From director Dan Allen of the surprisingly good It Came from Below comes the next entry in the Twisted Childhood Universe: Bambi: The Reckoning. Admittedly, only Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey came across my radar, and I neglected to check out subsequent entries in the series. Bambi was too good a concept to pass up despite Blood and Honey being a glaring misfire. Here, we have a pretty basic setup leading to maximum monster movie carnage. The innocent Bambi character has been wildly corrupted thanks to its addition to the public domain. Screenwriter Rhys Frake-Waterfield understands how to modernize the bones of Bambi’s tragic backstory by funneling it through a man versus animal lens. Unexpectedly fun and refreshingly simple, Bambi: The Reckoning will be a hidden gem for animal lovers and monster movie aficionados.
Bambi: The Reckoning opens like a twisted fairytale, read straight from a storybook by a comforting British narrator. Disney’s classic tale gets retold briefly through a brutal, blood-spattered revision. After witnessing his mother gunned down and fellow woodland creatures carelessly dispatched by humans, Bambi evolves into a monstrous, antlered beast hellbent on revenge. As they say, the forest fights back. This entire segment plays out in a playful way, almost teasing that Disney connection but never diving into full-blown lush 2D animation, either. It certainly makes for a unique setup. This take on Bambi sports massive gnarly teeth and twisted antlers that would be likely to rip apart anyone who gets too close. Bambi’s figure is imposing, and while he was no doubt realized as a computer-generated creature, he actually appears as a proper monster rather than a forgettable creation. Shrouding him in the shadows of night makes his appearance easier to swallow altogether, but the creature design remains impressive.
Some time later, a boy named Benji (Tom Mulheron) and his mother (Roxanne McKee) find themselves stranded deep in the woods after a violent van crash caused by Bambi. They unknowingly become the targets of feral Bambi’s rampage, unknowingly entering in the middle of a hunting grounds. There are plenty of family members in a house nearby to raise the body count. An obsessive grandma (Nicola Wright) sketches Bambi like any other manner of genre baddies, and could be a key to tying it all together. Meanwhile, a group of hunters creep through the forest, always ten steps behind Bambi’s latest dramatic spree. The crew seems completely unprepared for what they will find, though they are impressively armed to the teeth for anything that may creep out from the wilderness.
Most people would come for a killer Bambi movie with a certain set of expectations. We certainly aren’t here just for the character drama. Thankfully, the creative team clearly knows this as well, as they provide no shortage of inventive kills while carefully balancing a campy comedic tone. A chase scene through the forest where a teen falls into a pile of poop or a Scream-style slow motion sequence that culminates in antlers cleanly slicing the poor woman in half are just a couple examples of the clever slayings dispatched. There are a couple of deaths not even caused by Bambi that end up being highlights of the film. Killer bunnies should have been anticipated given how Thumper ties into the original story—still, the way they are utilized practically calls for a standing ovation.
Animal cruelty is among the most despicable acts a human can carry out on an innocent creature. This angle ends up being a strong thread that Frake-Waterfield leans into on multiple levels. We already know why Bambi is so determined to seek out revenge, but there’s another layer to his anguish that calls for full sympathy from the audience. Even the climax finishes on a poignant note of sadness. Sure, the characters are a bit thin aside from Benji and his mom, and occasional visuals may appear a bit ugly from a cinematography standpoint. But this crazy flick has heart, humor, and horror, and remains a riot throughout its breezy runtime. The end credits proudly proclaim that BAMBI WILL RETURN, so perhaps we will soon get more. A gloriously unhinged ecological monster movie, Bambi: The Reckoning actually makes me want to seek out the other films in the Twisted Childhood Universe just to see what I’ve been missing.
Bambi: The Reckoning gallops into theaters on Friday, July 25th.
Great review!