Certificate: 18

Running Time: 89 mins

UK Distributor: Altitude Films

UK Release Date: 28 April 2025

WHO’S IN PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE?

Martin Portlock, Megan Placito, Kit Green, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Charity Kase, Teresa Banham, Nicholas Woodeson, Kierston Wareing, Olumide Olorunfemi, Campbell Wallace

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Scott Chambers (director, writer, producer), Rhys Frake-Waterfield (writer, producer), Greg Birkumshaw (composer), Vince Knight (cinematographer), Dan Allen (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

The evil child abductor Peter Pan (Portlock) causes murderous havoc…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE?

Few could have predicted that the 2023 slasher Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey – made and released as soon as the beloved character entered the public domain – would not only spawn a surprisingly decent sequel, but also its own cinematic universe of similarly twisted versions of timeless children’s stories. What’s more, the good folks at Jagged Edge Productions are firmly committed to what is now known as the Twisted Childhood Universe, with violent takes on the likes of Pinocchio and Bambi yet to come, all leading to an Avengers-style crossover event that combines all these murderous creatures for a presumably gory showdown.

Part of that roster, one presumes, is the rather unpleasant version of J.M. Barrie’s most famous creation who’s front and centre in Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, which reimagines the classic tale as a nasty mix of The Black Phone and the Terrifier series, complete with everything you’ve come to expect from Jagged Edge at this point (which could be good or bad, depending on your own views).

In the film, as written and directed by Scott Chambers – aka Christopher Robin in last year’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 – Peter Pan (Martin Portlock) is a disfigured, mask-wearing, heroin-addicted child abductor who believes it is his life’s purpose to bring young boys to the world of Neverland – which more or less amounts to brutally killing them and sending them to the afterlife. His latest victim is young Michael Darling (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), whom he takes as the boy is riding home from school, leaving  Michael’s older sister Wendy (Megan Placito) to try and rescue him before anything can happen to him. And along the way, throats are slashed, heads are scalped, arms are chopped off, and so much blood is spilled. Needless to say, Barrie himself would certainly not approve.

Admirably, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare wastes little time getting to the backstory of its twisted title character, dropping us right into the lore surrounding this reimagined killer while working in as many other Jagged Edge-ified elements from the source material as possible (for instance, take a wild guess what this movie’s version of pixie dust is). While the restricted budget means that the film isn’t able to fully take advantage of the fact that this is a Peter Pan horror movie – sadly, there are no murderous mermaids or pirates or even crocodiles, save for the one shown on a TV that’s permanently tuned into the public domain channel – director Chambers works well with what he’s been given, establishing a grungy and unsavoury environment to match his own take on the tale, complete with set design that rests somewhere between pleasantly old-fashioned British and stomach-churning crack den.

It is certainly a darker and more intense film than the previous Winnie-the-Pooh entries in the Twisted Childhood Universe, but up to a point Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare still does seem vaguely aware of itself. Chambers, who also co-wrote and produced with TCU maestro Rhys Frake-Waterfield, delivers just the right amount of over-the-top B-movie gore that sometimes gets knowingly ridiculous, but remains committed enough to its grim concept that it narrowly avoids the urge to knowingly wink at the camera every five minutes. From a technical standpoint, it’s also the best-looking Jagged Edge movie to date, with Vince Knight’s cinematography often sneaking in some eerie shots that are more ambitious than in past productions, and while you can see the budget limitations in some corners, it is once again impressive how well the filmmakers have utilised their resources to create an unnerving atmosphere that is, of course, far less whimsical than the story we all know and love.

Plot-wise, it’s more focused than many of Jagged Edge’s previous films, with far less cluttered sub-plots and fewer supporting characters vying for attention, though you do still have a few strands that end up going nowhere, as well as a good few people who are just there to get brutally killed and nothing more. There are also some decent performances, including from Megan Placito who makes for a likeable Wendy, and of course Martin Portlock who is having a blast playing up Peter Pan’s eerie childlike nature in some scenes, while also being quite intimidating in others.

However, at the end of the day, this is still a film by Jagged Edge Productions, and critically speaking it carries a lot of the same problems as many of their other films. There are characters, sometimes core ones, who have the unfortunate habit of making careless mistakes that only put them further in harm’s way, including not recognising that the brutal murders happening on the other side of a wall are something you should run away from immediately, and not to walk up slowly towards and place your ear to the door, as though the screams of loved ones are a mere whisper in the silent midnight. The film’s climax also goes on for an indulgent amount of time, which in typical Jagged Edge style drags itself out to barely reach the 90-minute mark, long after the point where either the hero or villain would have succumbed to their increasingly gnarly injuries.

Then, there is the particularly cruel treatment of one sympathetic main character who happens to be a trans woman, and who receives arguably some of the film’s harshest mental and physical violence in ways that could almost be seen as transphobic. Now, I am absolutely certain that this is not the intention of the filmmakers, especially since Chambers is himself openly gay, but nonetheless there is a stomach-churning feeling one gets from seeing this trans character being reduced to nothing more than a mere throw pillow on several occasions, especially in the wake of those in power seeking to remove and demonise trans identity for generations to come.

It feels somewhat redundant to say that Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is pure schlock, because as with the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey films, nobody is expecting this Peter Pan horror movie to offer cerebral entertainment. It’s pure copyrightsploitation nonsense, a fact that even the film itself is aware of, and as that it delivers an appropriately bonkers ride that you’re either on board with or you’re not, even with all its strengths and weaknesses.

Either way, it’s still a better version of this story than Pan (that awful Hugh Jackman one).

SO, TO SUM UP…

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare carries many of the same flaws as other films by Jagged Edge Productions, and occasionally gets a little too nasty for its own good, but delivers enough B-movie copyrightsploitation thrills to satisfy as a throwaway horror that neatly fits into the Twisted Childhood Universe.

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