Get able to wreck some extra childhood reminiscences. Unique to IndieWire, Untouchables Leisure has simply dropped a brand new teaser for “The Darkish Area: Mickey-vs-Winnie.” The low-budget horror flick is predicted from Emmy-nominated choreographer-turned-filmmaker Glenn Douglas Packard someday in 2026. The brand new footage features a debut glimpse of Darkish Winnie (Givanni Gotay), a feral model of the cartoon bear made well-known by writer A.A. Milne and his beloved books set within the Hundred Acre Wooden — higher recognized right here as Hell Forest.
Within the subsequent chapter for “The Darkish Area,” Packard’s quickly increasing storytelling universe introduces Pooh as ferocious, huge, and coated in black(!) blood. That’s numerous teddy to absorb at first, however the actor who performs Pooh, Gotay, is wise sufficient to wield the baked-in chaos of a public-domain horror set like a psychological defend. Successfully maintaining Pooh’s presence larger-than-life whereas nonetheless sustaining the self-awareness wanted to maintain Gotay from steering too goofy, the “Mickey-vs-Winnie” star helps Packard decide to the most effective and push the IP development deeper into the movie fringes with a nightmare that’s gorier, grimier, and nonetheless stuffed with glee.
Actress Fayna Sanchez, lately seen in “Abraham’s Boys” and “Home of Ashes,” co-stars as Clare. She’s only a lady making an attempt and, by the appears to be like of the brutal teaser, failing to maintain her mates alive in a gnarled maze that’s ensnared their childhood trauma to manifest extra grownup reminiscences certain to final for a lifetime. Drawn by a power they don’t perceive, this forged makes nostalgia look critically nasty.
“They’re turning what we love into nightmares,” says Clare… newly conscious… of the bear. Playful but menacing, Packard punches vitality into his newest teaser, successfully conveying the texture of a manufacturing that leaned arduous into bodily depth with out dropping its darkish comedic buzz.
“We even introduced in a body-piercing suspension artist,” Packard mentioned in a press launch. That element that lands someplace between dedication to the craft and an OSHA violation within the making — however to butcher a phrase, you catch extra flies utilizing unbridled depravity than honey.
“As a director, I used to be dedicated to creating essentially the most genuine and intense environment potential,” the filmmaker continued. “It was an intense expertise for the forged, just a few even vomited. When it was all mentioned and completed, we knew we’d completed extra than simply pay homage to public area horror, we elevated it. We gave horror followers precisely what they’ve been craving from this sub-genre.”
Darkish Winnie and Darkish Mickey endeavor to face out in an more and more crowded house as dueling monsters. Per Packar, they have been respectively envisioned as “Jason Voorhees [leveling] up into the Predator” and “Pennywise meets Freddy Krueger.” (Hey, look! A win for that needlessly controversial IGN article about “The Working Man,” additionally born this week.)
Billed because the first-ever public-domain crossover, “Mickey-vs-Winnie” guarantees a devilish battle between its titular mousy manipulator and growling quadruped hungry for destruction. Approaching the heels of Dan Trachtenberg’s “Predator: Badlands,” that’s one small step for Disney — one large agonizing limb-from-limb ripping for mankind.
Watch the brand new teaser unique to IndieWire beneath.
