Callum Hymers, Eddy MacKenzie, Hardy Yusuf, Holden Smith, horror, Kierston Wareing, Kit Green, Martin Portlock, Megan Placito, movies, Nicholas Woodeson, Oscar Hastings, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Peter Pan, Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare, reviews, Scott Chambers, Teresa Banham, Twisted Childhood Universe
January 15, 2025
by Carla Hay

“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare”
Directed by Scott Chambers
Culture Representation: Taking place in England, the horror film “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” (loosely based on characters created by J.M. Barrie) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Peter Pan is a serial killer who murders boys, and his accomplices are Tinkerbell and Hook.
Culture Audience: “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching poorly made horror movies that are based on characters from children’s literature.

“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” serves up more dreck from the Twisted Childhood Universe. This wretched horror movie (about Peter Pan as a serial killer who targets boys) is boring and full of idiocy. Tinkerbell and Hook are mindless caricatures. The Twisted Childhood Universe franchise is a series of horror movies based on children’s book characters that are in the public domain. All of the acting performances in these Twisted Childhood Universe movies so far are unimpressive, ranging from mediocre to terrible.
The Twisted Childhood Universe began with 2023’s “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” and continued with 2024’s “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.” “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” was written and directed by Scott Chambers, who starred as Christopher Robin in “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.” Based on these Twisted Childhood Universe movies so far, there isn’t much thought that goes into these horror movies, beyond taking characters that were harmless in the original books and turning them into murderous, one-dimensional villains in these horror flicks.
“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” (which takes place in England and is based on characters from J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” books) begins by showing children’s book-styled animation in a shot sequence. Voiceover narration from Peter Pan (played by Martin Portlock) explains that Neverland is a children’s island, where every joy and every wish could be granted by fairies. Peter also says that he is the ruler of Neverland and makes sure that only “the best children” can be invited. When he talks about “children,” what he really means are “boys only,” since Peter Pan is only interested in abducting and murdering boys.
The scene then reveals that Peter, who is a grotesque-looking creep, is telling this story to a boy whom Peter has captured. The boy, who is about 9 or 10 years old, is perched fearfully on Peter’s lap, as Peter is sitting a throne. The way that this scene looks, it’s strongly implied that Peter is a child molester. The movie then shows that the boy is named Nevel Curly (played by Mason Gold), and he is on a missing-person flyer.
Peter works as a circus pantomime, which gives him an easy way to find new victims. During one of Peter’s performances at the circus, he sees a boy named James in the front row of the audience. Peter’s black-and-white pantomime makeup makes him look sinister (similar to The Crow comic book character) instead of a kid-friendly entertainer. It makes you wonder what kind of circus would think Peter would be appealing to kids who might get frightened just by looking at him. Peter gives James a hand-made balloon toy. And it’s at that point you know that Peter is going to kidnap James.
The next scene shows that Peter has somehow found a way into a trap door on the floor of James’ bedroom. While James’ single mother Roxy (played by Kierston Wareing) takes a shower one night, Peter partially emerges from the trap door and tries to lure James into the trap, by telling James that Peter can take James to Neverland, where kids can play all they want without parental supervision.
Just as Peter is taking James’ hand to bring him down the trap door, Roxy walks in the room and sees this attempted kidnapping. A vicious fight break out between Roxy and Peter. And because James ended up being kidnapped by Peter, you already know that this fight will not end well for Roxy. Most the fight scenes in the movie are actually quite dull because they look so unrealistic and repetitive.
What’s so awful about this fight scene (and many of the movie’s other fight scenes) is that when Roxy manages to escape at one point, she doesn’t think about calling or going for help. She just goes back in the house to continue fighting Peter on her own. There are other scenes in the movie where Peter’s targets could call for help but they don’t.
“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” then fast-forwards 15 years after James was kidnapped. It’s the birthday of a mopey boy named Michael Darling (played by Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), who’s about 13 or 14 years old. Michael lives with his 18-year-old sister Wendy Darling (played by Megan Placito) and their single mother Mary Darling (played by Teresa Banham) in a small middle-class home.
Michael and Wendy have an older adult brother named John Darling (played by Campbell Wallace), who lives in another household. (In the “Peter Pan” books, John Darling is actually the middle sibling.) The movie never reveals what happened to the father of Michael and Wendy. (In the “Peter Pan” books, the kids’ father is alive, and his name is George.)
