Director: Dan Allen
Writers: Felix Salten, Rhys Warrington
Stars: Roxanne McKee, Samira Mighty, Nicola Wright
Synopsis: After a mother and son get in a car wreck, they soon become hunted by Bambi, a mutated grief-stricken deer on a deadly rampage seeking revenge for the death of his mother.
The Poohniverse or The Twisted Childhood Universe has become a trademark; a fingerprint of B-horror that is a hit and -in most cases- a miss for a variety of reasons. Lack of creativity is one, but the other is the failure to utilize the rich material at hand; an abundance of dark fairytales and reimagined childhood favorite animated films with darker, murderous tones. The franchise includes a bunch of titles that vary dramatically in quality and attention to detail. The feature I’m about to review though, is one of the finest that the Poohniverse has to offer.
Bambi: The Reckoning is a dark fairytale twisted into a modern narrative. Instead of Bambi, the small, gentle deer mourning his mother’s death at the hands of hunters, he is now a minotaur-like predator—a deadly, mutated creature on a bloody trail to avenge his mother’s death by humans. Family dynamics ensue as a mother (Roxanne McKee) and son (Tom Mulheron) abandoned by a father, cross paths with the bloodthirsty Bambi, whom they get in a car crash with, only for him to hunt them all over town.
One great thing about the horror flick is how nasty and unlikeable some of the human characters are. Instead of making viewers sympathize with the victims -save for the mother and child, but even those we don’t spend enough time with them enough to root for them. Bambi doesn’t try to be sophisticated or add unnecessary depths and dimensions to its killer or its characters. It deviates a little from Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare which has tried to stir the wheel of guttural horror into a creepy tale about sexual abuse and trauma. This time, this is pure horror for horror, murder for murder, and mayhem for mayhem.
One of the most impressive aspects about the film is the creature CGI. Director Dan Allen holds no barrels back in showcasing the gruesome deaths, the blood sprees, and the mutilated corpses of Bambi’s victims. Bambi himself is a marvel. Caked in blood, with sharp, vampiric teeth, and zombie-like eyes, he’s like a messenger from Hell, out to cause mayhem and chaos on earth for our protagonists. The special effects and visual effects craftspeopledo an excellent job in creating one of this year’s most nightmarish villains. Allen makes use of the silent, claustrophobic nature of the deep dark woods at night, building the perfect tension and heightening the claustrophobic feeling of the hunted being chased by the not-so-hapless prey.
Does the film add to the ever-expanding universe? It does, more than many of its predecessors. For true gory, B-horror fans who find their pleasure in flying limbs and crushed skulls, this flick has it all. A few jump scares that will send chills down the spine and cause some discomfort in the dark movie theater. It doesn’t take long before we start cheering on Bambi to finish them all like a ghostly killer in an AgathaChristie novel except this time it is not a whodunnit and this killer is not secretive. It’s a British winter, and the film has a posh setting of a British mansion, but the mystery lies in the cruelty of nature, where Bambi lures his victims into his kingdom where he reigns with terror, throwing it in the hearts of the humans who wronged -and did not wrong- him. Nature aids Bambi on his murder rampage, brutally murdering the victims he cannot reach in the most violent way possible.
Bambi: The Reckoning is Cujo for the Brothers Grimm aficionados, one of the strongest additions to the Poohniverse, if not the best so far. It’s B-horror as B-horror should be: bloody, cruel, unflinching, and not concerned with the dramatics.
