Why Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare Is Nothing Like Winnie-the-Pooh Slashers (Even Though They’re Connected)

After two Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey films, the Twisted Childhood Universe from Jagged Edge Productions is readying another horror project based on a beloved kid’s character. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is set for a limited theatrical engagement this month, and the initial trailer for the film shows a total departure from what fans saw in either Blood and Honey installment.

This Peter Pan horror movie, from writer/director Scott Chambers, is much more grounded and terrifying than the Winnie-the-Pooh films. There aren’t a bunch of slasher killers in giant animal costumes this time around. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare follows a troubled man who, after experiencing a horrific childhood of his own, wants to “save” young boys from the terrifying world by taking them to Neverland. It’s a chilling, all-too-real tale that has more in common with The Black Phone than Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

Why are these movies so different, despite taking place in the same connected universe? ComicBook had the chance to chat with Scott Chambers ahead of Peter Pan‘s theatrical bow, and we asked that very question.

“So with, Peter Pan, well, with the Poohniverse in general, every single entry will feel different to the last, and that is to open it up to different audiences,” Chambers told us.

“I compare it a lot to the Conjuring universe in terms of when you watch a Conjuring film, any of those films like The Nun or whatever they are, you kind of know what you’re getting yourself into. There won’t be deaths, but it’s gonna have a tone or the mood to it, and it’ll have some good jump scares. I’m not a massive fan of some of those films, so therefore I’m never that excited about the universe in general,” he continued. “So what I wanted to do as a horror fan was make a universe where it didn’t shut that door on certain people in terms of all that.”

[RELATED: Surprising Villains Set for Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble]

Chambers elaborated on that point, explaining that the goal of the franchise is to appeal to all sorts of different audiences. So if the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movies aren’t your thing, you’ll be able to enjoy something like Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. Even though they are set in the same world, they don’t have a lot of shared DNA.

“So Winnie-the-Pooh one and two, if you don’t like those is okay because Pan you might like it because it’s totally different tone-wise. And then moving on to [Pinocchio Unstrung]. That’s also got a different tone to the other two. So they’re always changing, but it’s changing at the same time to fit that story,” the filmmaker shared.

“I don’t want to make films just for the sake of it. So it felt right with Peter Pan because when you look at the original material, is a guy literally if you just look at the bones that he’s sneaking into bedrooms of children who are asleep and lowers them out of their window and takes them to Neverland. So to me already that was creepy. And I wanted to bring a lot of those elements that we all know and love into this and just literally tell it for what it is.”

Ultimately, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare also needed to be darker and more serious because it has the difficult task as setting up its titular character as the biggest villain of the franchise. According to Chambers, Peter Pan is going to be the big bad of the upcoming team-up film Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, and audiences need to buy into his evil before that movie begins.

“Obviously with my own little dark spin on it, but, it is all leaning towards Poohniverse: Monsters assemble. And with this entry, not only did it feel right to make this bleak and darker, but I need audiences, by the time they get to Poohniverse, I need them to feel a certain way about these characters,” he said. “So every time we introduce one of these films, it will make sense when you put them all together who you’re going to gravitate towards. Because when we get to that film, a bit like Freddy vs. Jason within that film, they put you more on side of Jason than they do Freddy.

“I won’t have enough time to do that in my film because I’ve got so many villains. So when you get to universe, Peter Pan is very much the bigger bad, and then you’ve got the bad soldiers and stuff. So there’s all these reasons why I went into doing what I did.”

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare will play in theaters from January 13th through January 15th.