Wendy works at a beauty salon and is considering taking a gap year because she and her boyfriend Ronnie (played by Callum Hymers) have been thinking about moving to London together. Mary would rather that Wendy not take a gap year and instead enroll in a university. Wendy’s best friend at the beauty salon is her co-worker Tiger Lily (played by Olumide Olorunfemi), who mildly scolds Wendy for being habitually tardy for work.
Michael is introverted and somewhat of an outcast at his all-boys school. His only friend is a schoolmate named Joey (played by Hardy Yusuf), who is the younger brother of Tiger Lily. Joey is more outgoing than Michael and suggests that they celebrate his birthday by going to the movies later. Michael readily agrees.
“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” drags with monotony over things that have no real bearing on the plot. Michael is teased by some boys at school because he’s wearing a button that says Birthday Boy. Wendy worries because she hasn’t heard from Ronnie in a few days, and she thinks he’s actively avoiding her.
Meanwhile, Peter is seen killing a store manager named Lee (played by Eddy MacKenzie), just because Peter wants to get a scary face mask to hide his equally scary face. The next thing you know, Peter is driving around town in a red van that has the words “Let’s Go to Neverland” on the back and a back window bumper sticker that reads “Lost Boys.” Peter might as well have spray painted the van with the words “Child Kidnapper.”
Apparently, this is how Peter has been kidnapping kids for years. But somehow, this creepy man in this creepy van hasn’t caused any suspicions because this is a stupid horror movie. Parts of “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” look like inferior ripoffs of the 2022 horror movie “The Black Phone,” starring Ethan Hawke as a serial killer who worked as a magician and abducted boys by wearing a horror mask and driving around in his work van.
Peter’s easy access to kids through his circus job also doesn’t make him a person of interest, even though plenty of people saw him give a balloon toy to James. Peter is never questioned by police, even though Peter does a lot that would attract police attention in real life when there are child abductions/missing kids in a neighborhood. It’s just another example of how “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” is a sloppily written movie that treats viewers like idiots.
After Michael’s school sessions are done for the day, Wendy is supposed to pick him up from school in her car. Michael decides instead to ride his bike in a remote wooded area, where Peter and his van just happen to be too. And just when things couldn’t get more cliché and contrived, Michael falls down on his bike, near Peter. And you can easily guess what happens next.
“Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” is a mishmash of ideas that are never cohesive enough to make the story suspenseful or interesting. For example, after Michael is kidnapped, Wendy suddenly acts like a private detective and tracks down Stephen Carter (played by Nicholas Woodeson), the father of a child named Timmy Carter (played by Holden Smith), who had been kidnapped from the area about 30 years earlier. Wendy interviews Stephen to see if she can get any clues about who kidnapped Michael.
Stephen tells Wendy that Timmy was really a transgender girl. What does that mean if Peter is only interested in kidnapping boys? That answer is revealed in the last third of the movie, which has undertones of homophobia and transphobia for how it portrays any LGBTQ characters in the movie. The word “fairy” is used with a double meaning in this movie, and one of the meanings is meant to be derogatory to queer people.
Peter lives with a decrepit-looking Tinkerbell (played by Kit Green), who knows about the kidnapping and murders but does nothing to stop these crimes because Tinkerbell seems to be very afraid of Peter. Tinkerbell and Peter have some kind of violent co-dependent relationship where Peter is the dominant one, and Tinkerbell is the submissive one. Tinkerbell doesn’t do much except lurk around and sometimes use a needle to inject herself and Peter with “pixie dust.”
The character of Hook (played by Charity Kase), also known as James Hook, is so far from what the original James Hook is (he’s a captain pirate in the “Peter Pan” books), it’s really an atrocious use of this character. Hook has a hook for a hand, but that’s as far as the resemblance is to the original Hook character. “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” makes Hook a run-of-the-mill humanoid creature.
Worst of all, the movie’s title character is just an abyss of “boogeyman” stereotypes. Not much is revealed about Peter’s past, except for briefly showing childhood Peter (played by Oscar Hastings) in a meaningless scene. In another scene, adult Peter mentions that his mother abused him when he was a child. Peter has bloody mutilation marks on his body. And in a scene where he strips naked, it’s shown he has no genitals.
There’s a real disconnect between what this Peter Pan has to do with the original Peter Pan, except that they both talk about Neverland, a place that is never shown in this horrible movie. There are no references to this movie’s Peter Pan being eternally a boy, when he’s clearly well past the age of puberty. “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” is just a pathetic excuse to use well-known literary character names in order to sell what is essentially a substandard slasher flick that doesn’t do anything that’s very scary or creative.
ITN Studios and Iconic Events Releasing released “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” for a limited engagement in select U.S. cinemas from January 13 to January 23, 2025.