
, Dan Allen
, Scott Chambers

Runtime

87 Minutes

Writers

Scott Chambers
, Rhys Frake-Waterfield
, J.M. Barrie

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